The Turkish Cypriot Legislative Election of February 2005: The Rise of CTP/BG

Seeking to Transform the Perceptions of Intercommunal Relations: The Turkish-Cypriot Case (2004–2009)

“…58 The existence of different and often conflicting sociopolitical behavior separating native Turkish-Cypriots from immigrants/settlers fuelled the willingness of political figures to mobilize this group through establishing separate political parties that promised better protection of their group interests. 59 In addition, there have been political reactions of various segments of the Turkish-Cypriot community both to the citizenship policy of the TRNC and to the continual flow of immigrants from Turkey to the northern part of Cyprus. Public opinion polls showed that a huge majority of people (92%) was critical of the current citizenship law of the TRNC, which allows Turkish citizens from Turkey to gain TRNC citizenship after they complete at least a five-year residence in northern Cyprus.…”

The Turkish Cypriot Legislative Election of April 2009: Towards the ‘Last Roll of the Dice’ in the Cyprus Conflict?

“…In the elections of 2003 and 2005, many voters who had not previously supported the party voted for CTP/BG for its promises to 'connect Turkish Cypriots with the world'. It was widely hoped that CTP/BG would resolve the Cyprus problem, lift the isolation of northern Cyprus and the embargoes against it, and connect the Turkish Cypriots to the rest of the world, starting with entry to the European Union (see Ç arkoglu and Sözen 2004;Sözen 2005). In contrast, in 2009 there was a perception that CTP/BG had miserably failed to fulfil its promises, thus causing the 'borrowed' votes to return where they usually belonged-to the centre-right UBP.…”

Getting Real on Fluctuating National Identities: Insights from Northern Cyprus

“…The slogan of the political opposition during the UN Plan negotiations and its election campaign was “ Yes, be annem ” (Yes, my mum), which called for the electorate to say “yes” first to them and then to the UN's reunification plan, therefore, an automatic “yes” also to EU membership (Sözen 2005:476). Yes, be annem resonated well with the self‐determination and the world connectedness aspirations of, especially, middle‐class Turkish‐Cypriots.…”