Turkish Cypriot
Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,00 ...
Lefkoşa District
Lefkoşa District is a district of Northern Cyprus. It is divided into two sub-districts: Lefkoşa Sub-district and Değirmenlik Sub-district.National Unity Party The National Unity Party, National United Party, Party of National Unity or National Unity Front may refer to:
* National United Party of Afghanistan (founded 2003)
* National Unity Party (Albania)
* National United Party (Armenia), defunct
* Natio ...
(UBP) between 1998 and 2010, serving as the leader of the party between 2006 and 2008. He returned to the UBP in 2012 and remained its representative until the end of his tenure as an MP. He served in different ministerial positions, including a five-year tenure as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense between 1998 and 2004.
Early life and education
He was born in 1953 in
Nicosia
Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaor ...
and studied political science in the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
, graduating in 1981. In 1983, he started working in the
Northern Cyprus
Northern Cyprus ( tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs), officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC; tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti, ''KKTC''), is a ''de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the Geography of Cyprus, isl ...
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defense.
Political career
Between 1986 and 1991, he worked in the TRNC Representation in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, after which he was appointed as the undersecretary of the Prime Ministry, where he worked until 1994. He was re-appointed to the same post in 1996, afterwards, he also occupied the post of presidency in
BRT
BRT may refer to:
Transportation
* Block register territory, a method for dispatching trains
* British Rail Telecommunications
* Brookhaven Rail Terminal
* Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, a former transit holding company in New York City
* Bro ...
.
In the 1998 parliamentary election, he was elected as a member of the parliament from Lefkoşa District in the National Unity Party (UBP). From 31 December 1998 to 16 January 2004, he served as the Turkish Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense. He was reelected in
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
,
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
,
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
and
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
. Between 16 December 2006 and 29 November 2008, he was the president of the UBP. On 15 March 2010, he was expelled from the UBP due to his candidacy in the
presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The pre ...
against the party's leader,
Derviş Eroğlu
Derviş Eroğlu (born 7 March 1938) is a Turkish Cypriot politician, who served as the president of Northern Cyprus from 2010Democracy and Trust Party, which he abolished in 2012 to rejoin the UBP. In 2014, he created controversy by calling Özdil Nami, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, "a child". In July 2015, he became the Minister of Transport, in the cabinet under
Ömer Kalyoncu
Ömer Soyer Kalyoncu (born on 16 October 1950) is a Turkish Cypriot politician who was the Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus between 16 July 2015 and April 2016.
Kalyoncu was born in Kyrenia in 1950. He studied chemical engineering in the Middle ...
. He served as the
Minister of Foreign Affairs
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...
in the Özgürgün cabinet formed on 16 April 2016. His tenure as an MP ended in 2018 after he failed to get re-elected in the 2018 election.
Ertuğruloğlu defines himself as a
Turkish nationalist
Turkish nationalism ( tr, Türk milliyetçiliği) is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people, as either a national, ethnic, or linguistic group. The term "ultranationalism" is often used to describe Turkish nationalis ...
, seeing himself as a Turk living in Cyprus and defining Cypriotness as a "geographical identity" secondary to Turkishness. He advocates a two-state solution to the
Cyprus dispute
The Cyprus problem, also known as the Cyprus dispute, Cyprus issue, Cyprus question or Cyprus conflict, is an ongoing dispute between Greek Cypriots in the south and Turkish Cypriots in the north. Initially, with the Modern history of Cyprus#In ...
, with the aim of the recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Controversies
In a controversial decision, Ertuğruloğlu on 20 May 2016 restricted Greek Orthodox communities to only hold a single religious service per year, with the exceptions of the
Apostolos Andreas Monastery
Apostolos Andreas Monastery ( el, Απόστολος Ανδρέας; tr, Apostolos Andreas Manastırı) is a monastery situated just south of Cape Apostolos Andreas, the north-easternmost point of the island of Cyprus, in Rizokarpaso in the Ka ...
Turkish Resistance Organisation
The Turkish Resistance Organisation ( tr, Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı, TMT) was a Turkish Cypriot pro- taksim paramilitary organisation formed by Rauf Denktaş and Turkish military officer Rıza Vuruşkan in 1958 as an organisation to counter the ...
leader Yılmaz Bora.
During the buildup to the Annan Plan for Cyprus referendum in 2004, Ertuğruloğlu was criticised as a "radical nationalist". This was due to his reportedly saying "if need be, I will fight in the mountains and continue my struggle". Ertuğruloğlu has said that his words have been misinterpreted and he never made such a statement, but, being not bothered by people's perception that he made such a statement, he "wished that he said that" and that he had said "we need to resist the Annan plan, even risking death if there is the need".
Personal life
He is married with two children.
See also
*
List of foreign ministers in 2017
This is a list of foreign ministers in 2017. Africa
*
*# Ramtane Lamamra (2013–2017)
*# Abdelkader Messahel (2017–2019)
* -
*#Georges Rebelo Chicoti (2010–2017)
*#Manuel Domingos Augusto (2017–2020)
* - Aurélien Agbénonci (2016–pre ...
*
List of current foreign ministers
This is a list of current foreign ministers of the 193 United Nations member states as well as the Holy See (Vatican City) and the State of Palestine.
Foreign ministers of sovereign countries with limited recognition, some alternative governmen ...