Former Turkish Cypriot ‘health minister’ Izlem Gurcag Altugra on Thursday left the north’s ruling coalition’s largest political party, the UBP, announcing her intention to join centrist, anti-corruption party the HP, which is led by former Turkish Cypriot chief negotiator Kudret Ozersay.
“I had long questioned whether the UBP still held any hope regarding its own values. Seeing what happened, I believed that the party had seriously distanced itself from its founding values and the understanding of the state. The ground for clean and honest politics had completely disappeared,” she told a press conference.
She added that “there is now no longer any hope of the party recovering”, and that “therefore, I am leaving the UBP, of which I have been a proud member for many years”.
At present, she remains a member of the Turkish Cypriot legislature, where members are not allowed to join existing political parties while retaining their seats. As such, she will now sit as an independent until the next election, which will take place at some point before next February.
On this matter, she said that “I will continue my duties as an independent MP until the election, and during the election campaign I will continue my political journey with the HP”, adding that “the necessary discussions have been held” to facilitate her joining the party.
She then said that “the recent series of events has seriously shaken the state’s administration”, in a likely reference to the ruling coalition’s attempted changes to the payment of the cost-of-living allowance to public sector workers which saw thousands demonstrate both outside and inside the legislature.
“Distrust has been created within society. The greatest responsibility for the resulting situation lies with the UBP. The party has lost its credibility in society. The UBP has transformed into an organisation which disregards the public’s sensitivities,” she said.
She added that “I entered politics not for a seat or an office, but to always speak the truth as I see it”.
While Altugra’s departure from the UBP does technically mean that the ruling coalition’s majority in the Turkish Cypriot legislature has fallen to eight – the coalition now commands the support of 23 representatives of the UBP, two apiece from the DP and the YDP, and one independent in the 49-seat chamber – she has not caucused with the coalition for some time.
After Ersin Tatar, the candidate the party had endorsed at last year’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election, fell to a chastening defeat, she began to openly call for ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel to resign, and declared that if he offered her a place in his cabinet, having dismissed her in 2024, she would refuse that offer.
She also embarked on an effective boycott of sessions at the Turkish Cypriot legislature, refusing to attend Monday sessions, during which the legislature typically votes on coalition-sponsored legislation.
“I had already severed ties because he is unqualified and unlawful, and because he had shattered party unity … I will not attend plenary sessions, especially on Mondays,” she told newspaper Yeniduzen last year.
Since then, her perspective joining of the HP has been an open secret in Turkish Cypriot politics.
She had served as ‘health minister’ under Ustel between 2022 and 2024, being appointed to his first cabinet when he replaced Faiz Sucuoglu as ‘prime minister’, and being replaced by Hakan Dincyurek in Ustel’s 2023 reshuffle.
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