Vote expected next week on north ‘parliament’s’ two-state-solution resolution

A plenary session vote is expected to be held next week at the north’s ‘parliament’ on a resolution demanding a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem, after the resolution was passed by the ‘parliamentary’ legal affairs committee on Wednesday.

The resolution passed through the committee by three votes to two, with the three votes in the resolution’s favour being committee chairwoman Yasemi Ozturk, Hasan Kucuk, and Hasan Tacoy, all of ruling coalition party the UBP.

Deputy chairman Ongun Talat, son of former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, and Urun Solyali, both of opposition party the CTP, both voted against it.

The plenary session vote will most likely take place next Monday or Tuesday, just five or six days ahead of the Turkish Cypriot leadership election on October 19, when incumbent Ersin Tatar is set to be challenged by the CTP’s leader Tufan Erhurman, who advocates for a return to negotiations based on a federal solution.

Erhurman had said earlier this week that the resolution had “clearly” been put forward “for electoral purposes”, while also lamenting that “a serious issue like the Cyprus problem is being handled so frivolously out of fear of losing the election”

Then asked himself whether, if the resolution passes, it will cause problems for him if he is elected as Turkish Cypriot leader on October 19, he said “I read the text, I did not see any aspect of it which would preclude two equal constituent states” in a federal Cyprus.

“However, it would be saddening for parliament to make such a decision, because as a rule, decisions regarding the Cyprus problem in this country have always been made unanimously,” he said.

The Turkish Cypriots have twice before passed unanimous resolutions through their legislature regarding the Cyprus problem, both of which expressed support for a federal solution.

The first was the north’s unilateral declaration of independence in 1983, which, among other things, stated that “the declaration of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus does not prevent two equal peoples and the governments they establish from re-establishing a partnership under the umbrella of a true federation”.

“On the contrary, it can facilitate sincere efforts on this path by fulfilling the necessary prerequisites for the establishment of a federation. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, determined to make every constructive effort in this direction, will not unite with any other state,” it said.

Then, in March 1985, ‘parliament’ passed a unanimous decision reiterating the text of the unilateral declaration of independence and stressing that the ‘TRNC’s’ constitution “does not prevent two equal peoples from establishing a partnership of a true bicommunal and bizonal federation”.