Anorthotiko comma Ergazomenou Laou

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Ανορθωτικό Κόμμα Εργαζόμενου Λαού
Anorthotiko Komma Ergazomenou Laou
Progressive Party of the Working People
AKEL Logo.png
Andros Kyprianou
Secretary General Andros Kyprianou
Emergence KKK 1926
founding 1941
Headquarters Nicosia
newspaper Haravgi
Alignment Communism
Eurocommunism
Parliament seats
16/56
International connections International meeting of communist and workers' parties
MEPs
2/6
European party European Left (observer)
EP Group GUE / NGL

The Anorthotiko Komma Ergazomenou Laou (AKEL; Greek Ανορθωτικό Κόμμα Εργαζόμενου Λαού , ΑΚΕΛ, Progressive Party of the Working People or Progressive Party of the Working People ) is a left-wing party of the Republic of Cyprus. The AKEL was originally the communist party in the Republic of Cyprus . She later became a representative of Eurocommunism , which was independent of the Soviet-influenced communism of the Eastern bloc states , before becoming increasingly social democratized . From 2008 to 2013, she was President of the Republic with Dimitris Christofias .

AKEL fights for an independent , demilitarized and non-aligned Cyprus and for a federal solution to the Cyprus conflict . The party places particular emphasis on rapprochement with the Cypriot Turks . She was against the Republic of Cyprus joining the EU and had concerns about the adoption of the euro currency. Although nominally a communist party, it did not question the market economy that ruled the Republic of Cyprus during its 2008-2013 reign .

history

founding

The party was founded in 1926 as the Communist Party of Cyprus (KKK). The KKK advocated independence from Cyprus and rejected the main demand made by most of the non-communist Greek Cypriots , the annexation of Cyprus to Greece ( enosis = unification). After national uprisings and the ensuing restrictions on civil rights by the British colonial administration, the party was banned in 1931 . In 1941 members of the leadership of the underground -KKK founded AKEL. In the first local elections in 1943, AKEL candidates Ploutis Servas and Adam Adamantos were elected mayor of Limassol and Famagusta .

Unlike its predecessor refused AKEL the Enosis not decrease, but demanded a gradual process, starting with the introduction of a constitution and a large degree of autonomy as a British colony, to full self-determination and Enosis . After the failure of a constituent assembly, the AKEL changed its party line again in 1949 and demanded immediate enosis without intermediate steps.

Persecution by Greek and Turkish nationalists

In the late 1950s , the party was exposed to the violent actions of the anti-British resistance movement EOKA . Although both parties had been banned, EOKA accused AKEL of collaborating with the British. EOKA murdered several AKEL members for "treason", such as AKEL supporter Savas Menikou, who was stoned to death . AKEL accused the EOKA leadership of anti-communism , especially since EOKA leader Georgios Grivas had fought on the side of the conservative Greek government in the Greek civil war .

In 1958, the Cyprus Turkish nationalist organization TMT asked Cyprus Turks to leave the AKEL. The editor of the workers' newspaper Fazıl Önder was killed and the head of the Turkish department of the AKEL-affiliated trade union PEO Ahmet Sadi fled to Great Britain from fear of death. In 1965, the TMT murdered Derviş Ali Kavazoğlu , the last Turkish Cypriot in the AKEL Central Committee.

After independence

After independence, the AKEL supported Ioannis Kliridis (father of the later President Glafkos Klerides ) in the first presidential elections , who opposed Archbishop Makarios III. started. In 1988 she supported the successful presidential candidacy of the non-party liberal entrepreneur Georges Vassiliou . In 1998 she spoke out in favor of the diplomat Georgios Iacovou , who was also non-party , but who narrowly failed in the second ballot.

In the parliamentary elections on May 27, 2001, the party received 34.7% of the votes cast and 20 of 56 seats, making it the strongest force in the House of Representatives. With Dimitris Christofias , with the support of the Social Democratic Movement (EDEK) and the Democratic Party (DIKO) positioned in the middle, a communist was elected for the first time as Parliament President of the Republic of Cyprus. In 2003 AKEL supported Tassos Papadopoulos' successful presidential candidacy from the DIKO. Like Papadopoulos, AKEL called for a no vote in the referendum on the Annan plan for the reunification of Cyprus. In the parliamentary elections in Cyprus in 2006 , AKEL lost two seats, but remained the strongest force with 31.1% and provided four ministers in the Papadopoulos government. The parliamentary elections in Cyprus in 2011 while winning the conservative Democratic Rally (DISY) with 34.3% of votes, but also the AKEL was able to win a seat in Parliament with a vote share of 32.7% and was thus 19 seats in the House of Representatives of Cyprus reached .

Christofia's government

The 2008 presidential election was a great success, with Christofias winning the second most votes in the first round. The following runoff election, in which he had the support of the DIKO of the outgoing President Papadopoulos and the social democratic EDEK, he won with 53% against the conservative candidate Ioannis Kasoulidis . He became the first communist head of state of the Republic of Cyprus. Christofias formed a coalition government made up of AKEL, DIKO and social democrats. He made the reunification of the island his most important goal. Under his leadership, the Republic of Cyprus also improved its relationship with Russia . In 2011, the government took out Russian financial aid in the form of a loan of 2.5 billion euros. After the heavy ammunition explosion at the Evangelos Florakis naval base , the coalition broke up in August 2011 and AKEL then formed a minority government alone. Christofias did not run for the 2013 presidential election. The AKEL candidate Stavros Malas was defeated by the conservative Nikos Anastasiadis in the runoff election with 42.5%.

The AKEL is represented in the European Parliament by Adamos Adamou and Kyriakos Triantaphyllides . She is a member of the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left and has observer status with the European Left Party .

General Secretaries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 17 IMCWP, List of Participants ( Memento from January 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ A b Egbert Jahn: Temporary or final failure of the United Nations' Cyprus plan? (2009/2011) In: Political Disputes. Volume 3: Internationale Politik, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2012, p. 113
  3. ↑ or Reconstruction Party of the Working People (?), Cf. Lambros Kaikitis: Cyprus and the European Union. Expectations and problems of a possible full membership of Cyprus. Alano Herodot-Verlag, 1998, p. 29.
  4. ^ Klaus Hillenbrand : Presidential election in the Greek Cyprus. Communism out, nationalism not. taz.de, February 23, 2008.
  5. ^ Christiane Schlötzer : Escape into Russia's Arms. Süddeutsche.de, March 19, 2013.
  6. ↑ Helena Smith: Russia prepared to ride to Nicosia's aid. In: The Guardian , September 14, 2011.