TURKISH Cypriot politician Dervish Eroglu faced an uphill battle to form a ‘government’ yesterday after being appointed to the task by veteran leader Rauf Denktash following the resignation of incumbent ‘prime minister’ Mehmet Ali Talat.
Eroglu, who whose National Unity Party (UBP) holds 19 seats in the 50-seat ‘parliament’, needs to forge links with one or more of the other main parties if he is to form a coalition.
But all major parties, including his old ally the Democrat Party (DP) led by Serdar Denktash, seem unlikely to rise to Eroglu’s bait.
Denktash has said he would “appraise all suggestions” for forming a ‘government’. However, a source close to his party told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the chance of a DP-UBP coalition was “nil”.
“We are not interested in forming a government simply for the sake of forming a government,” the source said, adding that Eroglu’s party was “too far from the vision” Turkish Cypriots had for the future of the island.
He also criticised the UBP for not modifying it’s past policies and for being “too conservative”.
“The political climate is completely different now,” he added.
Talat’s Republican Turkish Party (CTP) has also expressed no interest in working with the UBP for similar reasons.
Party general secretary Ferdi Sabit Soyer made it clear on Thursday evening the CTP would not form a coalition with a party that “still believes no solution [to the Cyprus problem] is a solution”.
Peace and Democracy Movement (BDH) leader Mustafa Akinci, who has so far been the most staunchly opposed to joining the UBP in a coalition, rejected the idea of a coalition virtually out of hand.
“What is important to us is that a coalition must be based on a consensus that the starting point is the ‘yes’ vote in the referendum. The UBP does not share this approach,” he said yesterday.
Leaders of two smaller left-wing parties, the United Cyprus Party (BKP) and the Communal Liberation Party (TKP) led by Izzet Izcan and Huseyin Angolemli respectively, say they have their sight fixed firmly on an early general election.
“The only thing we are thinking about is the coming election,” Angolemli told the press on Thursday night while Izcan said simply, “A coalition with the UBP is not a possibility”.
Two other parties represented by one deputy each, the New Party (YP) and the Free Though Party (ODP) led by Nuri Cevikel and Salih Cosar are perhaps the most likely to join Eroglu. However, their support will go nowhere near generating the 26-seat minimum in order to form a workable ‘government’.
Cevikel – who represents a large number of mainland Turkish immigrants who voted ‘yes’ in April’s referendum on the Annan plan – said in the wake of Eroglu receiving the mandate that it was possible he would look favourably on an offer from the UBP, but added, “As one who voted ‘yes’ to the Annan plan, I would need to see some changes in the party’s approach”.
Cosar, too, was not ruling out a coalition with the UBP.
“If they come to us with a good protocol, it is possible,” he said, but pointed out, “As we are a party which aims at a solution and EU membership, the vision the UBP put forward is of great importance”.
