Parties in north agree on ruling coalition

Turkish Cypriot Democratic Party (DP) has agreed to take part in a four-way coalition ‘government’ leaving out the nationalists and a party formed by Turkish settlers.

The decision paves the way for the Turkish Republican Party (CTP) leader Tufan Erhurman, a moderate, to head the ‘government’.

CTP, the HP, the TDP and the DP, will have in total 26 seats out of 50, just enough to govern.

Nationalist UBP, led by ‘prime minister’ Huseyin Ozgurgun, took first place in the elections in the north but failed to win a majority.

DP chief Serdar Denktash had ruled out an alliance with UBP and YDP, a party made up of Turkish settlers.

Ozgurgun had criticised the four-way coalition talks saying it went against the will of the people and called it a ‘civilian coup’.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.