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Cyprus (6) -- News -- July-September 2006
Search on for new regime in north
20.09.2006
THE search is on for a new ‘government’ in the Turkish-held north, amid reports
Ankara is pushing for a more compliant stance as a bargaining ploy in
its EU-accession course.
Ferdi Sabit Soyer, who resigned as ‘prime minister’,
has been asked by Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat to form the ‘next government’.
"I am planning to set up a coalition government which will have good
coordination within itself," Soyer told reporters outside Talat's office after
he was given the mandate.
Cyprus (6) -- Analyses-- July-September 2006
The new government
20.09.2006
"It will be a government that will work in harmony with (Talat) and maintain cooperation with Turkey in line with mutual interests," he added.
Soyer resigned on Monday after his centre-left Republican Turkish Party (CTP) decided to part ways with its coalition partner, the center-right Democrat Party (DP), because of disputes largely over the fate of the divided island. The two parties have been at odds over efforts for the reunification of the island.
The DP follows a more nationalist line, refusing to make concessions to the Republic.
Soyer, who has 15 days to announce a new Cabinet, is now widely expected to work towards a partnership with a new party in the making by four independent lawmakers, three of whom resigned from the DP and one from the main opposition centre-right National Unity Party (UBP) last week. †
Soyer’s party has 25 seats in the 50-seat ‘parliament’ in the north.
But Democratic party chairman Serdar Denktash – who now finds himself outside the ‘government’ where he had held the ‘foreign ministry’ portfolio, has served notice he will be pushing for early elections.
Opposition NUP leader Huseyin Ozgurgun, expressed concern over developments, while Mehmet Cakici, General Secretary of the Peace and Democracy Movement said his party will not support the new "government". The behaviour of ‘MPs’ who had resigned from two parties was unethical, he added.
Meanwhile the Turkish daily Sabah newspaper said it appeared that Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) played a significant role in the collapse of the "government" in occupied Cyprus.
It said the four "MPs’", resigned after meeting Saban Disli, deputy General Secretary of the Justice and Development Party.
The paper writes that another factor that may show Ankara’s involvement in developments in the north was the fact that Ahmet Yonluer, head of religious affairs in occupied Cyprus, whom Tayyip Erdogan "knows very well", will join the new political party to be set up by the four rebel ‘MPs’.
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Bulgarian