{"id":513092,"date":"2025-10-20T00:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T00:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/513092\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T00:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T00:11:15","slug":"turkish-cypriots-elect-tufan-erhurman-in-northern-cyprus-polls-elections-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/513092\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish Cypriots elect Tufan Erhurman in northern Cyprus polls | Elections News"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 218,000 people voted in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) leadership election that could shape the island\u2019s political direction.<\/p>\n

Published On 19 Oct 202519 Oct 2025<\/p>\n

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Opposition candidate Tufan Erhurman has won the presidential election in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), decisively defeating incumbent Ersin Tatar, the Turkish Cypriot High Electoral Council has announced.<\/p>\n

Erhurman, chairman of the centre-left Republican Turkish Party (CTP), secured 62.76 percent of the vote, compared with 35.81 percent for Tatar in Sunday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no losers in this election. We, the Turkish Cypriot people, have won together,\u201d Erhurman said after the announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will exercise my responsibilities, particularly in matters of foreign policy, in consultation with the Republic of Turkiye. Let no one worry,\u201d he added, referring to Ankara\u2019s longstanding interest in Northern Cyprus.<\/p>\n

Tatar, 65, was supported by the Turkish government and advocates a two-state solution<\/a> for Cyprus. Erhurman, 55, a lawyer born in Nicosia and educated at the University of Ankara, has said he intends to restart negotiations with Greek Cypriots aimed at a federal reunification<\/a> of the island. He previously took part in talks under former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat between 2008 and 2010 and served as TRNC prime minister from February 2018 to May 2019.<\/p>\n

Northern Cyprus occupies less than a third of the Mediterranean island and is recognised only by Turkiye, which maintains more than 35,000 peacekeepers in the region.<\/p>\n

\"TurkishTurkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar casts his ballot at a polling station during the Turkish Cypriot leadership election in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on October 19, 2025 [Birol Bebek\/AFP]Divided island<\/p>\n

Cyprus was divided in 1974 after a coup in the south aimed at uniting the island with Greece. Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983, nine years after Turkiye\u2019s military intervention following a brief Greek-backed coup which threatened the island\u2019s Turkish community.<\/p>\n

Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only the Greek Cypriot south \u2013 home to the internationally recognised government \u2013 enjoys full EU membership benefits. Many Turkish Cypriots hold EU-recognised Cyprus passports while residing in the north.<\/p>\n

Greek Cypriots reject the two-state proposal, which they see as incompatible with the United Nations and EU-endorsed framework for a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation.<\/p>\n

There are around 218,000 registered voters in Northern Cyprus. Polls closed at 15:00 GMT on Sunday, and vote counting took place under the supervision of the TRNC Supreme Election Board at centres across the territory.<\/p>\n

Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides congratulated Erhurman on his victory, reaffirming his commitment to resuming negotiations with Turkish Cypriot leaders.<\/p>\n

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also congratulated Erhurman in a post on social media, adding that Turkiye would \u201ccontinue to defend the rights and sovereign interests\u201d of the breakaway territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 218,000 people voted in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) leadership election that could shape the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6178,8612,33,299,1699,839,12,285,461,8406,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-513092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-conflict","9":"tag-cyprus","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-middle-east","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-turkey","17":"tag-united-nations","18":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115403599628507261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}