Residents of the unrecognized “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” have elected a new leader. He became 55-year-old law professor Tufan Erhurman. The new leader advocates the unification of Cyprus on federal terms.
“Elections” in the quasi-state took place on October 19. According to the “election committee”, the turnout was 64.87%. Opposition candidate Tufan Erhürman received 62.8% of the vote, almost double the result of President Ersin Tatar, who received 35.8%. The remaining six candidates received less than half a percent of the vote.
Erhurman is 55 years old and a native of Nicosia. He received his higher education in jurisprudence at Ankara University. There in 2001 he defended his dissertation. From 1995 to 2013, he taught at various universities in Turkey and Cyprus: Ankara University, Middle East Technical University, Hacettepe University, Eastern Mediterranean University, Middle East University.
From 1999 to 2004 he worked in the Ministry of Justice of Turkey. In 2008, Erhürman was first invited to join the Cyprus settlement negotiating team. In 2016, he was elected leader of the Social Democratic Republican Turkish Party. From January 2018 to May 22, 2019, he was “Prime Minister” of the “TRNC” as head of a multi-party coalition.
He is married to Nilden Bektas, who is a professional environmental engineer and runs her own consulting office in this field.
Unlike the previous leadership of the TRNC, Erhurman actively advocates the unification of Cyprus into a single state on the terms of a bicommunal, bizonal federation.
When the results of the “elections” became clear, Erhürman went to Kizilbash Park in Nicosia, where he was met by a crowd of thousands of supporters. “Tonight the Turkish Cypriot people won. We can do a lot together. When we are united, nothing is impossible for us,” he said in his speech.
The President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, congratulated the newly elected leader: “I express my congratulations to the new Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman and respect the decision of our Turkish Cypriot compatriots based on the voting results in our occupied territories. I look forward to meeting with him as soon as possible,” the president said.
The new leader will be inaugurated later this week.
The text was prepared based on materials from Cyprus Mail and Wikipedia.
Photo by Tufan Erhürman: wikipedia.org
