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Breakaway republic of Turkish Northern Cyprus elects hardline nationalist as president

Supporters of right-wing nationalist Ersin Tatar celebrate his win in the presidential election in the northern part of Nicosia, the capital of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) - AFP
Supporters of right-wing nationalist Ersin Tatar celebrate his win in the presidential election in the northern part of Nicosia, the capital of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) - AFP

The tiny breakaway republic of Northern Cyprus has elected a fervent nationalist as its new president, inflaming tensions in the eastern Mediterranean and making the unification of the island an ever more distant prospect.

Ersin Tatar, who is closely aligned to Turkey, favours a two-state solution rather than the unification of the former British colony, which has been split along ethnic lines since Turkey invaded in 1974 in response to a Greek-engineered coup to annex the island.

In a run-off vote which followed an inconclusive result a week ago, Mr Tatar, who was serving as prime minister of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, was elected president with 51.7 per cent of the vote.

Newly-elected Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar  - AFP
Newly-elected Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar - AFP

He now replaces Mustafa Akinci, a moderate who was in favour of resuming UN-mediated unification talks, which collapsed in Switzerland in 2017.

Mr Tatar, a Cambridge-educated chartered accountant, was enthusiastically backed during the election campaign by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president.

In a victory speech, Mr Tatar said: “Our neighbours in the south and the world community should respect our fight for freedom.”

Watch: After 46 years, Cypriot ghost town's beach opens to public

His election will complicate not only efforts to unify Cyprus, but also the battle over oil and gas prospecting in the eastern Mediterranean.

The dispute pitches Turkey and northern Cyprus against Greece, France, the EU and the internationally-recognised Cyprus government, which holds sway over the southern half of the island.

“It is now even more unlikely that there will be any meaningful progress in UN-backed peace talks to resolve the de facto division of the island over the medium term,” said Agnese Ortolani, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

A supporter of the newly elected Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar celebrates in the northern part of the divided capital Nicosia - AFP
A supporter of the newly elected Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar celebrates in the northern part of the divided capital Nicosia - AFP

Mr Tatar and the outgoing president, Mr Akinci, represented very different visions of the island’s future, she said.

As prime minister, Mr Tatar antagonised Greek Cypriots earlier this month by allowing partial access from the north to Varosha, a former beach resort which has been closed since the 1974 invasion, becoming a surreal ghost town in the no man’s land that divides the two halves of the island.

But some experts believe it is by no means the end of unification hopes.

If Turkey decides to throw its weight behind unification, it will have more sway over the pro-Ankara Mr Tatar than it did over his predecessor, who had clashed with President Erdogan.

“There’s evidence that Ankara wanted a deal in 2017. If they still want a deal, Tatar will have to be compliant. It's not necessarily a disaster,” James Ker-Lindsay, an analyst on the eastern Mediterranean at the LSE, told The Telegraph.

“But it has created a very different situation and all sides will have to take stock of what it means.”

The patchwork of tensions and rivalries in the region will be even more complex. “It's like a Rubik's cube - just when you get one side all the same colour, you realise the other side is jumbled up,” he said.

Nicos Anastasiades, the president of Cyprus, congratulated Mr Tatar on his win and called for him to support a new round of UN-led unification talks.

Watch: How the line of succession to the throne works