The north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli on Wednesday vowed to stand in Tufan Erhurman’s way if the opposition-backed candidate wins Sunday’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election and then attempts to negotiate a federal solution to the Cyprus problem.

During an appearance on Haber Kibris TV, he said that if Erhurman wins on Sunday, “he will have problems with the TRNC government”, and that “he will not have the authority to negotiate a federation due to the ‘two-state solution’ resolution” passed by ‘parliament’ on Tuesday.

He added that ‘parliament’ will “take away Erhurman’s authority to negotiate if necessary”.

He later wrote in a social media post that “the decision-making body which authorises the negotiator to negotiate on the Cyprus issue is PARLIAMENT”.

He then added that “there is no chance of Tufan Erhurman being elected”, but that “even if he were, a federation cannot speak”, likely intending to say that “a federation cannot be spoken about”.

“We will seize the negotiator’s authority,” he declared.

Such a move would be unprecedented and the legal ramifications of it would be unclear, given that historically, negotiations on the Cyprus problem have been held between the directly elected leaders of the island’s two main communities.

There have been a number of occasions when the north’s ‘government’ has found itself at loggerheads with the Turkish Cypriot leader of the day, notably when then ‘prime minister’ Dervish Eroglu had a spectacular falling out with Rauf Denktash which lasted for most of the 1990s.

After Eroglu, Mehmet Ali Talat of pro-federation party the CTP served as ‘prime minister’ under Denktash, before Eroglu, of nationalist party the UBP, returned to serve in the role under Talat.

When Eroglu was Turkish Cypriot leader, two CTP ‘prime ministers’, Sibel Siber and Ozkan Yorgancioglu, took office, while Huseyin Ozgurgun and Ersin Tatar of the UBP served under pro-federation Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.

In fact, Ozgurgun was in post as ‘prime minister’ during the talks in both Mont Pelerin and Crans Montana, with his ruling coalition comprising four ‘ministers’ who serve in the current coalition.

Tuesday’s resolution was passed by ‘MPs’ belonging to the ruling coalition’s three parties, but 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.

That election is widely seen as a quasi-referendum between a two-state solution and a federal solution.

As such, Erhurman had given an impassioned 90-minute speech deploring the resolution and its timing, despite being hindered by the television feed frequently cutting out during his speech.

“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 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.