New coalition ‘government’ formed in the north

The north’s new ‘prime minister’ Faiz Sucuoglu on Friday announced the new ‘cabinet’ after given the mandate to form a new ‘government’ following his election last week as head of the National Unity Party (UBP).

Sucuoglu formed a new, coalition with the Democratic Party (DP) until the ‘parliamentary’ elections, expected to take place in January.

The new ‘cabinet’ was announced after presented to Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar for approval.

Tahsin Ertugruloglu remains as ‘foreign minister’ while Ali Pilli returns as ‘health minister’ after being removed from the post by former ‘prime minister’ Ersan Saner last February, a move that had stirred reactions at the time.

The rest of the ‘cabinet’ are: Kutlu Evren ‘interior minister’, Dursun Oguz ‘finance minister’,  Resmiye Canaltay ‘public works minister’, Olgun Amcaoglu ‘education minister’,  Sunat Atun ‘economy minister’, Koral Cagman ‘labour minister’, Fikri Ataoglu ‘tourism minister’, and Nazım Cavusoglu ‘agriculture minister’.

The previous coalition formed by the UBP, DP and the Rebirth Party (YDP) resigned last month due to quorum issues within ‘parliament’ as the three parties did not have 26 ‘seats’ which is the minimum to hold a majority.

The newly formed ‘government’ will rule until early elections, expected to take place on January 9, but Sucuoglu said that they need to vote for the ‘state budget’ before that, so they might push the elections one or two weeks later.