By Yusuf Kanli
TDN- Rather than trying to forge a national consensus and force the possibilities of a settlement on the island, Turkish Cypriot politicians, mired in pitiful self-interest, opt to continue spinning their wheels in vain. It's sad to see opportunism being presented as pragmatism...
The socialist-liberal coalition government of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) collapsed Wednesday after months of confusion and failed efforts to form a majority government in the 50-member Parliament.
Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat, the leader of the socialist Republican Turks' Party (CTP), the senior coalition partner, presented his resignation to President Rauf Denktas on Wednesday morning, just hours before the Turkish Cypriot Parliament was to vote on the government budget.
Since the resignation of two deputies from the junior coalition partner, the Democrat Party (DP) of Foreign Minister Serdar Denktas, the son of President Denktas, and one deputy from Talat's CTP, the two-way government had become a minority government with only 23 seats in Parliament.
Months were wasted in talks with the Peace and Democracy Movement (BDH) of Mustafa Akinci to include that party in the coalition and forge a majority government. Akinci's insistence on becoming foreign minister or the minister for EU affairs in a cabinet resulting from such a union eventually killed the possibility of a three-way coalition government.
Then came discussions between the two ruling parties and three tiny parties -- which were indeed represented in Parliament with one deputy each who had resigned from the coalition block or from the BDH.
Seeing their advantageous position in the talks, the three one-deputy parties demanded the moon and the stars in the coalition talks, and the negotiations ended in a fiasco on Tuesday, dashing hopes for the creation of a majority government that would prevent a costly early election.
President Denktas, for obvious reasons, will now try his best to avoid once again designating Talat -- whose party and the main opposition National Unity Party (UBP) of former Prime Minister Dervis Eroglu each now have 18 deputies in Parliament -- but rather will turn to Eroglu and ask him to form the new government.
The name of the game is famous: "Catch 26" -- neither Eroglu nor Talat can muster a 26-seat majority in Parliament. But the one-deputy parties will not want to go to early polls in 60 days' time, in the event a government cannot be established. Therefore, it would not be a feat of fortune-telling to say that Eroglu is likely to form a minority government together with the DP of Serdar Denktas with the outside support of some deputies.
Such a government will not be strong, either, and will be just a caretaker administration in office only to prevent polls. Once it is formed and receives a vote of confidence, experience shows that it will be very difficult to bring down such an administration because of the fear of early elections.
The futile wheel-spinning will continue in the KKTC while the Turkish Cypriots expect to see some efforts made to bring a respite from -- if not an end to -- the mounting problems stemming from their international isolation.
It's unfortunate that those who say they represent the Turkish Cypriot people and who are expected to serve their electors have opted once again to pursue their pitiful self-interest.