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Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP suffered a blow in Sunday's local election with the ruling party set to lose the capital Ankara and risking defeat in the country's economic hub Istanbul.

Losing Turkey's two major cities would be a clear setback for Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) who won every vote in a decade and a half in power thanks in part to economic growth.

Erdogan portrayed the vote for mayors and district councils as a fight for Turkey's survival, but the election was a test for the AKP as an economic slowdown took hold after a collapse of the lira currency.

With 99 percent of the ballot boxes counted, the joint opposition candidate for Ankara mayor, Mansur Yavas was winning with 50.89 percent of votes and the AKP on 47.06 percent, Anadolu state agency reported citing preliminary results.

In Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, the race for mayor was deadlocked with the AKP candidate claiming victory with 48.70 percent of votes, but his opponent on 48.65 percent also saying he had won, after almost all ballot boxes were counted there.

The last results published by Anadolu gave the AKP a lead of just 4,000 votes and the ruling party said it planned to challenge tens of thousands of ballots it considered invalid in both of the major cities.

Speaking to thousands of supporters in Ankara, Erdogan portrayed the election as a victory for AKP, which along with coalition partner, the rightwing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), won more than 50 percent of the votes nationwide. But he did not refer directly to the loss of Ankara.

"If there are any shortcomings, it is our duty to correct them," Erdogan told supporters. "Starting tomorrow morning, we will begin our work to identify our shortcomings and make up for them."

He suggested if his party lost in Istanbul, they would still control district councils even if the opposition held the mayor's office.

Sunday's poll was the first municipal ballot since Turks approved constitutional reforms in 2017 to create an executive presidency that gave Erdogan wider powers after 16 years in office.

But Erdogan, whose ability to win continuously at the polls is unparalleled in Turkish history thanks to support among more pious, conservative Turks, was more vulnerable with the economy in recession, unemployment higher and inflation in double digits.

- Ankara fireworks -

For his supporters, Erdogan remains the strong leader they believe Turkey needs and they tout the country's economic development over the years he and the AKP have been in power.

But rights activists and even Turkey's Western allies say that under Erdogan's leadership, democracy has been eroded, particularly after a failed 2016 coup that led to tens of thousands of people being arrested.

Much of the AKP's success has been down to Erdogan's perceived economic prowess, but days before the vote, the Turkish lira was sliding again, provoking memories of the 2018 currency crisis that badly hurt Turkish households.

In Ankara, Yavas -- the candidate for both the opposition Republican People's Party or CHP and the nationalist Good Party -- claimed victory in a large rally full of supporters waving red Turkish flags and setting off fireworks.

"No one has lost. Ankara has won. All of Ankara has won, hand in hand," he told supporters.

Yavas had been slightly ahead in some recent opinion polls before the election.

"Erdogan is known with his success in the local elections and his model of government is highly based on his local experience," Emre Erdogan, a professor at Istanbul Bilgi University and no relation to the president.

"These losses will harm his reputation as a good local politician."

- Istanbul dead heat -

In Istanbul, a city where Erdogan had sometimes described victory as like winning Turkey itself, the race had been very tight. Erdogan fielded one of his loyalists, former prime minister Binali Yildirim, in a push to win the city.

Erdogan, who began his own political career as Istanbul mayor, personally campaigned hard across Turkey, often with several rallies a day, even though he was not on the ballot. He was often rallying in Istanbul's districts.

"We have won the election in Istanbul. We thank Istanbul's residents for the mandate they have given us," Yildirim told supporters as final tallies were arriving.

But his opponent Ekrem Imamoglu dismissed Yildirim's claim as an attempt to manipulate opinion.

"I would like to announce to Istanbul's residents and all of Turkey that our numbers show that it is clear we won Istanbul," Imamoglu said in a speech in the early hours of Monday.

Looking to galvanise his base among conservative Turks, the president cast the election as a matter of survival, attacking opposition candidates by branding them as linked to PKK Kurdish militants.

