Media in the north have throughout this week alleged that the Turkish embassy in the north, and by proxy the Turkish government, has been interfering in local politics ahead of the party conference of the UBP, the north’s largest party, in September.
Party leader and ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel is set to be challenged for the party’s leadership at the conference, with a number of other ‘MPs’ having put their names forward.
Two of the candidates, ‘energy minister’ Olgun Amcaoglu and current backbench ‘MP’ Kutlu Evren were, according to newspaper Yeni Duzen, summoned to the Turkish embassy’s residence in Ayios Epiktitos in recent days and ordered to “withdraw their candidacies”.
With Yeni Duzen’s claims hitting newsstands on Wednesday morning, ‘energy ministry’ undersecretary Sahap Asikoglu then suddenly announced his intention to resign, saying he would do so once he secured an appointment to hand his letter of resignation to Ustel.
He insisted his resignation was “not related” to the allegations of external interference, adding, “I made this decision as a result of my own internal evaluation. I am tired.”
Then, late on Wednesday night, Yeni Duzen quoted a “UBP source” who had said an internal poll had shown Amcaoglu was the frontrunner in the race, with backbench ‘MP’ and long-time critic of Ustel Hasan Tacoy in second place. Ustel was in fourth, behind Evren.
The newspaper’s source said efforts are being made to “eliminate” Amcaoglu and Evren with the aim of “increasing the chances” of Ustel and Tacoy.
They added that Ustel is “supported by Kazanci Holding”, the owner of both energy giant Aksa and media conglomerate the Kibris media group. At the same time, they said, Tacoy is supported by former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
Evren has reportedly won the support of the MHP, one of the parties in Turkey which is part of the People’s Alliance – an Ak Party-led group of parties which often fields joint candidates and votes together in the Turkish parliament.
In this regard, some observers have claimed Evren’s candidacy is effectively a proxy of a power struggle in Turkey between the Ak Party and the MHP.
The rumours of backhand deals and proxies as well as intervention on the part of the Turkish embassy reflect the circumstances under which Unal Ustel became UBP leader and ‘prime minister’ in 2022.
His predecessor Faiz Sucuoglu had been faced with effective ‘parliamentary’ and ‘governmental’ deadlock in the spring of that year when trying to sack his ‘finance minister’ Sunat Atun.
Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had refused to sign off on Atun’s sacking, and Sucuoglu’s solution was to have his whole ‘government’ resign and form a new ‘government’ without Atun.
However, the move backfired, and the new ‘government’ lost multiple confidence votes before it could form. Subsequently, Ustel held meetings with Turkish ambassador Metin Feyzioglu and with Tatar, before being asked by Tatar to form a ‘government’.
Commenting on the current situation to Yeni Duzen, Sucuoglu said he has “no motivation” to run again for the party’s leadership, and that he “was waiting for Olgun Amcaoglu, but I think they gave up”.
Meanwhile, Tacoy insisted he will not back down, while speaking to television channel TV2020.
He said it had been Ustel’s intention to run unopposed at the party conference, but that “democracy will make the decision.”
“If fraud or other attempts were made, the final decision will be made by the people,” he said, adding that “similar such things have happened before”.
“We have seen this before, I watched a different version of this film,” he said.
He had last year accused Ustel of “playing very dangerous games” and “harming our democracy”.
He did stop short of pointing the finger at Turkey, however, saying, “I am absolutely certain that the higher authorities of the Republic of Turkey are not even aware of these events”.
