President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday warned of “daily divisive rhetoric” on the campaign trail ahead of October’s Turkish Cypriot leadership elections.
“We are at the beginning, if you will, of the election campaign in the occupied territories. What will follow, as we have already seen recently, is daily divisive rhetoric, aimed at serving some of their own purposes,” he said.
“I want to state officially that we are not going to follow or get involved in any games which would serve purposes which some may aim to achieve.”
He added, “we have a clear goal, we know where we want to go, we know what we want to achieve, and we are focused on that”.
For this reason, he said, “we are not going to be offering Tatar daily responses”.
Asked about the impact the election campaign may have on talks surrounding the Cyprus problem and the enlarged meeting which is set to take place in July, he said that this is “an important dimension”.
“The climate, as it is being formed, Tatar’s rhetoric, which we see becoming even more divisive, which may also be due to the electoral process – these are certainly things which do not help. From there on, we will do everything possible, most of the time away from the spotlight, so that we can achieve our goal,” he said.
That goal, he added, is “nothing more than the resumption of talks”.
He went on to say that there is no news as yet regarding plans for the forthcoming enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, which is set to take place in New York in July, but that the plan remains for the meeting to take place in the last ten days of that month.
“We are waiting for official invitations,” he added.
He was then asked to comment on the bill tabled in the United Kingdom’s House of Commons demanding direct flights between the country and the north, and said that “I cannot comment on the reports in the Turkish Cypriot press”.
“This issue of direct flights is constantly something that some people are trying to do. The international community, I repeat, has repeatedly taken a position on these issues. Especially Britain, which is a guarantor power and a member of the United Nations security council,” he said.
The bill is an “early day motion” and was tabled by Sammy Wilson of the DUP, a Northern Irish conservative and pro-British unionist political party, and has been signed by Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, the country’s shadow foreign secretary – the most powerful voice in the opposition on the matter of foreign affairs.
It states that “this house calls on the government to allow direct flights from the United Kingdom to Ercan international airport in Northern Cyprus”.
The north’s Ercan (Tymbou) airport at present only serves flights to Turkey, with a previous custom of flights between the UK and the north briefly touching down in Turkey before continuing on to their final destination having been abolished by the UK government in 2017.
Tatar formally kicked off his campaign to win re-election on Monday evening, bringing together the three political parties which have endorsed his campaign for his first major rally of the year.
“We will resolutely continue with our new vision based on the sovereignty and equality of the Turkish Cypriot people. We will continue our fight for our people to be able to live in these lands. We will continue on our path with new policies and a new vision,” he said in his speech at the campaign launch.
His main opponent will be opposition political party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman, who supports a federal solution to the Cyprus problem. He had been announced as the CTP’s candidate during the party’s conference in April.
Tatar and Erhurman have been trading the lead in election polling, with the most recent poll, conducted by Turkish research company Genar and published last month, seeing Tatar lead the way, polling at 37.9 per cent, while Erhurman remains close behind on 36 per cent of the vote.
Click here to change your cookie preferences