Observers say that with most media pro-government, opposition parties campaigned at a disadvantage because Erdogan's daily rallies dominated TV coverage.

The opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has refused to field candidates in several cities, saying the elections are unfair. Some of its leaders have been jailed on terror charges, accusations they reject.

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Erdogan's ruling AKP suffers setback in Turkey's local election

ISTANBUL President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confronted the prospect of a stunning political defeat on Monday, as local voting in Turkey showed his party had lost the capital, Ankara, and possibly Istanbul, its largest city and his key base of support for many years.

The results of the municipal balloting on Sunday from around the country was a telling barometer of Mr. Erdogans weakened standing with voters, as Turkeys economy has fallen into a recession and he has assumed sweeping new executive powers.

Mr. Erdogan was not conceding defeat on the results in Istanbul, which were still unofficial. But the head of the High Election Council said the opposition mayoral candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, was leading the Istanbul race by 27,806 votes, with only 24,000 remaining ballots to be counted.

The mathematics of the issue is over, Mr. Imamoglu told a news conference, asserting there was no way that the candidate of Mr. Erdogans Justice and Development Party, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, could catch up.

If the Istanbul results are confirmed, the Justice and Development Party is likely to appeal to the High Election Council.

Mr. Erdogan claimed victory over all in the elections, pointing to results that showed his party 15 points ahead of the opposition Republican Peoples Party in districts nationwide.

But for the first time in his political career, Mr. Erdogan was tasting defeat not only in mayoral races in the center of Turkish political power, Ankara, but his hometown, Istanbul, the countrys business center.

Please do not be heartbroken with this result, he told supporters in an address Sunday evening. We will see how they are going to administer.

Rusen Cakir, a veteran commentator, said on Twitter that the turnaround was as historic as Mr. Erdogans arrival on the political stage, when, as an Islamist and former political prisoner, he first won the mayorship of Istanbul.

The election today is as historic as the local election in 1994, Mr. Cakir said. Its the announcement of a page that was opened 25 years ago and is now being closed.

If Mr. Erdogans candidate loses the Istanbul race, it would be a severe blow to his party, which after 17 years in power has been showing a decline in popularity.

While losing Istanbul would be a nuclear defeat for Erdogan, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, losing Ankara, which is shorthand for political power and government, is a pretty significant loss.

In a sign of how seriously he regarded these elections, Mr. Erdogan held up to eight campaign rallies a day across the country, taking center stage in the municipalities as he portrayed the vote as a matter of national survival and a chance to cement his administration in perpetuity.

The declining economy was at the forefront of voters concerns. After years of impressive growth, Turkey entered a recession in March. Unemployment is over 10 percent, and up to 30 percent among young people. The Turkish lira lost 28 percent of its value in 2018 and continues to fall, and inflation has reached 20 percent in recent months.

Investment analysts reported that Turkey was depleting its international reserves to bolster the lira in the run-up to the election. Finance Minister Berat Albayrak promised to announce a package of new financial measures after the election, but investment confidence remains weak.

The campaign showed Erdogans desperation to win, said Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He is vulnerable because of his declining votes.

While Mr. Erdogan remains by far the most popular politician in the country, his party failed to secure a majority in parliamentary elections in June and was forced into an alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party. A referendum in 2017 that gave him sweeping new authority over the legislature and the judiciary was approved by just a narrow majority of Turks.

Even pro-government newspaper columnists warned that corruption and cronyism in the municipalities were turning voters away from the ruling party. Opinion polls showed that a larger percentage of voters than usual remained undecided right up to the election, which officials of his party took as a sign of unhappiness among the electorate.

Opposition candidates offered change and promised to create jobs, improve education and bolster social services. And some were blistering in their criticism of Mr. Erdogan.

A former deputy prime minister to Mr. Erdogan, Abdullatif Sener, said that while the economy was tanking, Mr. Erdogan was building not only a second but also a third presidential palace, and spending millions to fly around on his presidential plane.

