UBP to hold party conference in September (Updated)

The UBP, the largest political party in the north, is set to hold its next party conference in September.

The move was announced on Saturday by party leader and ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, who said “there is no such thing as the UBP holding a conference just because someone wants one, or whenever someone wants one. The date of the next conference is known. We will have one in September 2024, in accordance with the decisions of the party’s central committee.”

Ustel’s comments come in response to demands from backbench ‘MP’ Hasan Tacoy for a party conference to be held sooner. Tacoy had said in August that a party conference should be held this year and announced his intention to challenge Ustel for the party’s leadership.

Tacoy, however, hit back on Sunday, accusing Ustel and the UBP’s leadership of “playing very dangerous games and “harming our democracy”.

“As someone who has devoted years to politics since my youth, I feel the need to say I have never seen or experienced such a messy situation before,” he added.

He said, “I am aware that attempts have been made to distort my words in the warnings I have issued regarding a party conference for a while. The people actually know very well the intentions of the people who are trying to do this.”

“The UBP has never stepped back from democracy and will never step back. Those who want to suspend democracy in the UBP will lose again. If democracy ends in the UBP, democracy throughout the country will also suffer,” he said.

“I am not calling for a party conference, I am calling for democracy. People will never trust those who are too blinded by their lust for power to see this, I am sure of that. I trust the people unconditionally, and based on their trust in me, I am once again calling for democracy,” he said.

He added, “those who bow to the ambitions of one man by trying to marginalise Hasan Tacoy will fall as the UBP base loves democracy too much. No one has the right to drag this party down a path which will end in disappointment. Respect for laws and belief in democracy are the UBP’s indispensable philosophy.”

“Let’s let democracy talk,” he concluded.

He was ‘labour minister’ at the time, but was swiftly relieved of his duties and returned to the backbenches.

The UBP had ruled out the possibility of holding a party conference this year at a meeting of its party conference in September, saying there was no requirement for a party conference to be held before 2024.

Eyebrows were raised earlier this month when Tacoy held private meetings with both Ustel and Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, with Gundem Kibris saying their sources had said the meetings had taken place for the purpose of “evaluating the agenda and exchanging views”.

Tacoy clarified on Sunday that the issue of a party conference had been raised during his meeting with Yilmaz.

The announcement of the conference’s date effectively fires the starting gun for the UBP’s latest leadership contest, with Tacoy seemingly in no mood to back down from his challenge to Ustel.

The party last changed its leader in September 2022 when Ustel took over uncontested from Faiz Sucuoglu. However, in something of an anomaly, Ustel had held the role of ‘prime minister’ since May after Sucuoglu had failed to form a governing coalition of his own on multiple occasions.

Sucuoglu himself had only become leader in November 2021, winning a bitterly fought election over Hasan Tacoy and predecessor Ersan Saner, who dropped out of the race when videos of him performing sexual acts on himself over a webcam surfaced online.

The 2021 leadership election was a carry-over from the abandoned 2020 leadership election, contested by Sucuoglu and Tacoy, which was cancelled halfway through the process for reasons of party unity. Saner was subsequently made caretaker party leader as a “safe pair of hands”.