Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar on Wednesday accepted the resignation of the government.
According to the Turkish News Agency-Cyprus (TAK), a statement was released about the government's resignation following a meeting between President Tatar and Prime Minister Faiz Sucuoğlu.
Speaking after the meeting, Tatar said Sucuoğlu had sought permission on Tuesday afternoon to dismiss Finance Minister Sunat Atun.
The president said he asked for time until the evening to decide, but the premier visited him again on Wednesday afternoon to submit the government's resignation.
"Following consultation with the lawyers, I concluded that the resignation is one-sided and I have to implement it as the president," Tatar stated.
Sucuoğlu and his Cabinet will keep their positions until a new government is formed, according to the president.
The coalition government of the National Unity Party (UBP), Rebirth Party (YDP), and Democrat Party (DP) was formed on Feb. 21 under the chairmanship of Sucuoğlu, head of the UBP, and approved by Turkish Cypriot President Tatar.
Last October, Ersan Saner, the then-prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), submitted his resignation to the president.
Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the United Nations 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 aiming at Greece's annexation led to Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
The TRNC was founded in 1983. It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries – Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N.'s Annan plan to end the decadeslong dispute.