Municipal elections usually draw little notice outside Turkey. But the local votes for mayors, municipal councils and neighborhood administrators was seen as critical to Mr. Erdogans grip on power.

The municipalities represent the core of his working-class, conservative power base and a source of income for his party, said Aykan Erdemir, a former member of Parliament and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a research institute in Washington.

Mr. Erdogan began his career as the mayor of Istanbul, and built his popularity on providing local services like garbage collection and mass transport.

The president intervened personally in the race for mayor of Istanbul, pushing his longtime ally Mr. Yildirim to run when the race promised to be close. He picked another former minister to run for mayor of Ankara, the capital.

Mr. Erdogan also adopted a more negative tone on the campaign trail than in previous elections. He threatened lawsuits, accused the opposition of criminality or terrorism, and whipped up nationalist anger at rallies. Conjuring up a clash of civilizations, he even played edited segments of a video of the mass shooting at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

On the economy, Mr. Erdogan told supporters that the municipalities had nothing to do with the downturn, and that he as president would handle economic matters. In the weeks before the vote, the government set up municipal stalls to sell cheap vegetables to combat rising prices.

Most political analysts had predicted that however dissatisfied they were, supporters of his party, known as AKP, were unlikely to make the leap to vote for the opposition alliance. But some voters in the AKP-held district of Uskudar in Istanbul said they were switching.

We had enough, a middle-aged voter, Mustafa Topal, said after voting. We had enough of this robbery. The system of ransacking led to my change.

Younger people across the political spectrum have also voiced dissatisfaction, chafing at the lack of media freedom and the dearth of job prospects, said Ms. Aydintasbas, the European Council fellow.

I think this is a growing trend that you cannot suppress, she said. There is a second generation of young urban kids who are not behaving like the AKP. They have yearnings not unlike those of the kids on the other side of the tracks.

They feel it is odd, she added, to have Erdogans picture all over town like a Central Asian republic, and every time you turn on the TV he is on.

Excerpt from:
Erdogan, Turkeys Leader, Staring at Major Electoral Defeat ...

ANKARA (Reuters) - After a decade and a half of dominance built on Turkeys buoyant growth Tayyip Erdogan has paid a heavy electoral price for an economic slump and will make changes to his government to halt the damage, senior officials in his party said on Monday.

Skyscrapers are seen in the business and financial district of Levent, which comprises of leading banks' and companies' headquarters, in Istanbul, Turkey, March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Erdogan saw his Islamist-rooted AK Party lose the capital Ankara in Sundays local elections and appeared set for defeat in Turkeys largest city Istanbul - stunning reversals in two bastions of the party since he took power in 2003.

The setbacks came despite a relentless two-month campaign by the president who addressed up to eight rallies a day, condemned his opponents as terrorists and warned that the vote was a matter of survival for Turkey.

The secularist Republican Peoples Party (CHP) overcame overwhelming media support for the AKP and an environment which European observers said fell short of requirements for genuine democratic elections. The AKP said it would appeal against the results in both cities.

Turkey has experienced years of rapid economic growth under Erdogan, underpinned by a construction boom and cheap loans, that have driven living standards ever higher and ensured the AKP won votes well beyond its core constituency of pious and conservative Turks.

But the recent economic troubles took a toll on party support, two AK Party sources said, after the lira slumped against the dollar last year, inflation jumped to 20 percent, unemployment climbed and the economy tipped into recession.

We saw the impact of the economy in the field, because there was serious unease, one of the sources said, adding that Istanbul accounted for 40 percent of Turkeys economy, meaning that any slowdown would hit the city hard.

In total, three party sources told Reuters Erdogan was likely to implement cabinet changes in response to the setback, but gave no details. There will certainly be changes in some places, one source said.

