Republican Turkish Party

The Republican Turkish Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyetçi Türk Partisi, CTP) is a social-democratic[1] political party in Northern Cyprus. The party was founded in 1970 by Ahmet Mithat Berberoğlu, a lawyer, in opposition to the leadership of Fazıl Küçük and Rauf Denktaş.

Republican Turkish Party Cumhuriyetçi Türk Partisi
Leader	Tufan Erhürman
Founder	Ahmet Mithat Berberoğlu
Founded	1970
Headquarters	North Nicosia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Ideology	Social democracy[1] United Cyprus[1] Cypriotism
Political position	Centre-left[2]
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists (observer)
International affiliation	Progressive Alliance Socialist International
Colours	Red Green (customary)
Parliament:	12 / 50
Municipalities:	11 / 28
Website
www.cumhuriyetciturkpartisi.org
Politics of Northern Cyprus Political parties Elections

On 30 June 2008, the Republican Turkish Party became a consultative member of the Socialist International (voted in by all members except the Greek Cypriot Movement for Social Democracy). It became a full member of the organization in 2014.[3]

Policies and ideology

The CTP is a social democratic political party, positioned on the centre-left on the political spectrum.[4] The party espoused a pro-Soviet stance during the Cold War, especially under the leadership of Özker Özgür.[5] However, the party never described itself as explicitly communist. Under Özgür, the party held rapprochement meetings with the Greek leftist party of Cyprus, the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL). Under Mehmet Ali Talat, the party shifted towards its current moderate leftist position.

On the Cyprus dispute, the CTP traditionally favours a pragmatic approach, and supports the reunification of the island.[6] During the presidency of former CTP leader Mehmet Ali Talat, the party led reunification talks with the Republic of Cyprus.[7]

History

20th century

The Republican Turkish Party was established in 1970 by Ahmet Mithat Berberoğlu, in opposition to Rauf Denktaş, and later his National Unity Party (UBP). The CTP was further vocally opposed to Fazıl Küçük, who served as the first Vice President of the Republic of Cyprus. The CTP was led by Özker Özgür between 1976 and 1996; Özgür also served as Deputy prime minister in the aftermath of the 1993 legislative election.

21st century

Mehmet Ali Talat became party leader in 1996, taking over from Özgür. Under his leadership, the party lost 7 seats in the 1998 elections, becoming the fourth largest party in Northern Cyprus. However, in 2003, he led the party to victory, scoring over 35% of the vote, and taking 19 of the 50 seats in the Assembly of the Republic. The following year, Talat formed a government and became prime minister on 13 January 2004. He stepped down in 2005, after winning that year's presidential election; he went on to serve a single term as President of Northern Cyprus, until 2010. During his presidency, Talat conducted weekly meetings with the Greek Cypriot president, Demetris Christofias. The two leaders discussed issues such as power-sharing, armed forces, land ownership, and other problems that would arise in the event of reunification of the island.

Ferdi Sabit Soyer served as leader of the CTP for a certain period, and became prime minister in April 2005 after Talat's presidential victory, serving until May 2009.[8] The CTP lost the 2009 legislative election to the National Unity Party, and entered into opposition in the Assembly of the Republic.

After winning the 2013 elections with 38% of the vote and 21 seats, the CTP chairman Özkan Yorgancıoğlu, in office since 2011, became prime minister of Northern Cyprus on 2 September 2013. His government also included the rightist Democratic Party (DP).[9] In the 2015 presidential elections, CTP fielded Sibel Siber as their candidate. However, Siber took just under 23% of the vote, and was eliminated in the first round of voting. As a result, Özkan Yorgancıoğlu resigned as prime minister two months later;[10] Ömer Kalyoncu, also of the CTP, then formed a grand coalition with the National Unity Party.[11] On 16 April 2016, the CTP government was ousted by a coalition led by Hüseyin Özgürgün, consisting of the National Unity Party and the Democrats, who together ruled Northern Cyprus as a minority government until 2018.

The Republican Turkish Party was returned to power following the 2018 elections. Despite dropping from 38% of the popular vote and first place in 2013 to only 21% and second place, the party was able to put together a four-party coalition, which also included the People's Party, the Communal Democracy Party and the Democratic Party, and held 27 of the 50 seats in parliament. The leader of CTP, Tufan Erhürman, was appointed Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus by President Mustafa Akıncı on 2 February 2018.[12]

Leaders of the Republican Turkish Party

• Ahmet Mithat Berberoğlu (27 December 1970 – 31 October 1976)
• Özker Özgür (31 October 1976 – 14 January 1996)
• Mehmet Ali Talat (14 January 1996 – 21 May 2005)
• Ferdi Sabit Soyer (21 May 2005 – 5 June 2011)
• Özkan Yorgancıoğlu (5 June 2011 – 14 June 2015)
• Mehmet Ali Talat (14 June 2015 – 13 November 2016)
• Tufan Erhürman (13 November 2016 – present)

Election results

Parliamentary

Assembly of the Republic

Election	Votes			Seats		Role	Notes
	#	%	Rank	#	±
1976	97,637	12.9	3rd	2 / 40	new	in opposition
1981	152,805	15.1	3rd	5 / 40	3	in opposition
1985	317,843	21.4	2nd	12 / 50	7	in opposition
1990	776,418	44.5	2nd	16 / 50	4	in opposition	With Party for Democratic Struggle.
1993	433,134	24.2	3rd	13 / 50	3	CTP–DP coalition
1998	145,874	13.4	4th	6 / 50	7	in opposition
2003	469,279	35.2	1st	19 / 50	13	CTP–DP coalition
2005	577,444	44.5	1st	24 / 50	5	CTP–DP coalition
2009	415.574	29.2	2nd	15 / 50	9	in opposition
2013	477,209	38.4	1st	21 / 50	6	CTP–DP coalition	Opposition from 2016.
2018	1,121,478	20.9	2nd	12 / 50	9	CTP–HP–TDP–DP coalition	Opposition from 2019.

References

1. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2018). "Northern Cyprus". Parties and Elections in Europe.
2. Papadakis, Y, Peristianis, N, & Welz, G (2006) Divided Cyprus: Modernity, History, and an Island in Conflict, p80
3. "SI Council Meeting in Mexico City". Socialist International.
4. "Parties and Elections in Europe". parties-and-elections.eu.
5. Michael, Michális Stavrou (2011-12-19). Resolving the Cyprus Conflict: Negotiating History. ISBN 978-1-137-01627-0.
6. Kyprianou, Andreas (5 May 2016). "CTP: The normalization is only possible with the Cyprus settlement". The Cypriot Puzzle. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
7. Lansford, Tom (2014-03-20). Political Handbook of the World 2014. ISBN 978-1-4833-8626-3.
8. http://www.pes.eu/ferdi_sabit_soyer
9. "KKTC Başbakanı Yorgancıoğlu istifa etti" (in Turkish). CNN Türk. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
10. "Yorgancıoğlu "Aday Olmayı Düşünmüyorum"" (in Turkish). BRT. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
11. "KKTC'de Kalyoncu başbakanlığındaki yeni koalisyon hükümetine onay" (in Turkish). NTV. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
12. "Turkish Cypriot leader approves new four-party coalition government". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 2 February 2018.

External links

• Official website (in Turkish)