Nicosia, Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Monday called Disy leader Annita Demetriou and Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou to congratulate them on their results in Sunday’s parliamentary election. Erhurman’s office confirmed the calls to the Cyprus Mail.
Election results
Both parties retained all the seats they had held in the previous parliament. Disy won 17 seats and Akel won 15 seats.
Earlier congratulations
Demetriou had earlier received congratulations from Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party, the centre-right European political grouping to which she belongs.
Reciprocal gesture
Erhurman’s calls came after his landslide victory in last October’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election. At the time, Demetriou said that “the Turkish Cypriots, with their vote, turned their back on the two-state solution” and said she hoped his election would open the way for substantive negotiations for a solution to the Cyprus problem within the agreed framework.
Stefanou said then that the Turkish Cypriots had “decided in favour of a federal solution and reunification”. He added: “This is a positive and hopeful message. Congratulations to Tufan Erhurman. Let us all now focus on efforts to continue the negotiations from the point at which they were interrupted, preserving the basis for negotiations and achieving a comprehensive solution.”