The north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli, one of Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s key supporters as he vies for re-election to the role on October 19, on Friday described the decision to bring World Cup-winning former footballer Mesut Ozil to Cyprus to boost Tatar’s campaign as a “stupid choice”.
He made the comment during an appearance on Genc TV, after being asked about his opinion about the arrival of both Ozil and former Turkish interior minister Suleyman Soylu, who has also been on the island campaigning for Tatar in recent weeks, and whether those visits “damage” Tatar’s campaign.
“Of course they damage it. People are not saying ‘if Suleyman Soylu comes here and tells me to vote for Tatar, I will vote for him’. Such nonsense needs to be abandoned. The Turkish Cypriot people will go of their own volition and cast their vote,” he said.
He then added that “Mesut Ozil had never set foot on the island, and yet now he will come and visit villages and tell them to vote”.
Later on the same show, he described the bringing of Ozil and Soylu as “efforts of a certain group” who are “really playing into Tufan [Erhurman]’s hands”, with Erhurman the opposition-backed election candidate.
“I strongly believe that neither Tatar, nor his election team, nor the administration in Turkey have made such an effort. Such a thing is out of the question, because they know these things would backfire … It is a stupid choice,” he said.
Ozil had paid a day-long visit to the island on Monday, being welcomed by Tatar at his official residence in the northern sector of Ayios Dhometios.
Tatar’s office said Ozil had “emphasised the importance of statehood and expressed his support for the two-state solution model proposed by Ersin Tatar”, and that he had also “wished Tatar success”.
He then held an event in the courtyard of the Yunus Emre Institute building in Nicosia’s old town, where he spoke to a crowd of people who had gathered, and also held open telephone calls with both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Real Madrid footballer Arda Guler.
During his call, Erdogan made reference to the forthcoming elections and the need to “win” them.
Having retired from football in 2023, Ozil entered politics, with his pre-existing links to Erdogan seeing him rise through the ranks of Turkey’s ruling AK Party thereafter, being elected to the party’s central decision-making board in February this year.
Given this to be the case, critics of his trip to Cyprus have described his visit as “intervention” in the Turkish Cypriot election on the part of Turkey’s government, particularly in light of Erdogan’s open statements in favour of a two-state solution, favoured by Tatar, and rejection of a federal solution, favoured Tufan Erhurman.
Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci described the visit as “interference”, and described Ozil as a “model for the government’s public relations agency”.
He also said Tatar is “a candidate who is shameless, corrupt, and struggling to escape the quagmire he has fallen into”.
