Akinci, Ankara-backed Tartar go into Turkish Cypriot runoff

NICOSIA: Mustafa Akinci, a pro-reunification moderate and Ankara-backed challenger Ersin Tatar are to contest an Oct 18 runoff for the presidency of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus after the latter, a right-wing nationalist, won 32.5 percent of the vote and the incumbent 30 percent in Sunday’s vote.

The presidential vote was held amid heightened tensions on the divided island and in the wider eastern Mediterranean, and with precautions against the spread of Covid-19.

The election commission said 55 percent of the almost 199,000-electorate had voted an hour before polls closed.

“This election is crucial for our destiny,” Akinci said after casting his ballot, complaining of Turkish political meddling.

The vote came three days after Turkish troops angered the Republic of Cyrus, an EU member, and many Turkish Cypriots, by reopening public access to the fenced-off seaside ghost town of Varosha for the first time since Turkish forces invaded the north in 1974.

That move sparked demonstrations in the majority Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus, which exercises its authority over the island’s southern two thirds, separated from the north by a UN-patrolled buffer zone.

The TRNC, now with an estimated population of 300,000, was established after the north was occupied by Turkey in reaction to a coup that aimed to annex Cyprus to Greece.

Esat Tulek, a 73-year-old retired civil servant, said as he voted: “We’re actually choosing the president who will be negotiating with the Greek Cypriots about the future of The election comes amid tensions in the eastern Mediterranean over the planned exploitation of hydrocarbons between Turkey on the one hand, and Greece as well as its close ally Cyprus on the other.

Erdogan announced last week, alongside Tatar, the partial reopening of Varosha, a beachside resort in the city of Famagusta that once drew Hollywood stars before it was abandoned by its Greek-Cypriot inhabitants during the Turkish invasion.