The north’s ‘parliament’ on Tuesday passed a resolution declaring support for a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem, with members of the ruling coalition voting in its favour and the opposition refusing to do so.
The resolution was passed by a show of hands, with members belonging to the north’s ruling coalition’s three parties – the UBP, the YDP, and the DP – raising their hands in favour of the resolution.
It has garnered controversy in the north since being submitted to ‘parliament’s’ legal affairs committee last week, with many in opposition keen to point out that the vote has come with just five days remaining until the Turkish Cypriot leadership election, which is widely seen as a quasi-referendum between a two-state solution and a federal solution.
To this end, opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman, who will challenge incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar at Sunday’s election, and who himself supports a federal solution to the Cyprus problem, gave an impassioned speech deploring the resolution and its timing.
“There is one thing [the ruling coalition] did not mention. As of today, there are five days until the election. For some reason, this issue has never been on the agenda until now. We have never had such a decision made in parliament, especially regarding the Cyprus issue, just five days before an election,” he said.
He added that “I know who is responsible”, and that “this is not an attitude befitting of seriousness”.
“The Cyprus issue is the most serious issue in this country. This is the most serious issue concerning people’s sovereign rights. It is not an issue which can be used for electoral purposes … I want to record the lack of seriousness here, not on the part of my colleagues here, but on the part of the person responsible,” he said, in reference to Tatar.
On this matter, he said he wished Tatar had been present in ‘parliament’ to “explain exactly what he means by this”.
“It is still unclear. Let us evaluate its content. Perhaps then it would make sense. Lately, I have not been able to meet Ersin in any way. Not on TV, not in parliament, not on the street. His name was clearly mentioned in the initial text [of the resolution], indicating that he was its true author,” he said.
‘Prime minister’ Unal Ustel, meanwhile, took a different approach, choosing to look back on the history of Cyprus, telling members how “Turkish Cypriots suffered greatly in the 1950s and 1960s and lost many people”.
He added that that after the effective collapse of the bicommunal Republic of Cyprus in 1963, “the Greek Cypriot government, which destroyed this republic, resorted to every possible attempt to destroy the Turkish Cypriots”.
He went on to say that the federal model “was discussed between 1974 and 2020”, but that “the Greek Cypriot government never accepted sovereign equality”, before criticising how “the European Union had told the Turkish Cypriot electorate ‘say yes, you will join Europe’” ahead of the Annan plan referendum in 2004.
“Even though we said ‘yes’, not a single one of the promises was fulfilled,” he said.
Once the resolution had been voted upon, Tatar released a statement, saying that ‘parliament’ had “fulfilled a very important responsibility”.
“This historic decision, which will determine the future of the Turkish Cypriot people, the sovereignty of our state, and the direction of our national cause, is now a turning point for all of us,” he said.
He also poured scorn on the CTP, saying that the vote “is not a party issue”.
“This is a matter of the people defending their own future, their own will, and their own state. Our people have clearly seen that those who refuse to support such a historic decision for political reasons and for the sake of elections have no regard for the seriousness of the state,” he said.
He added that “the CTP has chosen to be on the wrong side of history” and that the party “rejected the historic support” offered by Turkey’s parliament, which passed a similar resolution last year.
Later on Tuesday evening, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz described the vote as “an important step in reflecting the will of the Turkish Cypriot people”.
“This decision is a powerful manifestation of the Turkish Cypriot people’s determination to protect their sovereignty, identity, and future. The federal model, which failed for half a century, is now exhausted. A realistic, sustainable, and just solution on the island is only possible on the basis of two sovereign, equal states,” he said.
He added that Turkey “will continue to support the will of the Turkish Cypriots to make their own decisions and determine their own future”.
Previously, Serdar Denktash, the son of influential Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, who founded the ‘TRNC’, said the resolution was “nothing short of manipulation of the election”.
“Sending such a significant proposal to parliament so soon before the elections is nothing short of manipulation of the election,” he told the Cyprus Mail, before adding that the resolution is also “an attempt to eliminate” the north’s unilateral declaration of independence, signed by his father in 1983.
That declaration stated, among other things, 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”.
“If they were sincere, they would have debated this from all perspectives during normal times, not during the runup to an election. Any shortcomings or omissions would have been addressed, and a broad consensus would have been achieved before it was passed by parliament,” Denktash said.
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