By Tom Cleaver

Oguzhan Hasipoglu, the secretary-general of the largest party in the north’s three-party ruling coalition, the UBP, on Tuesday expressed his fury at Turkish intervention in local politics after Turkish opposition party CHP leader Ozgur Ozel had said Turkish Cypriot opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman was “ahead in the polls” for next year’s elections.

“The message that the CTP’s candidate is ahead in the presidential elections is an unfortunate and untimely statement. They are making a statement that there should be no intervention in Cyprus’ politics, but at the same time, while there are still 11 months left until the presidential elections, they are saying the CTP’s candidate is ahead,” he began.

He added, “it is not possible for us to accept this contradictory position.”

“We do not find the CHP’s statements to be correct. The Turkish Cypriot people know very well whom to vote for, how, and when.”

He went on to insist that the CHP has no choice but to support a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem, pointing out that the Turkish parliament had in July passed a resolution in support of such a solution.

“The resolution was unanimously accepted, and it emphasised that the only and definitive solution on the island is the delivery of the Turkish Cypriot people’s innate rights, those being the ratification of their sovereign equality and international status, and a two-state solution is the only way to ensure stability and permanent peace,” he added.

To this end, he called on the CHP to “understand the CTP’s vision and mission”, adding that “in the motherland Turkey, the Cyprus problem is a national cause and you can only voice support for a two-state solution”.

“The motion states that we will not sit at the negotiating table without our sovereign equality and equal international status being accepted. On the one hand, you support a candidate and a party which wants a federal solution, and on the other, you vote for a resolution in favour of a two-state solution. There is a contradiction here,” he added.

Many in opposition have been keen to point out the irony of Hasipoglu’s statements given their belief that previous elections in the north have been subject to interference on the part of Turkey’s ruling AK Party and affiliates.

CTP ‘MP’ Dogus Derya on Wednesday asked Hasipoglu, “where were you when AK Party and [affiliate party] MHP MPs, who came with teams to interfere in the 2020 presidential elections and whose activities were reported, were going door to door in the TRNC?

“What did you do when Faiz Sucuoglu, who was elected with 60 per cent of the votes at your party’s conference [in 2021], was prevented from being prime minister? Do you have anything to say about the treatment of your friends who withdrew their candidacies at the conference you held so your prime minister would not be seen as an appointee?”

She also poured scorn on Hasipoglu’s reaction to Ozel’s comment on the polls, saying, “this is not an opinion, it is a fact. You are upset because [Ozel] stated this fact.”

She then concluded by saying her party will win the coming elections without the CHP’s help, saying, “neither the CTP nor Erhurman need any intervention to save this country from you. Don’t be so silly.”

Hasipoglu’s comments also drew a reaction from the pro-opposition media in the north, with Ozgur Gazete’s front page on Wednesday reading, “ahahahahahahaha”.

Incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar was ordered to pay Ozgur Gazete 20,000TL (€1,036 at the time) in damages last September after accusing the newspaper’s employees of being “spies and agents” and of working with foreign intelligence organisations after the newspaper reported on alleged Turkish intervention in the 2020 election, which he won.

The newspaper alleged that a team of 20 people from the AK Party’s marketing division, including then Turkish vice president Fuat Oktay’s press advisor Ali Genc, were holding daily meetings with Tatar and his campaign team at the Lord’s Palace hotel in Kyrenia for over a month before the election took place.

Alongside the article, Ozgur Gazete shared several photographs which showed then ‘economy minister’ Hasan Tacoy exiting the hotel accompanied by Genc and a team of others at 2:30am on October 2, 2020, and Tatar arriving at the hotel with a dossier at 5:30pm the following day.

Hasipoglu’s strike back at the CHP also comes at a time when the Turkish opposition is resurgent, with the CHP securing an unlikely and historic victory in the country’s local elections in March this year.

The party became the first since the ruling AK Party was formed in 2001 to beat them in a nationwide count, while also winning the mayoralties of all of Turkey’s five largest cities.