Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said yesterday that there was pessimism in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on forming a coalition government.
He said he hoped that the parties would refrain from making statements refusing to enter a coalition so that steps regarding the future of the TRNC could be taken.
In an interview to the Anadolu News Agency, Çavuşoğlu gave the green light to the possibility of the TRNC replacing its current parliamentary system with a ‘presidential’ one and urged the parties to form a “strong government” as soon as possible.
Commenting on the country’s struggles with forming stable coalitions, he said “in the last few days a debate on switching to a presidential system has been raging in the TRNC. This is possible.”
While praising the “democratic maturity” of the TRNC, the Turkish Foreign Minister said “even though there are different electoral districts, as you know, there is preferential voting and you can even vote for different parties or candidates at the same time … this is very complicated.”
Speaking later in the day at a foreign affairs commission in the Turkish Parliament, Çavuşoğlu said there was pessimism in the TRNC on the possibility of forming a coalition.
“I hope announcements like ‘we will not go into a coalition’ will be left aside and a government will be formed. We can then act together and decide on the approach we are going to take in the Cyprus negotiations. In this regard 2018 will be a crucial year,” Çavuşoğlu added.
On the parameters of the Cyprus negotiations, the Turkish Foreign Minister said they had no problem with the ones in Switzerland, but came to the conclusion that the Greek Cypriot side would never agree to a solution along those lines.
“According to my observations the Greek Cypriots don’t want a solution based on bi-zonality and political equality.”
Source : BRTK
