A significant disagreement has surfaced within Turkey's ruling Cumhur Alliance following the recent presidential election in the internationally unrecognized, breakaway entity, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his coalition partner showing starkly different reactions to the outcome.
Speaking to reporters aboard his plane after a Gulf tour, President Erdoğan emphasized respect for the Turkish Cypriot electorate's decision. "We can never look at Northern Cyprus sideways or wrongly. The will of the Turkish Cypriot people is highly respected by us," Erdoğan stated, adding that Turkey's relationship with the TRNC would continue unchanged regardless of election results.
His comments came after opposition candidate Tufan Erhürman of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) won a decisive victory with 62.7% of the vote, defeating incumbent Ersin Tatar, who garnered only 35.8%. Tatar had been supported by a center-right coalition and backed by nationalist elements in Turkey.
However, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, Erdoğan's key coalition partner, took a markedly different stance. Following the election, Bahçeli questioned the legitimacy of the results, citing low participation rates despite the 64% voter turnout among 218,000 registered voters.
In a statement through his deputy İsmail Özdemir and later at a party meeting on October 21, Bahçeli called for the TRNC Parliament to reject the election results and suggested that Northern Cyprus should become Turkey's 82nd province rather than maintain its current status.
The divergent responses have raised questions about unity within the Cumhur Alliance on foreign policy matters. Erdoğan stressed that Turkey's substantial investments in Northern Cyprus were not made "in vain," while political observers now await Bahçeli's response to the president's conciliatory stance.