Turkish Cypriot PM Set to Resign after Coalition Collapses
The ruling coalition in the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) collapsed Monday in a dispute over economic policy, paving the way for the premier's resignation.
Prime Minister Omer Kalyoncu is set to submit the resignation of his government to President Mustafa Akinci after a meeting of the ruling Republican Turkish Party (CTP) later in the day.
The government collapsed after ministers from the CTP's coalition partner the National Unity Party (UBP) withdrew from the government in protest at economic policy in the cash-strapped statelet.
UBP chairman Huseyin Ozgurgun complained that his party did not accept a decision to pay civil servants salaries in installments and was also unhappy with the water distribution on the parched territory.
"Having come to a point where there is no longer a possibility and capacity to serve our people, it is not our goal to form a government or share the office," Ozgurgun said.
Their alliance, which was formed in July last year, was the first such grand coalition ever between the two main parties.
The CTP is the biggest party in the 50-member Turkish Cypriot government with 20 seats but is well short of a majority with the UBP holding 18 seats.
It is possible that the UBP could form a government along with independents and the Democratic Party of Serdar Denktash, the son of the TRNC's hardline former leader Rauf Denktash who died in 2012.
In 1974, Turkish troops invaded northern Cyprus in response to an Athens-engineered coup, and later occupied the territory.
The TRNC was declared in 1982, recognized only by Ankara, and decades of U.N.-brokered peace talks have failed to reach a peaceful conclusion.
However with Akinci, a moderate compared to his predecessors, forging a strong personal relationship Greek Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades there is new hope that reunification is a genuine possibility.
Still largely cut off from the global economy, the TRNC is beset by economic problems and largely kept afloat by assistance from Turkey.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/206245 |