“HAVING bickered about most issues relating to a Cyprus settlement, including property , voting rights and the continuation of the Cyprus Republic the political parties have decided to revisit the issue of guarantees.

Admittedly , the matter was put on the agenda by Phileleftheros, which decided to run a story on whether the parties would agree to NATO providing the guarantees and security of the new state.

This was a hypothetical question, as there has been no agreement on the issue of guarantees by the two leaders and it is understood the matter would be discussed at the end of the procedure at a meeting in which the guarantor powers would participate. For now , the debate is academic and has no practical value other than to cause disagreements in the pro-settlement camp, made up of  AKEL  and DISY .

In this respect the newspaper report was successful in that it quoted the  AKEL  Cyprus talks expert, Toumazos Tsielepis as saying, “if we end up there (NATO guarantees) the Left will vote against the settlement.” This was hardly a surprise coming from the satellite party of the former Soviet Union. Former president Christofias, who has never hidden his blind loyalty to Moscow , expressed the same dogmatic view in a newspaper interview not very long ago. Cyprus’  communists nurse a pathological hatred for NATO, dating back to the Cold War era when their party blindly obeyed the Kremlin’s diktats. For  AKEL, NATO was a force of reaction and fascism, in contrast to the progressive Soviet Union which promoted socialism and democracy; it was also declared responsible for the ‘Turkish invasion’ by  AKEL.  And now that NATO is at odds with the Russian Federation,  AKEL  has another reason to demonise it.So if the two leaders reach an agreement and the T urkish side agrees to give up its guarantor rights on the condition that these were ceded to NATO, would the communists vote against a settlement? That they are even discussing such a possibility is absurd. Would they really prefer Turkey to guarantee the agreement, or are they doing Moscow’s bidding. Russia is the only country that would oppose such an arrangement as it would have no influence in a federal Cyprus that was part of the NATO security system. Is it conceivable that  AKEL  would vote against a settlement because it would not serve the interests of Russia?

Anything is possible in Cyprus in which the anti-West sentiments imposed by the communists since the time of the Cold War remain as strong and widespread as they were back then. Cyprus might be a member of the EU which relies on NATO for its security , but anti-West fanaticism is unwavering.” (Cyprus Mail)