Former Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Tuesday said he wished he had never held the post and instead remained in post as Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’.

Speaking during an interview with social media creator Oya Kutsal, he said that in the runup to the 2020 Turkish Cypriot leadership election, he had instead suggested that his ‘deputy prime minister’ and former Turkish Cypriot chief negotiator Kudret Ozersay become Turkish Cypriot leader.

“At the time, I suggested Kudret as president… I said, bring Kudret to the forefront, and let us discuss this within the UBP,” he said, with the UBP having been the north’s largest political party at the time, and the party he led between October 2018 and his election as Turkish Cypriot leader in 2020.

He then added that “there is that conversation about [Ozersay] not having a coffee with us, and yes, he did not have a coffee with us, and the UBP did not adopt him as a candidate”.

“So, I had to become a presidential candidate, because I had just become the prime minister… I wanted to remain as prime minister. Everyone knows this,” he said.

However, he said, he was then approached by his ‘energy minister’ Hasan Tacoy, who was a known ally of former Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim, and the late Tuncer Arifoglu, who was an elder statesman of the UBP and had served as ‘trade minister’ of the ‘Cyprus Turkish Federated State’ between 1975 and 1976.

“They said to me, it is your duty. You will be the candidate,” he said, before adding that former Turkish Cypriot leader Dervish Eroglu “spoke in the same way”.

This, he said, was “because Ozersay was not just Eroglu’s chief negotiator, he became a candidate against Eroglu in [the 2015] election. Dervish Eroglu never forgot this”.

“He also said to me that such a thing is impossible. He said, ‘you are the head of the party, you will be the candidate’, and they all supported me. After that, the others supported me and I won,” he said.

Tatar and Ozersay both stood as candidates in the 2020 Turkish Cypriot leadership election, with their joint ruling coalition collapsing just days before that election when Ozersay withdrew from it after Tatar had travelled to Ankara to announce the opening of Varosha without informing him. Tatar then went on to win the election, unseating Mustafa Akinci.

However, he said, six years on from that election and having been voted out of the role last year, “I wish I could have stayed as prime minister, both as the head of the party and as prime minister”.

He then turned his attention to the next Turkish Cypriot legislative election, which must take place before next February at the latest.

“Now, if I were to stand in this election and win it, how would you answer that? I am of the right age now, and you saw how my health is. Yes, there is experience too, and most importantly, the office of the prime minister is also a power,” he said.

He was then asked what his greatest political achievement was and answered that it was being elected as the leader of the UBP in 2018, defeating incumbent Huseyin Ozgurgun at that year’s party conference.

“I mean, being a prime minister, being a minister is easier. Yes. The hardest thing is being leader of the UBP. There is a lot of competition there, and, well, to become the leader, fairly, through democracy, with the approval of the members, is a great achievement,” he said.

On this matter, he pointed out that Tufan Erhurman, who beat him in last October’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election “never competed” for the leadership of the CTP, being elected to the role unopposed in 2016.

“He was always deemed worthy and became chairman with the members’ applause. It went on like that for many years,” he said.

He confirmed he is now a member of the UBP once more, having been required to relinquish his party-political ties to become Turkish Cypriot leader in 2020.

“I am a UBP member because of loyalty, anyway,” he said, pointing out that his father, the Republic of Cyprus’ first auditor-general Rustem Tatar, was “one of the founding members” of the party.