Turkey-backed president's election to reshape negotiations in North Cyprus
Northern Cypriots elected right-wing nationalist Ersin Tatar in runoff presidential elections Sunday, likely drawing a new path for peace talks and energy-revenue sharing negotiations amid rising regional tensions.
ISTANBUL — Turkey-backed hard-liner Ersin Tatar won a presidential election runoff in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Sunday in a vote widely seen as a referendum on the breakaway state’s policies for years to come.
Tatar, who served as prime minister with the right-wing National Unity Party and fostered close relations with Ankara, beat incumbent President Mustafa Akinci with about 52% of the vote. In his victory speech, Tatar thanked voters as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before saying North Cypriots wanted their own state.
“They will never tear the ties between us and Turkey,” Tatar said Sunday. “In light of the approval we received, it is the preference of our people in all disputes to lay claim to our own state, to lay claim to our land and lay claim to the guarantorship of Turkey.”
In a tweet Sunday evening, Erdogan congratulated Tatar, writing, “Turkey will continue to make all the necessary efforts to defend the rights of the people of northern Cyprus.”
