Greek Cypriots will go to polling stations on Feb. 4 for run-off polls to elect their new president. Will it be the incumbent Nikos Anastasiades, supported by the Democratic Rally Party (Disi), or Stavros Malas of The Progressive Party of Working People (Akel)?
Turkey looks set to concentrate on the town of Manbij in eastern Syria as the target of an upcoming second phase of “Operation Olive Branch.” The United States, however, has declared that its troops will not abandon the town. Does this mean that Turkish and U.S. troops will engage in a fight?
The first round of the Greek Cypriot presidential election was completed on Jan. 28 with no surprises. Amid a fall in the turnout of 11 percentage points, (down to 72 percent from 83 percent in the 2013 elections), incumbent Nikos Anastasiades only received 35.5 percent of the vote. His challenger Stavros Malas came second with 30.24 percent of the vote.
In Northern Cyprus, a person could answer the question in the headline by saying that “Turkish Cypriot” does not only define their identity but also their political belonging.
Despite the intimate relations between Turkish Cypriots and mainland Turks, and even though ever since the 1974 Turkish intervention a considerable number of people from Anatolia have settled in Northern Cyprus, the answer to the question in the title is a clear “No.”
Turkish officials have explained that the objective of “Operation Olive Branch” is to protect Turkey’s national interests, eradicate terrorist targets in and around the Syrian city of Afrin and to enhance a belt of stability and security along the Turkish-Syrian border.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus held a general election on Jan. 7 and the Turkish Cypriot people defined the size of the political parties. No one has the right to say the people made the wrong choices.
Turkey has been flexing its muscle. It has been building up its military presence on the border with Syria. High volume political rhetoric, as well as back channel diplomacy have been continuing.
Turkey has been considering a cross border operation into the town of Afrin in Syria. Afrin has been under the control of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) that Ankara has been accusing of being the Syrian extension of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group. The United States, Turkey’s “strategic ally,” has been in efforts to establish a PYD-controlled 30,000-strong anti-regime force based in Afrin. Are Turkey and the U.S. government at loggerheads over the PYD’s present and future role in Syria, as well as in this region?
