Opposition leader announces candidacy
MAIN opposition and centre-left Republican Turkish Party (CTP) leader Tufan Erhürman has officially announced his candidacy for the April 2020 presidential elections, becoming the first contender to throw their hat into the ring.
Dr Erhürman, who gained a PhD from Ankara University, is an academic, lawyer and former diplomat who played a role in peace talks with the Greek Cypriots between 2008 and 2010 when former CTP leader Mehmet Ali Talat was President.
The ex-PM, who also worked for Turkey’s Ministry of Justice between 1999 and 2004, assumed leadership of the CTP in November 2016.
CTP members gave their unanimous backing to Dr Erhürman as the party’s candidate in next year’s planned presidential poll during a vote at an “enlarged party assembly” at the Hidden Garden in Lefkoşa on Tuesday.
Speaking at the event, Dr Erhürman, referring to the year the CTP was founded, said: “We have, since 1970, consistently said that we want peace and a solution immediately. The guarantee of permanent peace on the island and in the region is to reach a comprehensive, federal solution immediately.”
Dr Erhürman said that in the absence of a solution on the island it was important to focus on “confidencebuilding
measures” to “bring us [Turkish Cypriots] together with the international community”, and also to take “unilateral steps”.
The CTP leader said there was a need to “work tirelessly to have contacts with the UN and all countries, be able to have the diplomatic capability to deal with differences of opinion through diplomacy . . . have the knowledge of international relations, law, diplomacy and an experienced staff”.
He went on to say: “We have never been in favour of confrontation, we have never caused divisions. We have not come here to fight, our fight is to secure peace.”
Dr Erhürman also blasted the governing coalition partners, the National Unity Party (UBP) and the Peoples’ Party (HP), for being vocal about the need to discuss “alternatives” to a federal settlement model.
“These alternatives aren’t realistic,” he said. “Talking about having two states under the EU roof or wanting the recognition of the TRNC are not realistic alternatives.”
He said that the President needs to become “more involved in domestic affairs” while on the row over the right to exploit offshore energy resources he said that “wisdom dictates the need to share these resources surrounding the island in peace and justice”.