Turkish Cypriot non-voting representative at the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe Hasan Tacoy has called for designated seats to be allocated to the Turkish Cypriot community at the next European Parliament elections, which are set to take place in 2029.

“Just as the referendum was held on two separate sides, this election should also be held on two separate sides,” he told journalists, referring to the 2004 Annan plan referendum to reunite Cyprus.

He added that “the right of Turkish Cypriots to representation should be exercised not through the current method, but through a model which reflects the separate will of the two communities”, and that Turkish Cypriots should therefore be allowed a “direct and separate election model” for the next European Parliament elections.

Turkish Cypriots who are citizens of the Republic of Cyprus and who live on the island of Cyprus are automatically registered as voters for European Parliament elections, with 104,103 Turkish Cypriots having been registered to vote at the most recent elections in 2024, of whom 103,269 lived in the north and 834 lived in the Republic.

However, Cyprus’ six seats in the European Parliament are not designated any community, in contrast to how the majority of public roles on the island had been designated by the Republic of Cyprus’ constitution.

For example, 30 per cent of MPs in Cyprus were constitutionally foreseen to have been Turkish Cypriots, while Turkish Cypriots were also guaranteed mayoralties and the vice presidency of the republic in the 1960 constitution.

The Turkish Cypriot community’s holding of those roles came to an end in 1963 when they were ejected from all their public roles in the republic, but the Annan plan foresaw a new allocation of public roles, including that two of the island’s six members of the European Parliament be Turkish Cypriots.

Given that the Annan plan was rejected at the 2004 referendum, this plan did not come to pass, and instead, the six MEPs are elected regardless of the community to which they belong, while, accounting for the island’s continued division, polling stations are only opened in the Republic.

As such, Turkish Cypriot political parties do not stand in European Parliament elections, and only one Turkish Cypriot candidate, Akel’s Niyazi Kizilyurek, has ever been elected, though multiple others, including Volt’s Hulusi Kilim and the Ecologists’ Movement’s Oz Karahan, have stood as candidates.

The next European Parliament elections will take place between June 7 and June 10, 2029, with Cyprus to go to the polls on June 10.