Kudret Ozersay and Ersin Tatar form a new ‘coalition government in North Cyprus

The leaders of the People’s Party (HP) Kudret Ozersay and National Unity Party (UBP) Ersin Tatar on Wednesday submitted to Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci the list of names for a ‘cabinet’ after agreeing to form a new ‘government’ following the collapse of the previous one some two weeks ago.

The distribution of seats in the new government will be seven to three (7-3) with the UBP holding the majority of the cabinet.Tatar told reporters at the signing ceremony that they had decided to establish a serious, determined and stable coalition government with the HP.

Tatar will be the new ‘prime minister’ while Ozersay will remain ‘deputy prime minister’ and ‘foreign minister’, the same posts he had held in the previous coalition. In that grouping, Ozersay’s HP had shared power with the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), the Communal Democracy Party (TDP) and the Democratic Party (DP).

After signing the new protocol in ‘parliament’ Tatar and Ozersay headed to Akinci’s office to submit the list with the names of their administration.

The protocol said that the two parties share a common approach as regards the Cyprus problem and are open to alternative solution models.

Negotiations that have been ongoing for half a century have shown that federal cooperative models have been exhausted under the present circumstances. That’s why different models will have to be put on the table that will be realistic and can be implemented in Cyprus, the protocol said according to TC media reports.

The new administration consists of;
-Aysegul Baybars Kadri (HP) who is will serve as ‘interior minister’, 
-Olgun Amcaoglu (UBP) as ‘finance minister’, 
-Ali Pilli (UBP) as ‘health minister’, 
-Faiz Sucuoglu (UBP) as ‘labour minister’,  
-Nazım Çavuşoglu (UBP) as ‘education minister’, 
-Dursun Oguz (UBP) as ‘agriculture minister’, 
-Hasan Tacoy (UBP) as ‘economy and energy minister’, 
-Tolga Atakan (HP) as ‘public works and transport minister’ and
-Unal Ustel (UBP) as ‘tourism minister’.

The previous four-party coalition collapsed earlier in the month after then ‘Prime Minister’ Tufan Erhurman handed in his resignation to Akinci following a rift between the partners over the lease of ‘state’ land to the son of Serdar Denktash.

Erhurman’s resignation followed those of two of his coalition partners, Ozersay and Denktash, the head of the Democratic Party, who was ‘finance minister’.

Source: Cyprus Mail