The first hearing of a defamation lawsuit Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had filed against pro-opposition Turkish Cypriot newspaper Yeniduzenwas heard at court in northern Nicosia on Wednesday.

Tatar is suing the newspaper, its then editor-in-chief Cenk Mutluyakali, and columnist Serhat Incirli for up to 5 million TL (€115,225) in damages over a series of four opinion columns Incirli had written over the summer of 2022.

Those articles made various robust criticisms of Tatar, with Incirli on one occasion writing, “if one of the goals of Eoka, Eoka B, Elam, Makarios, Grivas, Sampson, Yiorkadjis, and all the Greek Cypriot institutions, organisations, and individuals which come to mind was to destroy the Turkish Cypriot community, [Tatar] has succeeded”.

Tatar took the stand himself as a witness, with Yeniduzen journalist Serap Sahin writing after the hearing that Tatar had told the court the articles crossed the line of fair criticism.

“My position is clear. Right now, I am still number one in the polls. The world hears him say I talk gobbledygook. He knows I am a Cambridge graduate and where I have worked. He is spreading the word to the world that I, who was this country’s finance minister for five years, that Ersin Tatar, who was prime minister and won an election against Akinci, is an object of pity and a buffoon,” he is quoted as saying.

Tatar and his office on Wednesday made no public comment on the case.

Its next hearing will take place on April 28.