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Turk Cypriots hold election, key to settlement
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Turk Cypriots hold election, key to settlement
Ayla Jean Yackley and Simon Bahceli
NICOSIA
Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:52am EDT
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NICOSIA (Reuters) - Turkish Cypriots voted in a presidential election Sunday expected to influence the fate of reunification talks on the war-divided island and Turkey's bid to join the EU.
World | Turkey
The election is a showdown between incumbent leftist Mehmet Ali Talat and Prime Minister Dervis Eroglu. Opinion polls put Eroglu, a hardline supporter of Turkish Cypriot independence, in the lead.
The winner will need more than 50 percent of votes cast, or it will go to a runoff next week.
Diplomats worry an Eroglu victory could slow the pace of reunification talks with Greek Cypriots, who represent Cyprus in the European Union and will stop Turkey joining it as long as the island remains divided.
Eroglu says he will continue to negotiate, but his positions are not acceptable to Greek Cypriots.
"If there is a change, the new leader will want to revisit a lot of things and that will slow things down and time is not what people have a lot of," said Hugh Pope, Turkey/Cyprus director for the International Crisis Group.
"The problem is no one will feel the end of the process and it will just stagnate, and we will transition into partition. Turkey's EU process will freeze up."
The United Nations, which has been overseeing peace talks launched in 2008, was to undertake a broad review of progress in the peace talks at the end of April, a diplomatic source said.
INDEPENDENCE CALL
Eroglu supports more independence for each community in any peace settlement, at odds with the basis of talks till now that the island should be a loose federation of two zones with an effective central government.
"I hope the process that follows this election brings an honorable solution that allows Turkish Cypriots to live in peace and security under Turkish guarantees," Eroglu said.
Greek Cypriots reject his independence call, and any suggestion that Turkey should have any major security role in the island after a settlement.
Turkey had cited its rights as a guarantor power of Cypriot independence in 1974 to invade after a brief Greek-inspired coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece.
Turkish guarantees are important for Turkish Cypriots, many of whom withdrew into enclaves in 1963 and 1964 when an administration with Greek Cypriots collapsed in violence.
The conflict not only hampers Turkey's bid to join the EU, but also makes decision making on defense issues between NATO, of which Turkey is a member, and the EU problematic.
Talat has said peace talks with Christofias to re-link the island as a loose federation are promising.
"I wish the best for the island and I wish this to be a boost for the solution of the Cyprus problem," he said after casting his vote.
Attempts to solve the conflict failed in 2004, when Turkish Cypriots accepted a U.N. peace blueprint rejected by Greek Cypriots just before the island joined the EU.
Analysts say a voter swing toward Eroglu is tapping discontent that the EU did not meet a pledge to help ease the Turkish Cypriot side out of isolation, and the result of an economic downturn in the north.
"The EU turned out to be fake," said Nihat Faik, 75, a retired English language teacher. "We live in peace here, let's continue like this for a million years. The guns have been silent since Turkey came ... Without Turkey, we would not exist."
(Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Charles Dick)
World
Turkey
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