The period from July 2013 to the elections of January 2018 was marked by episodes in Turkish Cypriot politics, indicative of change of paradigm, with the election of Mustafa Akinci, an independent candidate defeating in April 2015 incumbent President Derviş Eroğlu being the most prominent. Akinci secured 60% of the vote in the second round, a landslide victory. The poor performance of the Republican Turkish Party’s candidate triggered internal frictions, with Mehmet Ali Talat, who lost the election to Eroğlu in 2010, challenging the leader of CTP and head of the government Özkan Yorgancıoğlu for the party’s leadership. Talat’s win forced Yorgancıoğlu to resign and new coalitions were formed and alternated in government until 2018…
TO BE continued…