Ankara, Turkey. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, installed as leader of Turkey’s main opposition CHP by a court decision, said on Tuesday that the north should be called the “Turkish Republic of Cyprus” rather than northern Cyprus.
He said the entity’s establishment had secured Turkey’s rights in the eastern Mediterranean and described this as “republican autonomy”.
Comments on Cyprus
Speaking to TV100, Kilicdaroglu referred to late Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit and said, “The late Ecevit went and took Cyprus, did he not? The Turkish Republic of Cyprus was established.”
“I do not call it northern Cyprus. Its name is the Turkish Republic of Cyprus. Its official name should be the Turkish Republic of Cyprus,” he said.
Kilicdaroglu added that “with the Turkish Republic of Cyprus, our rights in the eastern Mediterranean have been secured”.
Nato strategy proposal
The remarks followed Kilicdaroglu’s intervention last week on Turkey’s hosting of the Nato leaders’ summit. He said Nato did not yet have a comprehensive southern strategy and that Turkey would be its “natural architect”.
He said rebuilding state capacity in Syria and Iraq, developing a common framework for combating terrorism, managing migration at its source, and addressing maritime and energy security in the eastern Mediterranean should form part of a strategy proposed by Turkey to the alliance.
CHP leadership dispute
Kilicdaroglu has led the CHP since a court decision in May annulled the party’s 2023 conference and removed Ozgur Ozel, who had been elected leader at that conference, from office.
The ruling prompted mass protests in Turkey’s largest cities and a crisis within the CHP, after which several local mayors left the party.
The BBC reported on Tuesday that Ozel was preparing to create a new party as early as next week. Ozel said last month that his efforts to challenge the May court decision were not about leaving the CHP and that the party would return to power by fighting within it.
He said any new party would serve as a “backup” structure to contest a snap election if the CHP were barred from fielding candidates because of the annulment of its conference.
It has also been rumoured that the ruling AK Party could call snap parliamentary and presidential elections on August 14, the 25th anniversary of its founding.
