MEP Niyazi Kizilyurek was on Wednesday slammed for campaigning in the north for re-election by both Turkish Cypriot Leader Ersin Tatar and the north’s ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu.

In a TV interview with BRT, Tatar said Kizilyurek is “telling Turkish Cypriots to go and vote in south Cyprus so he can win again in the European Parliament elections.

“If a Turk went from the north and asked for votes in south Cyprus, they would destroy him,” he added.

Later, speaking to the Cyprus Turkish News Agency (Tak), Ertugruloglu said Kizilyurek “must have forgotten how and where he became a candidate and won the election, so he has attempted to carry out an election campaign in our country.”

He then referenced the 1960 Republic of Cyprus Constitution, “in which Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots elected their own representatives separately.

“Niyazi Kizilyurek departed that structure… and is trying to create a new example in which he will gain votes from both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots in a way which has never before been seen in history,” he said.

He added, “the European Union clearly made a choice between the island’s two sides in 2004, and the Greek Cypriot administration of southern Cyprus, which represents only the Greek Cypriot people, was unilaterally accepted as a member.”

“This mentality, which believes in Greek Cypriot sovereignty on the island, is fed by the crumbs of mercy that the Greek Cypriot administration offers to our people as a ‘blessing’, which is obviously a method which suits Kizilyurek.

“It is my wish that our people do not respect Kizilyurek’s activities in our country, as he is trying to mislead our people and use them for his personal interests,” he said.

Kizilyurek became the first Turkish Cypriot to be elected to the European Parliament in 2019, on Akel’s ticket. He is standing for re-election in the elections on June 9.