Tatar reported to police after allegedly breaking electoral law
Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar was on Sunday reported to the police by the north’s supreme election council after allegedly breaking electoral law during a television appearance on Saturday night.
Political campaigning is forbidden in the north after 6pm on the day before any given election, but the programme on which Tatar appeared, CNN Turk Masasi on Turkish channel CNN Turk, began at 8.45pm.
He was reported to the supreme election council for this by opposition political party CTP ‘MP’ Urun Solyali, with the council announcing on Sunday that it had forwarded the case file to the police with the recommendation that an investigation be launched.
During his appearance on CNN Turk, Tatar had said that “for years, other candidates have been anti-Turkey and advocated for a partnership with the Greek Cypriots and a federation”.
“They are acting as advocates for the Greek Cypriots. They say these will be two founding states, but that is not the case. After joining the European Union, the Greek Cypriot side claims the Republic of Cyprus is the original state, founded in 1960. The TRNC will be dissolved over time, and the Turkish Cypriots will be integrated into the Republic of Cyprus,” he said.
He added that a federal solution to the Cyprus problem “is a trap, a plan to destroy the TRNC and drive Turkey off the island, a plan to seize control of the eastern Mediterranean”.
Tatar’s electoral opponent, Tufan Erhurman, advocates for a return to negotiations based on a federal solution to the Cyprus problem, and told a rally of around a thousand people in Kyrenia in August that “every corner of this island will be Europe”.
“I swear and I promise, there will be no European south or Middle Eastern north on this island. Every corner of this island will be Europe. All young people, regardless of where they were born, will live together in a life worthy of human dignity. We do not accept inequality,” he said.
Later on Sunday, former judge Tacan Reynar warned in a social media post that if found guilty of violating electoral law with his appearance on CNN Turk, Tatar could face a maximum of six months in prison.
“Let me tell you, what happens when the campaigning ban is violated? The supreme election council will be monitoring the police investigation, as it did in the last election, and we will see what charges will be brought during that process,” he said.
“But first, his immunity must be lifted, and Ersin Tatar must lose when ballot boxes are opened tonight. The law states up to six months in prison.”
After the last Turkish Cypriot leadership election in 2020, the north’s public broadcaster BRT’s director Meryem Cavusoglu Ozkurt served two months in jail for violating electoral law.
She had chosen to air a speech by Tatar announcing that the water pipeline which connects Turkey with the north had been fixed, with Tatar winning the subsequent election.