Cyprus-Forum.com

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Turkish Cypriot coalition resigns after months of political deadlock
AFP: 10/20/2004

NICOSIA, Oct 20 (AFP) - Turkish Cypriot prime minister Mehmet Ali Talat on Wednesday announced his resignation after a months-long political deadlock in breakaway northern Cyprus.

"We submitted our resignation," Talat told reporters in the Turkish-held sector of the island's divided capital Nicosia, flanked by deputy prime minister Serdar Denktash, the son of Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

Rauf Denktash, who heads the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), told reporters he had accepted the resignation, the Turkish Cypriot TAK news agency reported.

Talat's coalition, made up of his Republican Turkish Party (CTP) and Serdar Denktash's Democrat Party (DP), has been paralysed since it lost its slender parliamentary majority in April, shortly after a referendum on a UN peace plan aimed at unifying divided Cyprus.

Talat is expected to remain in power as caretaker premier, as Rauf Denktash meets leaders of the political parties with seats in parliament to hand out a mandate to form a new government.

The most likely candidate for the job is former prime minister Dervis Eroglu, who heads the conservative National Unity Party, currently the biggest force in parliament with 19 seats.

But Talat said that early polls -- rather than trying to cobble together a government out of the divided parliament -- would be the best way to break the bottleneck. "This parliament cannot produce a stable government," he said.

Rauf Denktash has the authority to call early elections if efforts to set up a new government fail.

The internationally-recognised government in southern Cyprus said it was keeping a close watch on the political developments on the other side of the UN-manned Green Line.

"We consider developments in the occupied north as the internal affairs of the Turkish Cypriot community but we are following whatever happens with close attention," said government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides.

"We expect that when these new efforts begin ... there will be a credible leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community who can pledge to cooperate with us towards a common aim, that is an independent federal state," he said.

The political deadlock in the north comes amid a diplomatic campaign by Turkish Cypriots to ease international sanctions against the TRNC following the overwhelming support they gave to the failed UN plan to reunify Cyprus.

Cyprus has been split along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

The UN plan, which was voted on both sides of the long-divided island in April, was killed off by a strong "no" in the south.

The failure of the reunification bid ensured that the Greek Cypriots alone joined the European Union on May 1. The TRNC, declared in 1883 and recognised only by Turkey, was left out in the cold.

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27 October 2004

Talat turns down coalition offer from Eroglu

* 'An UBP-led coalition would harm the political struggle that Turkish Cypriots are carrying out,' Talat says after a meeting with UBP leader Eroglu

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ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

Pro-settlement Republican Turks' Party (CTP) leader Mehmet Ali Talat rejected a proposal from a rival party yesterday to form a coalition government.

"A UBP-led coalition would harm the political struggle that Turkish Cypriots are carrying out," Talat told reporters after a meeting with Dervis Eroglu, head of the biggest group in the Turkish Cypriot parliament who was asked by President Rauf Denktas last week to form the new government.

"The CTP decided in a prejudiced way," Eroglu said. The two leaders spoke to the press separately after their 1.5-hour meeting.

Talat stepped down as prime minister last week after his months-long efforts to form a majority government failed. His coalition with the smaller Democratic Party (DP) of Serdar Denktas lost its majority status after resignations from both parties and was undermined by the European Union's slowness in approving a set of measures to end the isolation of Turkish Cypriots for their positive vote in support of a U.N.-drafted reunification plan in an April 24 referendum.

Yesterday, the European Parliament postponed a debate on an EU aid package of 259 million euros for Turkish Cypriots. The EU approved the aid package last week but the Greek Cypriots blocked plans to allow direct trade, fearing this could lead to eventual legal recognition of the north.

Talat's CTP supported the reunification plan, while Eroglu's National Unity Party (UBP) opposed. The resignation of Talat's government appeared to be a bid to force fresh elections that could strengthen its hand in any future talks with the Greek Cypriots. Observers say an election is likely by January.

In a bid to convince the CTP to participate in a coalition, Eroglu offered a set of proposals under which the premiership would rotate between the two parties. The UBP proposals also said that working towards fulfilment of promises made by the international community to end the isolation of Turkish Cypriots would be a top priority for an UBP-CTP coalition.

Talat said UBP in a coalition government would seriously harm the struggle for ending the international isolation of Turkish Cypriots and added that the UBP had not made any revision in its policy.

"UBP should not take part in a coalition government under these circumstances," he said, reiterating his call for early elections.

Eroglu has less than 15 days to form a new government. After failure in talks with the CTP, he is scheduled to seek an alliance with Serdar Denktas' DP today.

Eroglu's standing in parliament was further boosted when the sole deputy of the Free Thought Party (ODP), Unal Ustel, joined his UBP, increasing the number of UBP seats from 19 to 20 in the 50-seat parliament.