The split suffered by the National Unity Party – UBP in mid-1992 and the foundation of the Democratic Party – DP, a by-product of a rift between the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community Rauf Denktaş and the head of the government Derviş Eroğlu, produced a new situation in the political life of the community: The conservative front emerged split in two equal parts after the 12 December 1993 election, with each party securing around 29% of the vote. Most importantly, UBP found itself in the opposition camp for the first time and a coalition of the Democratic Party – DP and the oldest party, the Republican Turkish Party – CTP, assumed power. This was the first time the CTP, a traditional left-wing party, ascended to power.
The new role caused stress in the party’s political agenda and orientations and led to an attempt to shift to social democracy, manifested, among other, with its logo’s colour being changed from red to green. It was evident that the coalition partners held different positions both on the Cyprus Problem and on other important issues, such as the accession of Cyprus and Turkey to the European Union. Differences on ideological and other issues, day to day policies while in power existed also at the leadership level and resulted in a change in early 1996, with Mehmet Ali Talat replacing Özker Özgür, who had led CTP for 20 years.
TO BE continued…