Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Saturday said opposition movements in the north are “betraying the TRNC”.

He told Turkish newspaper Sabah of how opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman “defends the position of the Greek Cypriot communist party Akel that there cannot be two states on the island”.

The opposition, he said, “is even against Turkey’s huge investments, from the water project which gave life to the TRNC to the construction of a new airport”.

“If you ask, they do not even want the new presidential palace or parliament building, the construction of which is about to be completed, but they are already fighting over who will take which room in the parliament building,” he said.

Erhurman responded in kind later in the day, writing in a social media post that, “I do not know if he was referring to me, the CTP, the CTP’s members, or just the CTP, but the ‘president’ has accused the ‘opposition’ of being ‘traitors’ in statements to the Turkish press”.

“Mr Tatar, these people will not allow you to continue your efforts to divide and disintegrate this people with your absurd words, absurd statements, and the false and deceitful reporting you have adopted throughout your life, to describe the Turkish Cypriot people as ‘Greek Cypriots’ to the people,” he said.

He added that Tatar’s rhetoric has “harmed relations between the Turkish Cypriot people and the people of Turkey” with the aim of “benefiting politically from this, while sitting in a position assigned by the constitution to ‘represent the unity and integrity of society’”.

He closed his remarks by saying that Tatar “will not be able to divide and separate this people”.

“You will go, and this people will breathe a sigh of relief! How will you go down in history? Think about that, too.”

Tatar and Erhurman are set to go head-to-head in this October’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election, with all polling indicating that the contest will be a clear two-horse race between a leader who will advocate for a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem in Tatar, and one who will advocate for a federal solution in Erhurman..

The most recent poll, published on Thursday, has Tatar in the lead by 1.9 per cent.

Were Tatar to win re-election, he would be the first Turkish Cypriot leader to do so since Rauf Denktash won by default in 2000 after his second-round opponent Dervish Eroglu withdrew his candidacy.

Since then, Denktash did not stand for re-election and was replaced by Mehmet Ali Talat in 2005, Talat was beaten by Eroglu in 2010, Eroglu was beaten by Mustafa Akinci in 2015, and Akinci was beaten by Tatar in 2020.

The CTP unveiled a five-point plan for Cyprus problem negotiations in September, which stipulate that all convergences found at Crans Montana in 2017 must be adhered to and that there be no going back on the issues agreed on.

They also stipulate and that a solution be found on the basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality, that the negotiation process be “results-oriented” and that no party leaves the negotiating table, that the negotiating process have “a timetable with a sense of urgency”, and that it be impossible to return to the status quo once negotiations begin.