The north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel questioned in a statement released on the occasion of World Peace Day whether Akel would still exist if Turkey had not invaded Cyprus in 1974.

“After 1974, the peace operation, which our motherland, Turkey, implemented by exercising its right as a guarantor, brought the island the conditions for peace and democracy. This applies not only to Turkish Cypriots, but also to Greek Cypriots,” he said.

He added that Greek Cypriots, “in the expressions and descriptions they use towards Turkey on the anniversaries of the pace operation … act as if they have forgotten this reality”.

“If the peace operation had not taken place, would those political forces and organisations, especially those supporting Akel and Makrios, still exist today? Turkey, with its peace operation, achieved the longest-lasting peace on the island of Cyprus,” he said.

He then spoke about his own party, the UBP, describing it as “the political party which links the Turkish Cypriot people’s fight to establish this land as its homeland, beginning with small movements and extending to TMT”.

“The UBP is always on guard. Just as, for the sake of national security, our soldiers keep watch everywhere, especially along the borders, within the UBP and within the government, this understanding has been accepted as a principle within our party since its founding,” he said.

He added that the UBP “is a healthy, living organism” and “a party which achieves unity of fate in good times and bad”.

The statement came after the UBP faced a turbulent week last week in light of a large-scale handing out of civil service positions and various permits, including firearms licences, in advance of cutoff point put in place ahead of this October’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election.

The UBP has endorsed its former leader and incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar for re-election, with the opposition charging that the rapid-fire handouts had been carried out with the intention of boosting Tatar’s chances in October.

“The decisions made just before the pre-election cutoff point were made for the election. Everyone knows this, and everyone knows that Tatar was aware of these decisions,” Tatar’s election opponent Tufan Erhurman said last week.

The UBP itself, meanwhile, faced a wave of resignations from its middle management in light of the handouts, while the jostling for positions and reports of a rift between ‘labour minister’ Sadik Gardiyanoglu and his undersecretary Tahir Serhat led Ustel to sack Gardiyanoglu.

Gardiyanoglu was replaced by UBP secretary-general Oguzhan Hasipoglu, who was on Saturday replaced as secretary-general by ‘MP’ Ahmet Savasan.