After Erdogan won elections last June which ushered in a powerful new executive presidency, he also appointed his son-in-law Berat Albayrak as Finance and Treasury Minister. The sources declined to say whether Albayraks position might be affected.

If (Erdogan) cannot create a solution, its inevitable that there will be greater losses in the period ahead, another party source said.

Erdogan appeared to recognize the scale of the challenge ahead, pledging on Sunday night to use the four years until Turkeys next national elections to carry out economic reform based on free market rules. We now have a four-and-a-half-year uninterrupted period to work, he said.

However, economists say the president has made similar reform pledges after all recent elections, before focusing instead on short-term fixes.

This time, his economic choices are narrowed by the conflicting priorities of supporting a fragile currency and restarting a stalled economy. Turkeys benchmark interest rate of 24 percent barely keeps the currency stable and at the same time puts a prohibitive cost on borrowing for Turkish firms.

Ulrich Leuchtmann of Commerzbank said authorities still have some room to increase government spending without driving the lira down further, but signals about Turkeys monetary policy were less encouraging.

Central Bank backdoor tightening over the last week to prevent a repeat of last years lira crisis, when the currency fell 30 percent, did not really increase confidence in their policy making, Leuchtmann said.

During his long tenure - first as prime minister, then as president - Erdogan has drawn strong support from ordinary Turks grateful for the stability and growth he brought, from liberals who backed his efforts to curb Turkeys military, and from Kurdish groups who entered into peace talks with Ankara.

But his main remaining ally now is the strongly nationalist MHP. Many former partners might think twice before resuming an alliance after Erdogans campaign condemnation of opponents he said were linked to terrorists.

In terms of political allies he has boxed himself into a Turkish ultra-nationalist corner, said Turkey analyst Gareth Jenkins.

A crackdown following a 2016 failed military coup has seen more than 77,000 people jailed pending trial, and widespread arrests are still routine. Authorities have suspended or sacked 150,000 civil servants and military personnel.

Erdogans critics accuse him of using the failed putsch as a pretext to quash dissent. Turkish authorities say the measures are necessary to combat threats to national security, threats which Erdogan repeatedly highlighted on the campaign trail.

After campaigning almost yearly for national elections, referendums and local votes, Erdogans horizons have reduced to relatively short-term goals, Jenkins said, casting doubt on his stated plan to avoid bringing forward elections slated for 2023.

Defeat in both Ankara and Istanbul, if confirmed, would also mark a watershed in Erdogans popular appeal - even though his AKP/MHP alliance still succeeded in securing over 51 percent of the vote nationally, leading him to declare an overall victory.

He can apply some brakes, he can slow the decline, Jenkins said. But I think we are seeing another milestone in that decline. I dont see him ever being able to increase his popularity again.

Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Dominic Evans and Gareth Jones

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Erdogan pays electoral price for Turkey's tumbling economy ...

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Tayyip Erdogans ruling AK Party was on track on Monday to lose control of Turkeys two biggest cities, Istanbul and Ankara, in a stunning local election setback that could complicate the presidents plans to combat recession.

While official vote tallies and Turkish broadcasters put the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) candidates ahead in both cities, the Islamist-rooted AKP promised appeals that could delay the final results for days.

Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics since sweeping to power 16 years ago and has ruled with an ever tighter grip, campaigned relentlessly for two months ahead of Sundays vote, which he described as a matter of survival for Turkey.

But his daily rallies and overwhelmingly supportive media coverage failed to win over many urban voters, as last years punishing currency crisis weighed heavily on Turks.

The people have voted in favour of democracy, they have chosen democracy, said opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, whose secularist CHP also held its Aegean coastal stronghold of Izmir, Turkeys third largest city.

The AKP and its Islamist predecessor have controlled Istanbul and the capital Ankara for 25 years. The results, which were still being tallied on Monday evening, would likely bring personnel changes at the highest ranks of government, according to sources inside and close to the AKP.

