Turkish Cypriot PM tenders resignation, calls for early elections

The coalition government of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has submitted its resignation to President Ersin Tatar after losing its majority in the parliament.

Speaking to reporters following his meeting with Tatar on Wednesday,  Prime Minister Ersan Saner said: “I submitted my resignation as I observed that the government is no longer sustainable.”

He said the resignation of the government, formed last year, came after the three-party coalition lost its majority in the TRNC Parliament.

“Early elections should be held as soon as possible," Saner added.

Saner is the leader of the National Unity Party (UBP). The tripartite coalition of UBP, the Democratic Party and the Rebirth Party was approved by President Tatar last December.

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup instigated by the junta in Athens led to Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.

The TRNC was founded in 1983. It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece, and the UK.

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year when Greek Cypriots thwarted UN's Kofi Annan plan to end the decades-long dispute.