Two Turkish Cypriot political parties, the YDP and the Milletin Partisi, are set to formally merge on Sunday.

The Milletin Partisi, a minor party with no elected representatives, will effectively dissolve and join the YDP, which is a member of the north’s three-party ruling coalition.

YDP leader Erhan Arikli had formally suggested a merger to Milletin Partisi leader Bertan Zaroglu in March, but Zaroglu rejected the offer at the time, saying it was “not possible” for him to accept such a suggestion.

He said future further cooperation would be possible, which has since solidified into a merger.

Speaking to Genc TV on Friday about the merger, Zaroglu said the two parties “sat down and decided to unite for the sake of the country”.

He added that a merger would have been “more difficult” if Talip Atalay had won the YDP leadership election on April 28.

Additionally, he was asked about the proposal for the north’s traffic to drive on the right-hand side of the road, and responded, “leave it alone, I would say we have other problems.”

Bertan Zaroglu was initially a founding member of the YDP in 2016 and was elected to ‘parliament’ as a YDP ‘MP’ alongside Arikli in 2018.

However, he then left the party in 2021, founding the Milletin Partisi, before appearing on the candidate list of another one of the north’s ruling parties, the UBP, in the 2022 ‘parliamentary’ election.

He was not elected and subsequently returned to the Milletin Partisi in January.