Serdar Denktash ‘considering’ creating new political party

Serdar Denktash, the son of late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, said on Wednesday he is considering establishing a new political party.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, he confirmed that the potential creation of a party is “in the evaluation phase”.

He said that “no decision yet” has been made on the platform of the potential party or whether it will be created.

In addition, he confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that he will run as a candidate in the Turkish Cypriot leadership elections in 2025.

Speaking in an earlier televised interview, he said “I never left politics. In response to people’s demands, I am considering establishing a new political party.”

Denktash had previously been in frontline Turkish Cypriot politics for three decades, having first been elected to the north’s ‘parliament’ in 1990.

He was a founding member of DP when it split from the UBP in 1992 and served as the party’s leader between 1996 and 2019, taking various ‘ministerial’ roles in that time.

He appeared to call time on his political career after coming in sixth place in the 2020 Turkish Cypriot leadership elections.

He left the DP when they entered into a coalition ‘government’ with the UBP, saying “if my party, which I led for years, cannot protect its own honour, my duty is to protect my own honour.”

He then did not stand in the north’s ‘parliamentary’ elections in 2022 and formally left frontline politics, but now a return may be on the cards.