Peace talks to resume as early as next month after new president chosen
Mustafa Akıncı
Mustafa Akıncı swept North Cyprus’s presidential election with nearly two-thirds of the vote in Sunday’s run-off contest.
The result prompted a flurry of congratulations for the veteran politician, who has been widely described as the candidate most supportive of a solution to the decades-old Cyprus conflict.
The leftist moderate Mr Akıncı won 60.4 percent of the vote over Derviş Eroğlu, the hawkish incumbent, who secured 39.6 percent.
Speaking at a victory rally in the capital Nicosia, the president-elect said he would be meeting his Greek Cypriot opposite number Nicos Anastasiades “as soon as all the formalities are complete”.
“This country no longer has any tolerance for lost time,” Mr Akıncı told the crowds. “I told [Anastasiades] that we wanted previous generations to solve this island’s problems but they were not successful.
“I said it would be an even greater burden on the generations that follow us if we cannot solve it either. I told him this and he was of the same view.”
The defeated Mr Eroğlu announced his retirement from politics and described his defeat as not a personal verdict on me.
He said: “The citizens have sent a message not to Eroğlu but to the political parties. There are outcomes from this election that the political parties must take account of. I hope they do.”
Mr Akıncı was elected mayor of the Turkish neighbourhoods of Nicosia in 1976 at the age of 28 and remained in the role for twelve years. He later served in parliament as leader of North Cyprus’s centrist TKP, rising to serve as deputy prime minister between 1999 and 2001.
Mr Anastasiades, who is president of the internationally-recognised Republic of Cyprus, welcomed the result, saying it gave “hope that we can have a modern state where EU principles and values will prevail.”
Talks moderated by the United Nations are widely expected to resume next month.
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akinci.jpg Mustafa Akıncı