Tufan Erhürman of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), who recently won elections in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), took office officially on Friday following a ceremony.
“The entire world must know, and will know, that the Turkish Cypriot people are one of the two equal founding partners on this Island and are partners in everything that exists on and around this Island,” he said.
"It is impossible for decisions to be made on this island in areas such as security, energy, hydrocarbons, maritime jurisdictions, trade routes and European Union citizenship without the will of the Turkish Cypriot people, or for the Turkish Cypriot people to be ignored,” Erhürman underlined.
He said that a solution, “lasting peace, and stability in this region cannot be achieved by ignoring the Turkish Cypriots on this island and the guarantor country of Türkiye in the region, or by violating their rights and authorities."
Erhürman thus called on the other guarantor states, the Greek Cypriots and the international community to focus on a solution, lasting peace and stability.
“The relationship between Türkiye and the TRNC is so special that it cannot be compared to the relations between any two states.”
“It is extremely important for us to address a wide range of issues, from new crossing points to easing existing ones, from the problems we face in exports under the Green Line regulation to the lawsuits brought up regarding property ownership, from the direct trade regulation, which has not yet entered into force, to the obstacles we face in tourism, from the right of children born from mixed marriages to European Union citizenship, and from freedom of movement on the island, to introduce new and creative confidence-building measures, and to protect the violated rights of our citizens,” he elaborated.
He said all these issues would also be discussed with international organizations such as the EU, the U.N. and the Organization of Turkic States, as well as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), besides only the Greek Cypriot side.
Elected as the sixth president of the TRNC, Erhürman's first international visit will be to Türkiye, as is traditional. The date of the visit is expected to be determined next week.
A center-left politician, Erhürman won in a landslide victory over Tatar during last week’s elections.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated the new leader following the election, but Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli's comments highlight the nationalist bloc's push for closer political and territorial alignment with Ankara.
The Turkish main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which enjoys close ties with Erhürman’s CTP, also lauded the election results.
Bahçeli, on the other side, said on Tuesday that the TRNC should hold a parliamentary vote to join Türkiye.
The island has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983. The country is fully recognized only by Türkiye, which does not recognize the Greek Cypriot administration in the south.
The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, but negotiations have been stalled since 2017. Erhürman advocates resumption of the formal negotiations with the Greek Cypriot side. Tatar repeatedly met with Greek Cypriot leaders in informal talks brokered by the U.N., but those negotiations did not yield any concrete results for the final status of Cyprus.
