Right-wing nationalist Ersin Tatar advocates a two-state solution for the Mediterranean island, saying, “They will never sever ties between us and Turkey.”
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Ersin Tatar (60), backed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, took 51.73 percent of the vote with a turnout of 67.3 percent. While incumbent President Mustafa Akinci, a 72-year-old Social Democrat, supported a unified federal Cypriot state, new President Ersin Tatar is in favor of a two-state solution for Cyprus.
Unexpected victory
The incumbent President Mustafa Akinci was generally expected to win the elections. The 60-year-old Tatar unexpectedly emerged as the winner on Sunday with almost 52 percent.
The victory of the right-wing Tatar will not only put the relationship between Turkish Northern Cyprus and the ethnic Greek-dominated republic of Cyprus on edge, but will also make relations between Turkey, Greece and Cyprus even worse than they already are. It may also become more difficult to resolve the conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean over gas deposits in the seabed.
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