MILLIYET - The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is going to polls on April 18 to elect a president. The winner will be either incumbent Mehmet Ali Talat or former Prime Minister Dervis Eroglu. The elections are also important for Turkey, as their results are related to Turkey's policies towards Cyprus and the European Union.
Eroglu's platform is like that of former President Rauf Denktas and his rejection of the 2004 Annan plan. As for Talat, he thinks that to defend Turkish Cypriots' rights, relations with the international community should be improved, and he backed the plan.
That was six years ago, and now Talat's five-year term is concluding. So what has he done in that time?
I got these figures from the General Secretariat of the TRNC Presidency:
- While Denktas had six diplomatic talks at the ministerial level between 2001 and 2005, Talat held 40 high-level diplomatic talks through this year, not including talks with the UN and the Greek side.
So Talat's embracing the Annan plan and his stance has strengthened the TRNC internationally.
On ending the TRNC's isolation, Europe bowed to the blackmail of EU member Greece. But the above figures reflect the TRNC's success in closer relations with the international community.
As part of this process, the TRNC scored an important victory in international law: Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights' Demopoulos decision not only strengthened the TRNC's hand in property cases, but also released Turkey from the compensation blackmail.
The elections are for the Turkish Cypriots to decide, but it's clear that international prestige strengthens Turkish hands at the negotiating table. No matter who wins, sustaining this policy would benefit both the TRNC and Turkey.