Denktash ‘depressed’ over election prospects

TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash is totally depressed over his prospects in the ‘presidential’ elections next April, a Turkish Cypriot paper reported yesterday.

According to a report in Birlik, Denktash has concluded from his own opinion polls that he stands no chance of winning the election.

“Rauf Denktash could not conceal his fears, even in New York,” the paper said.

Denktash said in New York that he would discuss ‘Prime Minister’ Dervis Eroglu’s bid for the ‘presidency’ — which could see the hard-line politician would becoming the Turkish Cypriot community’s interlocutor for the Cyprus problem.

Birlik

said that when he was in Ankara recently, Denktash had said that he was not ready for the elections because he had “neither a party nor an organisation”.
Commenting on Denktash’s statements, political observers told the paper that Denktash was “totally depressed” because of the fear of losing the elections.

The observers also said his attempts to complain about his election rivals to Ankara were “childish and meaningless” and that by doing so he would be trying to reenact the old scenarios.

Denktash’s statements on not having a party of his own have been interpreted in the north as knocking the Democratic Party (DP), the party he set up with his son Serdar as leader.

“This is tantamount to admitting that the DP has withered away,” the paper said.

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.