TRNC ‘parliament speaker’ Ziya Ozturkler resigns

The TRNC ‘parliament speaker’ Ziya Ozturkler, a member of the TRNC’s ruling coalition whose emergence as speaker was disputed by the opposition for a month on Monday announced that he had resigned from the post.

Ziya Ozturkler announced his resignation in a post on social media, writing that he had left the role to “pave the way for budget discussions” to take place in ‘parliament’, after they were delayed by a week as arguments over his legitimacy blocked any business from taking place in the chamber.

“I hope that this decision I have made will be understood by [his party the UBP leader and ‘prime minister’], the UBP’s administration, those who voted for me when I was elected as parliament speaker, and the people,” he added.

With Ozturkler now out of the way, it is now likely that ‘deputy speaker’ and opposition party CTP ‘MP’ Fazilet Ozdenefe will preside over proceedings to allow the finance committee to begin deliberations over the coming year’s ‘state’ budget.

At some point thereafter, the ruling coalition will have to nominate a ‘speaker’, with former ‘prime minister’ Faiz Sucuoglu and former ‘transport minister’ and daughter of former Turkish Cypriot leader Dervish Eroglu, Resmiye Canaltay expected to be among the frontrunners.

The resignation comes exactly a month after the TRNC’s ruling coalition had announced that he had been elected, following a total of 15 votes among ‘MPs’ across the space of 11 days.

The ruling coalition had claimed that in the 15th and final round of voting, Ozturkler had received 26 votes in his favour and 23 against among his ‘parliamentary’ colleagues, but the opposition insisted that given that three of the ballot papers counted by the ruling coalition as votes in Ozturkler’s favour had more than one mark on them, they were invalid.

Ozturkler is the second person to unsuccessfully claim he had been elected ‘parliament speaker’ since voting started on October 7, with Zorlu Tore, who had been ‘speaker’ since 2022, claiming he had been re-elected to the role after receiving 23 votes in his favour and 25 votes to reject him.

Tore had claimed that as he was the only candidate, 23 votes were enough to see him re-elected, but the ‘attorney-general’s’ office was of the opinion that as he had not received more approvals than rejections, he had in fact not been elected.

Ozturkler had initially promised that should he fail to be elected within two rounds of voting, he would withdraw his candidacy. However, in the end, he went a full five rounds, before the ruling coalition declared him the winner during the final of those rounds.

After the votes took place, the ruling coalition then staged a handover ceremony and published Ozturkler’s appointment as ‘speaker’ in the north’s ‘government’ gazette, prompting the fury of the opposition.

Ozturkler then attempted to open ‘parliament’ in his capacity as ‘speaker’, but opposition ‘MPs’ refused to attend.

Ozdenefe then opened ‘parliament’ in her capacity, with the ‘government’ then cutting the live television feed which broadcasts ‘parliament’s’ goings on at all times.

When both the ruling coalition and the opposition returned to ‘parliament’ together on November 5, business centred on whether Ozturkler had been elected or not, with Ozdenefe declaring she had opened the eighth session since the legislative year began on October 1, and the ruling coalition insisting that Ozturkler’s attempt to open ‘parliament’ the week before constituted a legal session.

This argument became physical the following week, with Ozturkler having arrived in the chamber early in the morning to attempt to secure the seat and opposition ‘MPs’ physically attempting to prevent him from taking it.