Former Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Wednesday accused Turkish opposition leader Ozgur Ozel of having unduly interfered in last year’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election, which saw him unseated by Tufan Erhurman.

“Ozel came to the TRNC and declared, ‘my candidate is Tufan’ and campaigned with a CHP delegation,” he told Ada TV, before adding that he has in his possession “video and recording evidence of this”.

He then said that the leader of a Turkish opposition party “should not participate in elections in the TRNC”.

“He is the leader of the opposition party there. What business does the opposition party have in the elections here?” he asked.

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Prior to last October’s election, Ozel, who was then the leader of the CHP and now leads the New Party, said that “as elections approach, the CHP respectfully salutes the will of the Turkish Cypriot community and their fight for existence to protect this will, regardless of political affiliation”.

“Our party calls on all individuals and institutions in our country to respect the will of the Turkish Cypriot people and to be diligent in ensuring that this will is duly respected,” he added.

He then said that he office of the Turkish Cypriot leader is “a gateway for Turkish Cypriots to the outside world”, and that “therefore, regardless of who wins the elections, what matters is that the will of the Turkish Cypriots is respected”.

Later, after Erhurman won an unprecedented landslide victory, he said that “the Cypriot people elected a president of their own free will against those who oppressed them”, and that “this is very important”.

“No one can stand in the way of change, and the time for change has come,” he said.

Elements of Turkey’s ruling AK Party had travelled to Cyprus in advance of that election to campaign for Tatar, with Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, former interior minister Suleyman Soylu, former defence minister Hulusi Akar, and former footballer Mesut Ozil having all campaigned for Tatar last year.

However, the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Yilmaz, among others, congratulated Erhurman upon his victory, and Turkey has since that election worked with Erhurman towards his aims for a return to negotiations in earnest on the Cyprus problem.

Most recently, AK Party spokesman Omer Celik said last week that the Cyprus problem “will continue to be discussed on the basis of diplomacy and the United Nations’ parameters”, with efforts continuing to bring about an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem within the coming months.

Celik’s statement of support for the UN’s parameters came after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had confirmed during his visit to the island that a “consensus” had been reached among the three guarantor powers, Turkey, Greece, and the United Kingdom, for a new enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem to be held.

Such a meeting, he said, will be convened “after adequate progress” is achieved on the matters of confidence-building measures, the meeting’s methodology, and the substance of the talks, and to this end, he said that he counts “on the continued support of the three guarantors”.

In line with this drive for adequate progress, Erhurman and President Nikos Christodoulides will next meet on August 26.