In Istanbul, the countrys largest city and economic hub, the CHP mayoral candidate was more than 22,000 votes ahead of his AKP opponent as the last votes were being counted, according to the countrys electoral board.

Yet the AKP also claimed victory, saying it had plenty of evidence of voting irregularities.

In Ankara, Turkish broadcasters said the CHP candidate had won a clear victory. But the AKP said it would appeal and expected to shift the outcome in its favour.

Erdogans ruling alliance, including the nationalist MHP, captured 51.7 percent of the nationwide vote, according to state-owned Anadolu news agency. Turnout was a very high 84.5 percent.

But the loss of Istanbul - if confirmed - would be especially significant as Erdogan served as as the citys mayor in the 1990s.

The Turkish lira, which swung wildly tmsnrt.rs/2CEaO11 in the week ahead of the elections, echoing last year's currency crisis, initially weakened on Monday as much as 2.5 percent before recovering.

An AKP official and a source close to the party each predicted a cabinet shuffle or other changes among those around Erdogan.

There will certainly be changes in some places, such as Erdogans close circle in the party and the cabinet, said the official, who requested anonymity. Markets expect that there will be a change in the cabinet. This makes a change necessary.

Erdogan, Turkeys most prominent leader since the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, has built support based on strong economic growth and backing from a core constituency of pious, conservative Muslim Turks.

He has been the countrys most popular - although divisive - modern politician, tightening his grip in elections last year that ushered in a powerful executive presidency that alarmed Western allies who fear growing authoritarianism in Turkey.

But a currency crisis beginning in August sliced the liras value by 30 percent and tipped the economy into recession. With inflation close to 20 percent and unemployment rising, some voters were ready to punish the president.

Erdogan pledged late on Sunday he would now focus on Turkeys troubled economy ahead of national elections in 2023.

We have a long period ahead where we will carry out economic reforms without compromising from the rules of the free market economy, he said.

But investors are sceptical that AKPs long-promised reforms can transform a slumping economy hooked on foreign debt, and also worry about fraying diplomatic ties with the United States that could bring more sanctions. Last week authorities used a series of stop-gap measures to cushion the selloff of Turkish assets.

Investors fear Erdogans electoral losses will lead him to be more defensive, trying to shore up electoral support via populist measures, which increases risks for markets, said Inan Demir, senior emerging market economist at Nomura, in London.

The head of the High Election Board told reporters there was a three-day period for the election results to be challenged.

The CHPs mayoral candidate in Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, was leading his AKP rival, former prime minister Binali Yildirim, by 22,479 votes, according to state agency Anadolu.

CHP candidate Mansur Yavas won the mayoral race in Ankara, preliminary results showed.

In mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, residents celebrated as the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) won back municipalities that authorities had taken control of two years ago, accusing the HDP of terrorist links. The HDP denies links to the outlawed militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

They robbed us of our will and we overturned this, said Abdullah Elmas, a resident of Diyarbakir, the regions biggest city.

A European group observing Turkeys local elections criticised curbs on the free expression of citizens and journalists, saying on Monday it was unsure whether the Turkey electoral environment was free and fair.

Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Ece Toksabay, Tulay Karadeniz and Nevzat Devranoglu in Ankara, and Daren Butler, Ali Kucukgocmen, Behiye Selin Taner, Ceyda Caglayan, Ebru Tuncay and Ezgi Erkoyun in Istanbul, and Karin Strohecker in London; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Gareth Jones

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Erdogan loses hold over Turkish capital, Istanbul disputed ...

The fifth South EU Summit, hosted on January 29th in the divided capital of Nicosia, Cyprus, resulted in the seven government leaders of France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Malta releasing a statement that largely backed Cyprus to the ire of Turkey. Despite reaffirming the importance of the EU relations with Turkey, the SEUS called on Ankara to normalise its relations with the Republic of Cyprus, whose legal status has been the cause of an international dispute since 1974. In a clash with the European Union, Turkey does not recognise the Greek-Cypriot administration led by President Nicos Anastasiades as the legal representative of the whole of Cyprus.

