Ali Pilli, a Turkish Cypriot ‘MP’ from the UBP, the party to which Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar belonged, and which has endorsed him again ahead of this year’s elections, on Monday called on him to meet President Nikos Christodoulides and hold discussions with him.

Pilli was given his first ever ‘ministerial’ role, that of ‘health minister’, by Tatar when Tatar became ‘prime minister’ in 2019.

He made the comments after Tatar had on Monday ruled out the prospect of a tripartite meeting involving himself, Christodoulides, and United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin, owing to the arrests made by the Republic of Cyprus of people accused of selling Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north.

“Right now, the man is opening legal cases against you on the other side. Just as Nikos has rights here, Ali Pilli has rights here on every piece of soil and stone. Our rights are greater than those of Nikos, and we have to defend our rights. You will not get anywhere by remaining silent, you will not remain silent. If you are right, you will seek your rights, but unfortunately, we remain silent,” Pilli told the north’s ‘parliament’.

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“I also have citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus. Whatever right that Nikos may have here, I am also from Paphos, from the village of Phaleia,” he added, in reference to the now abandoned Turkish Cypriot village in which he was born in 1955.

He then said that the Turkish Cypriot people have “suffered a lot of oppression” and have “suffered a lot more than the Greek Cypriots”, before renewing his call on Tatar to enter discussions with Christodoulides.

“If they have a state, we have a state, too. We will confront them everywhere and talk. There are different methods, there are [international] organisations. If the president across from us wants to talk to our president, you will talk. We are more right about that.

“If he wants a meeting, you will hold the meetings. Why would you not? Whether it is a three-party meeting or a five-party meeting, when you speak there, the world hears it. You will go out and speak,” he said.

Pilli’s comments constitute a rare incidence of open discontent among the UBP with Tatar’s politics and come after Tatar had flatly refused to entertain the prospect of a tripartite meeting after he was visited by Holguin on Monday morning.

“I said there was no need for a tripartite meeting. I said that a meeting with Christodoulides could not be held in such an environment, that there was discomfort on the issue of property, and that it would not be right to create such an environment without resolving these issues,” he said.

The disagreement comes as the number of cases regarding the development of Greek Cypriot property in the north is on the rise, with two Hungarian nationals having become the first to be sentenced to prison over the matter last week.

They had admitted to promoting and advertising the sale of houses near Kyrenia on the internet.

Tatar had been a member of the UBP until his election in October 2020, with the ‘TRNC’s’ constitution requiring that elected Turkish Cypriot leaders relieve themselves of party political ties upon entering office. As such, he will officially run in October as an independent.

The party had endorsed his re-election campaign in April, and after winning the party’s endorsement, he said his heart “is always with the UBP”.