Nicosia, Cyprus. Former Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said on Tuesday he wished he had never held the post and would have preferred to remain in office as Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’. He made the comments in an interview with social media creator Oya Kutsal.
Preference for Ozersay as candidate
Tatar said that ahead of the 2020 Turkish Cypriot leadership election, he had suggested that his ‘deputy prime minister’ and former Turkish Cypriot chief negotiator Kudret Ozersay become Turkish Cypriot leader. He said he had proposed discussing this within the UBP, which was the north’s largest political party at the time and which he led between October 2018 and his election as Turkish Cypriot leader in 2020.
Tatar said the UBP did not adopt Ozersay as a candidate, adding that there was discussion about Ozersay not having a coffee with them and that he did not have a coffee with them. He said he then had to become a presidential candidate because he had just become the prime minister, and that he wanted to remain as prime minister.
Pressure to run and support within the UBP
Tatar said he was approached by his ‘energy minister’ Hasan Tacoy, described as a known ally of former Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim, and the late Tuncer Arifoglu, described as an elder statesman of the UBP who had served as ‘trade minister’ of the ‘Cyprus Turkish Federated State’ between 1975 and 1976. Tatar said they told him it was his duty to be the candidate.
He said former Turkish Cypriot leader Dervish Eroglu “spoke in the same way,” and that this was because Ozersay had been Eroglu’s chief negotiator and later became a candidate against Eroglu in the 2015 election, which Tatar said Eroglu never forgot. Tatar said Eroglu told him such a thing was impossible and that as head of the party he would be the candidate, adding that he received support and won.
2020 election context and coalition collapse
Tatar and Ozersay both ran as candidates in the 2020 Turkish Cypriot leadership election. Their joint ruling coalition collapsed days before the election when Ozersay withdrew after Tatar travelled to Ankara to announce the opening of Varosha without informing him. Tatar went on to win the election, unseating Mustafa Akinci.
What do you think Tatar’s comments reveal about how candidates were chosen ahead of the 2020 election?
