TRNC leader Mehmet Ali Talat to run for Northern Cyprus president

07.03.2010 17:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
(TRNC) Mehmet Ali Talat officially announced he is to run at the
upcoming president elections scheduled for April 18, iKypros reports.

Talat explained that he will run as a non-attached candidate and not
as a nominee of the Republican Party.

The Turkish invasion of Cyprus launched on 20 July 1974. The Turkish
invasion took place in two stages and ended in August 1974, when
Turkish troops occupied 37% of the island’s territory, which was
followed by the establishment of the de facto Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus that only Turkey recognizes.
UK’s Sovereign Base Areas make up about 3 percent of the island. They
were retained by the UK as sovereign territory when the Republic of
Cyprus was established in 1960. On November 11, 2009, an offer was
made to the United Nations to make available just under 50% of the
territory of the UK’s Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) to a unified Cyprus
in the event of a solution of the issue.