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Cyprus welcomes electoral result in Turkey

Xinhua, November 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

The electoral win of Turkey's ruling AK party in Sunday's snap general elections brought sighs of relief among officials of the Cypriot government.

From President Nicos Anastasiades downward, government officials had made no secret of their fears that an inconclusive election and a weak coalition government in Ankara would be a setback for efforts to reach a settlement of the long standing Cyprus problem.

Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis, a Cypriot lawmaker of the ruling DISY party who watched the vote as an observer on behalf of the European Union, said the electoral win of the AK Party could prove a positive development for the process to conclude a Cyprus solution.

Contrary to almost all opinion polls, the AK Party was set to win 49.5 percent of the vote.

This will allow its leader, Ahmet Davutoglu, to form a strong single party government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to proceed with implementing his political planning.

Turkey occupied over one third of Cyprus' territory in 1974, reacting to a coup by officers of the military junta then ruling Greece.

Anastasiades, a Greek Cypriot who represents the internationally recognized government of Cyprus, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci are currently engaged in intensified negotiations for the reunification of Cyprus and power sharing between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

But they are mainly discussing internal issues, such as government sharing, properties and territorial adjustments.

Decisions on the so called international aspects of the problem which are crucial for a Cyprus solution, such as the abrogation of the 1960 international guarantees by Britain, Greece and Turkey and the withdrawal of about 40,000 Turkish troops, have to be made by the government in Ankara.

Anastasiades has said that efforts to conclude a final accord depended to a large extend on the electoral result in Turkey and the subsequent behavior of the Turkish government.

Cypriot government officials and political analysts had expressed concern that a weak coalition government in Turkey with either the main opposition CH Party or the nationalist MH Party would either lead to a direct refusal to negotiate on the Cyprus problem or provide an excuse for inaction. Endit