NICOSIA, 5 March 2005 — Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash yesterday gave a mandate to Mehmet Ali Talat to form a government after Talat’s party won the largest number of parliamentary seats in last month’s general election. Talat’s Republican Turkish Party (CTP), which backs the reunification of Cyprus and membership of the European Union, won 24 of the 50 seats in the Feb. 20 poll but needs a coalition partner to govern.
Talat said in a statement he would meet CTP officials yesterday and start drawing up a provisional cabinet list. He has 15 days in which to form a government. Only Turkey recognizes the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The rest of the world views the Greek-Cypriot government in the south as the sole legal representative of the whole island.
But political developments in the tiny enclave of 200,000 people are followed closely in both Turkey and the EU as they look for ways of reviving stalled Cyprus reunification talks. Turkey is eager to find a settlement because the Greek-Cypriots, who joined the EU last May as the “Republic of Cyprus”, might otherwise veto the planned start of Ankara’s own EU entry talks on Oct. 3.
Ankara is already under EU pressure to sign a protocol extending its customs union with the bloc to 10 new member states including Cyprus. Turkey says it will sign before Oct. 3 but insists this will not amount to recognition of Cyprus.
Complicating the picture in northern Cyprus, Talat is believed to be considering running for his enclave’s presidency in an election on April 17. In this case, he would be expected to choose another CTP lawmaker to serve as prime minister.
Denktash, 81, a fierce opponent of the UN reunification plan, has said he will not seek another term as president. A Talat victory in that election could clear the way for a fresh Turkish diplomatic drive to reunite Cyprus, analysts say.
Cyprus has been split on ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey invaded the north in response to a brief Greek Cypriot coup backed by the military junta then ruling Greece. Turkey keeps at least 30,000 troops stationed in northern Cyprus.
Meanwhile, EU enlargement chief Olli Rehn reiterated yesterday that Turkey must sign an accord extending a customs agreement to Cyprus before it can start EU membership talks, as he prepared for a trip to Ankara. Rehn heads tomorrow for a three-day trip to Turkey, which hopes to start talks on joining the European Union in October after winning a green light from EU leaders in December.
During the visit he will meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, and also visit Istanbul for talks with nongovernmental organizations and business leaders. Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn of Luxembourg, which holds the rotating EU presidency, and Britain’s Europe minister Denis MacShane, whose country will take over the presidency in June, will also take part in the talks in Ankara on Monday.
On the eve of the trip Rehn said the EU decision to start talks with the vast Muslim country “opens a new chapter in the historic process of peacefully unifying the European continent.”