In response to the South EU Summit, Turkey released a brief statement, rejecting the SEUS recommendations and reiterating its stance on Cyprus. Turkey remains committed to taking the necessary steps to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriots, the declaration said.

Greece and Turkey have overcome heavy collisions over the past forty years. Yet, days after the tense words following the South EU Summit, Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, and Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, met in Ankara for approximately two hours to discuss moving forward on the resolution of the Cyprus issue, as well as other concerns, including terrorism, security in the Aegean, and a group of Turkish soldiers that fled to Greece following the 2016 failed coup attempt in Turkey.

Both leaders agreed to keep open channels of dialogue.

Before both sides sit down for a new negotiation period, we must establish a joint road map, Erdogan commented. Tsipras noted that the countries must agree to a series of preliminary meetings to discuss solutions for Cyprus, in particular. We discussed the need for a just and viable solution to the Cyprus problem in the framework of UN resolutions. A solution that will be a benefit to all of the Cypriot people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and creates a reunited, federal Cyprus, a regular country in the area and the EU, he said.

Previously, the two leaders met in July,2018 when Erdogan visited Greece, soon after his re-election. Tsipras is set to face elections in Greece in late 2019, and this trip is expected to bolster his image back home. Both nations could also benefit from improved economic ties: Greece has been struggling to get out from under austerity, and Turkey has suffered double-digit inflation along with a currency collapse.

The meeting did not result in any new agreement, and its prime result was only an increase in goodwill. However, it would be a mistake to underestimate goodwill in a region rife with political instability. The readiness of the two leaders to engage in dialogue is a positive development likely to relieve tensions in the region. No issue has been resolved but at least we have a dialogue, said Dimitrios Triantaphyllou, director of the Centre for International and European Studies, at Istanbuls Kadir Has University.

We believe every problem could be resolved through dialogue, Erdogan said at a news conference. Tsipras also said more concrete steps could follow in the future. During their meeting, the heads of state cleared the air on a number of ongoing issues.

Erdogan stressed that he wanted more cooperation from Greece regarding the repatriation of soldiers linked to the failed 2016 coup. Before Tsipras arrival, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the Turkish Interior Ministry had added 74 officers to the list of people wanted for alleged roles in the failed coup including the 8 soldiers who escaped to Greece in a military helicopter (they have since denied involvement). Turkey is offering 4 million Turkish lira for their capture.

Our expectation from Greece is that it doesnt become a safe haven where FET, PKK, DHKP-C terrorists take refuge, Erdogan said during a joint news conference with Tsipras in Ankara.

Giorgos Koumoustakos, a Greek opposition lawmaker with the New Democracy party, who is responsible for foreign affairs, accused Turkey of a new provocative move to undermine Tsipras visit, by offering a bounty on those Greece had granted asylum to.

Of course, coup-plotters are not welcome in Greece, Tsipras responded, though he also stressed that he had to respect the decision of the Greek courts that ruled against extraditing the Turkish servicemen.

The European refugee crisis is a political flashpoint for many European states, especially in the Mediterranean. Greece has accused Turkey of failing to restrict the number of refugees who cross into Europe, despite Turkeys 2016 deal with the EU to stem the tide. In return, Erdogan used a news conference with Tsipras to accuse the EU of not meeting its obligations, referring to the acceptance of 72,000 Syrian refugees that had departed from Turkey.

We did and will fulfil obligations, including the readmission agreement. However, we see that the EU cant apply the agreement properly, said Erdogan.

In response, an EU official said the refugee agreement continues to deliver thanks to the close cooperation between the EU, its Member States and Turkey. EU Members have taken over nearly 20,000 Syrian refugees from Turkey, said the unidentified official.

Both Greece and Turkey do agree, however, that the overcrowding number of refugees in the Aegean remains a pressing issue that needs better cooperation to achieve stronger results, ideally with additional EU aid.

Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey continue to be at loggerheads concerning gas exploration in Cypriot waters. Turkey insists that exploring gas reserves off the Cypriot coast violates the rights of Turkey and Turkish Cypriots. That is because the gas reserves are in areas contested not only by Turkey, but also Israel and Lebanon. Most of the Eastern Mediterranean states have thus far depended on gas imports to meet their energy needs, but new offshore gas deposits offer the tempting lure of self-sustainability, and even the potential to export gas supplies to the European market.

The joint declaration by the South EU Summit states expressed solidarity with the Republic of Cyprus. We express our full support and solidarity with the Republic of Cyprus in exercising its sovereign rights to explore, exploit and develop its natural resources within its EEZ, in accordance with EU and international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the declaration said.

While the EU supports Cyprus right to explore hydrocarbon reserves offshore, Turkey sees the exploratory activities as another violation of both the inalienable rights of Turkish Cypriots and its good intentions, demanding a stop to Greek Cypriot exploration efforts until the Cyprus issue has been resolved. Indeed, Turkey was planning to begin drilling around Cyprus to search for hydrocarbon reserves a move that is likely to upset Greece in return.

It should not be forgotten that the main reason for the failure of the Cyprus Conference in 2017, was the Greek Cypriot sides intransigent mentality, considering themselves as the sole owner of the island and the Turkish Cypriots as a minority, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, adding that the fact that in the joint declaration there is no mention of the legitimate rights of the Turkish Cypriots on the natural resources of the island, proves the persistence of this distorted mentality.

Soon after the meeting, Tsipras visited the Halki seminary on an island off of Istanbul, an Orthodox seminary that has remained closed since 1971, despite international calls for Turkey to allow its reopening. Tsipras is the first serving Greek Prime Minister to visit the seminary in the last 90 years.

First opened in 1844, the seminary was closed down when Turkeys constitutional court ruled that private colleges operating in military or religious education must be affiliated with a state-run university. As the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Istanbul refused to accept subordination to the state, the seminary has remained closed ever since.

The closure of the school is indirectly linked to the rights of the Turkish minority community in northern Greece, as well as the construction of a mosque in Athens. Erdogan said that Turkey was prepared to reopen the seminary if Greece took steps to improve the rights of this Muslim group. Currently, under the terms of the Lausanne Peace Treaty, Greek Orthodox in Istanbul are allowed to elect their own religious leaders (presently, it is Patriarch Bartholomew I). However, the ethnic Turks in western Thrace are not allowed the same liberties, as the Greek state appoints a mufti for them. In 1990, the elected mufti of Xanthi, Mehmet Emin Aga, was arrested on the grounds of usurping the title of the state-appointed mufti.

In the wake of the good will established by this meeting, Cyprus President, Nicos Anastasiades, is also set to make his own informal overtures to both Turkey and Northern Cyprus when he meets with Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci, on February 26th.

The goal is to resume negotiations from the point they were left off. And of course, the six parameters submitted by the Secretary-General should serve as a guide, he said.

To that end, Anastasiades will propose drafting a document detailing both sides agreements and disagreements relating to the Cyprus issue, as a basis for the meeting. The Cyprus News Agency cited unnamed sources, who said there was a need to record the convergences, draft a document, and sit down to discuss in a methodical manner.

The Turkish side is also expected to submit their positions in writing regarding the six parameters of the Guterres framework though they refuse to negotiate on the issue of political equality. Both sides are expected to bring concrete proposals to the table, particularly regarding Anastasiades ideas regarding decentralisation as part of a future peace settlement.

UN envoy, Jane Holl Lute, is facilitating the leaders drawing up terms of reference for new talks, and has left Cyprus to discuss the issue with the guarantor powers Greece, Turkey, and the UK.

It may be the dawn of a final peace settlement for Cyprus.

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Tsipras and Erdogan Set the Stage for the Resumption of ...