‘You took a sh*t on this country!’

Tensions were raised in northern Cyprus’ ‘parliament’ on Monday as ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu spoke on the state of play regarding the Cyprus problem.

Ertugruloglu’s speech had enjoyed a heavy amount of back and forth from ‘MPs’, with opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman interjecting to say Ertugruloglu and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar have allowed President Nikos Christodoulides to “be dressed as the side which wants a solution, even though he has not proved his sincerity.”

Ruling party UBP ‘MP’ Oguzhan Hasipoglu also spoke, making reference to his tense interaction with Christodoulides when the latter addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) in January.

Ertugruloglu remained steadfast on his point of view, saying that the north’s ‘government’ “does not trust the European Union and the United Nations”, before speaking about the Cyprus problem’s history.

He spoke about the EU summit in Copenhagen in 2002, to which he had been invited, and at which he refused to sign a Kofi Annan-backed proposal for a federal solution to the Cyprus problem.

At this point, CTP ‘MP’ Ongun Talat, son of Mehmet Ali, said “you went there anyway to avoid signing anything, Tahsin. It was not a plan you wanted to be signed.”

He then added, “you committed the greatest betrayal to this society.”

Tensions then rose from that point, with Ertugruloglu attempting to continue his speech as voices on the backbenches of the chamber grew ever louder.

UBP ‘MP’ Ahmet Savasan found himself engaged in a heated argument with Talat across the chamber, before CTP ‘MP’ Ceyhun Birinci shouted “you took a sh*t on this country!”

At this point, ‘MPs’ from both sides of the chamber stood up and almost came to blows, but the tensions eventually simmered and order was eventually restored.

Tufan Erhurman requested that Birinci’s statement be removed from the record, and UBP ‘MP’ Sunat Atun thanked him for diffusing the situation.