Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Sunday told Turkish Cypriots to “not embarrass” influential late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash when the Turkish Cypriot leadership election takes place next month.

Addressing the party conference of the DP, one of the three parties in the north’s ruling coalition and the party which was most closely linked to Denktash during the final decade of his tenure in office, he stressed that the eyes of the world will be watching the Turkish Cypriots on election day on October 19.

“On the evening of October 19, not just the TRNC or Turkey, but the entire world will be watching. The TRNC will be the headlines that day. We must continue on our path so as not to embarrass Denktash. No one can question the bond between Denktash and me,” he said.

He added that the north is “living on with Denktash’s vision”, before going on to say that “thanks to the achievements of our founding president Denktash, a state, a republic, exists in the eastern Mediterranean today”.

Moving on to the matter of the Cyprus problem, he said that “the option of a federation is now a thing of the past”.

“We have announced our vision for a two-state solution to the world with the support of our motherland, Turkey. We are proud of this vision. I thank the DP for its support. We are walking confidently into the future together with Turkey,” he said.

He then offered criticism for his election opponent, Tufan Erhurman, and his party, the CTP, saying that they “clearly cannot articulate what they are saying”.

“The CTP candidate and his circle have a discourse based on the concept of federation. We, on the other hand, say two states. We say the Turkish Cypriot people, we say guarantors, we say soldiers. These are the greatest values which bind us together,” he said.

Tatar’s references to Denktash come after his son, Serdar Denktash, who was a founding member of the DP in 1992 and led the party between 1996 and 2019, announced that he had endorsed Tufan Erhurman.

“The presidential election is not a matter of the heart, but of the mind and of logic. Therefore, my support will be for Erhurman. He will not fight with Turkey, but he will not say ‘yes’ to everything either, and he will provide a good environment for consultation,” he said.

He then offered scathing criticism for Tatar, saying, “you cannot even understand what one of these two candidates is saying”.

“At least you can understand what the other candidate is saying. Even if you disagree, you can still talk, oppose, and reach an agreement. I have absolutely no hostility towards anyone, but we have to make decisions based on reason and logic,” he said.

Previously, Serdar Denktash had said that every time Tatar speaks, he feels ashamed, described Tatar as “an insult to Turkish history”, and said he would never vote for him.

According to the latest polling, Erhurman holds a small lead over Tatar, with Tatar attempting to become the first incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader since Rauf Denktash in 2000 to win re-election.

Away from the matter of October’s election, the north’s ‘deputy prime minister’ Fikri Ataoglu was re-elected as the DP’s leader at the party conference. He has held the role since taking over from Serdar Denktash in 2019.