Pro-reunification candidate Tufan Erhurman won a landslide victory in the election for Turkish Cypriot leadership, ending a five-year period during which negotiations on a federal solution to the Cyprus problem had been frozen.
The 55-year-old law professor and leader of the centre-left Republican Turkish Cypriot Party (CTP) received 62.8% of the vote, well ahead of incumbent leader Ersin Tatar, who received 35.8%.
Erhurman will become the new Turkish Cypriot leader at the end of the week. Under current rules, he will have to step down as head of the party, as leaders are prohibited from holding political positions at the same time.
Erhurman's victory marks a turning point in Turkish Cypriot policy as he advocates resuming negotiations on a federal model endorsed by the UN and the international community.
During the election campaign, Erhurman promised that his first visit after taking office would be to Ankara, where he plans to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials. The move is considered particularly important given that much of the Turkish political establishment actively supported his rival, Ersin Tatar.
After his visit to Ankara, Erhurman is expected to meet on the island with the new UN High Representative, Hassim Dian, as well as envoy Maria Angela Holguin. These meetings will be preparation for the third enlarged meeting this year on the Cyprus issue, which will be held in New York at the end of the month.
It will be attended by representatives of both communities of Cyprus, as well as three guarantor countries - Greece, Türkiye and Great Britain, and the United Nations.
Political observers note that Erhurman's election could revive the negotiation process and return the Cyprus issue to the mainstream of international dialogue based on the principles of a single federal state.
Source: cyprus-mail.com
