The north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli on Tuesday promised to “stand by” newly elected Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, marking a significant departure from his pre-election rhetoric.

He told the north’s ‘parliament’ of how “the unnecessary debates and polemics must end”, and said he has “confidence that Erhurman will work in harmony with Turkey”, before pointing out that Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz attended Erhurman’s swearing-in ceremony last Friday.

“Turkey has given Erhurman a great credit. Let us not argue any more,” he said.

His words are a change of gear from the language he had employed prior to October 19’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election.

Four days before polling day, he promised to stand in Erhurman’s way if he attempted to negotiate a federal solution to the Cyprus problem.

He promised that in the aftermath of an Erhurman victory, “he will have problems with the TRNC government”, and that “he will not have the authority to negotiate a federation due to the ‘two-state solution’ resolution” passed by ‘parliament’.

He added that ‘parliament’ will “take away Erhurman’s authority to negotiate if necessary”.

He later wrote in a social media post that “the decision-making body which authorises the negotiator to negotiate on the Cyprus issue is PARLIAMENT”.

“We will seize the negotiator’s authority,” he declared.

On Tuesday, he stressed that October 19’s election was not a referendum between a two-state solution and a federal solution to the Cyprus problem, with Erhurman’s now predecessor and election opponent Ersin Tatar having supported the former and Erhurman supporting the latter.

This, too, goes against what he had said before the election. He had told the same legislature on October 1 that “the presidential election will be a referendum between whether we will walk with Turkey or without Turkey”.