The newly elected leader of the Turkish Cypriots, Tufan Erhurman, announced his resignation as chairman of the Republican Turkish Party.
He made the announcement immediately after his victory in the presidential elections on October 19 in the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Erhurman said: “Thank you to everyone. From this moment on, I am no longer chairman of the party. I promise to be the president of all citizens.“
He promised to maintain an “impartial and open” public position on all issues. And invited everyone to an evening celebration of his victory in a park in North Nicosia. “Let us strengthen our unity. We will celebrate our brotherhood, not victory“, said the elected leader of the Turkish Cypriot community.
Tufan Erhurman, 55, is a social democratic activist who advocates for the rights of Turkish Cypriots to be citizens of a united Cypriot state structured on a federal principle.
In 1988, he entered Ankara University, where he completed his master's degree and then his doctorate.
Since 2013, Erhurman has been a member of the Turkish Cypriot Parliament (Assembly), since 2016 he has been the leader of the Republican Turkish Party, and from 2018 to 2019 he was the territory's prime minister.
In the elections on October 19, Erhurman received 62.76% of the vote, winning in the first round and will now be the president of the self-proclaimed republic for the next five years.
As noted by Stefanos Stefanou, leader of the Cypriot Greek Cypriot Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus, “the Turkish Cypriot community has made a choice in favor of a federal solution and the unification of the island“, which he said is “a positive and encouraging signal“.