CYPRUS: TURKISH CYPRIOT MAIN OPPOSITION UBP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NICOSIA 000199 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/SE E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/20/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL TR CY SUBJECT: CYPRUS: TURKISH CYPRIOT MAIN OPPOSITION UBP CONFIDENT OF VICTORY REF: CABLE--NICOSIA 186 Classified By: Ambassador Frank C. Urbancic for reasons 1.4 (b) and 1.4 (d) 1.(C) Summary: The main opposition National Unity Party (UBP) is confident of victory in April 19 Turkish Cypriot "parliamentary" elections thanks to widespread discontent with the economy and public skepticism over prospects for a Cyprus solution, the latter long the "governing" Republican Turkish Party,s (CTP) raison d'etre. Both factors, according to UBP insiders, will handily negate attempts by CTP to scare voters over UBP,s hard-line CyProb past. Moreover, party leaders now claim to support Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat,s negotiating efforts, despite their "TRNC forever" diatribes and continued calls for "state-to-state" talks. On the economy, UBP offers few concrete proposals to shrink the bloated state sector, the greatest brake on growth prospects. Further, dissident voices within UBP claim that leader Dervish Eroglu,s sky-high negative polling will limit the party,s upward potential. Even in the event of a UBP victory, they expect little real economic reform from old-guard leader Eroglu. End Summary. "People are focused on the economy" -------------- ¶2. (C) Eroglu, the septuagenarian UBP leader, told Embassy officers on March 13 that the party would easily protect a 15-point lead over "governing" CTP (according to a March 3 poll excerpted in Reftel). UBP might even add 4-5 points to its commanding 43.3 percent polling, versus 28.4 percent for second-place CTP in the April 19 "TRNC parliamentary" elections. People were focused on the economy, Eroglu said, and really did not care about the Cyprus problem. To make up ground, CTP would try to stir up past demons, for example UBP's 2002 refusal even to accept the Annan Plan as the basis for Cyprus negotiations. UBP, he argued, had already been punished by voters when it was banished to the "opposition" benches in 2003; now it was CTP's turn to answer for its dismal record. Eroglu would consider forming a "government" with any party, including with its ideological nemesis CTP )- a "grand coalition" never seen in 30 years of "TRNC" elections. (Note: We have heard increasingly from a number of sources that the Turkish MFA would like a CTP-UBP coalition in order to push through desperately needed but painful public sector reforms.) ¶3. (C) Other UBP stalwarts, while agreeing with Ergolu that the party would finish first, appear less triumphant. Huseyin Ozgurgun, the former UBP leader and a current "MP," told us in early February that CTP had "screwed up running things" despite controlling "parliament," the "presidency," and all major "state" institutions. Nevertheless, he thought his party would not break 40 percent of the vote, given lingering anti-UBP sentiment amongst many Turkish Cypriots. Osman Ertug, a former "TRNC" rep in Washington and UBP candidate, told us on March 11 that the party could only hurt itself in the run-up to elections, through internecine quarrels, for example. Ertug thought that CTP, given its own poor record and hapless administration, would be hard-pressed to criticize UBP's past mismanagement, however. Muharrem Faiz, an independent pollster who conducted the March 3 survey, had little doubt UBP would triumph, provided the party acted cautiously. "The more they keep quiet, the more votes they will get", Faiz joked. "We,ll support Talat" -------------- ¶4. (C) UBP and Eroglu have adopted a position on the CYPROB and the on-going UN-brokered process that is tactically deft, if intellectually dishonest: they pledge support for Talat without abandoning their confederal, "TRNC forever" ideology. Eroglu told us that he had no intention of interfering with Talat despite the party,s recent "Cyprus Resolution" that calls for "state-to-state" negotiations and smacks of separatism. Moreover, Eroglu claims he agrees with Talat on many issues, such as limited (but strictly controlled) property restitution to Greek Cypriots and the need for a "virgin birth" of the new partnership state (Note: Talat does not insist on the last two points, at lease in most recent discussions.) All he wanted in the event of a UBP victory was more regular and thorough briefings on the settlement process from Talat. "TRNC" loyalist Ertug echoed NICOSIA 00000199 002 OF 003 this line, telling us that UBP would support Talat as long as he kept them abreast of events and did not agree to "single sovereignty" (which Talat already has blessed, at least in principle, in the July 1 leaders's statement.) ¶5. (C) Eroglu and UBP most likely will toe whatever line AKP supports, which at present is pro-Talat and supportive of the UN-brokered peace process. The new Turkish "ambassador" to the "TRNC", Sakir Fakili, told the Ambassador on March 12 that Turkey, regardless of who won on April 19, fully supported Talat. Ergun Olgun, former "TRNC President" Rauf Denktash's "Undersecretary" and one of the key Annan Plan negotiators, told us on March 13 that he was urging UBP to support Talat, although the party would still push for "shared sovereignty" vice single. Hasan Ercakica, Talat's press spokesman, said that Eroglu regretted his knee-jerk 2002 rejection of the Annan Plan, which had burned bridges with AKP that are only now being repaired. Ercakica added, however, that he doubted the UBP leader would make the same mistake twice. "Can,t do that--need to get elected." -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Although UBP is running its campaign on the economy's woes and CTP's poor governance, the party's economic program skirts the issue of shrinking the bloated public sector, the north,s primary economic ailment. Rather, it touts four theoretically promising but highly unrealistic programs: turning the "TRNC" into a free trade zone, bringing water, gas, and electricity from Turkey to reduce costs and meet looming shortages, attracting and implementing technology-based service sector projects, and becoming an outsourcing center for companies outside Cyprus. (Note: These proposals are either unrealistic given the north's high labor costs or would require massive external financing.) ¶7. (C) More candid voices claim that UBP is either unwilling or unable to tackle painful economic issues plaguing the north. Ertug sheepishly told us that a UBP government would not lay people off, even though the party regularly hammers CTP for allegedly padding the state payroll with 6,700 new hires. Metin Yalcin, chair of the T/C Businessmen,s Association (ISAD),said that UBP had talked to him about forging a "mixed economy," which he rejected as a "disaster." Even the secret, post-election "bitter economic pill" Eroglu shared with us recently was at best nibbling at the edges: stopping overtime, reducing foreign trips for "government" employees, and "voluntarily" moving "public sector" workers to the private sector. Eroglu even told an aide during the Ambassador,s courtesy call that he could not consider more dynamic labor rules, since "he needed to get elected". "Eroglu can only dish out Turkish aid" -------------- ¶8. (C) Eroglu's harshest critic, at least privately, is former UBP chief Tahsin Ertugruloglu, ousted by Eroglu in a bitter November 2008 fight. Ertugruloglu claims that Eroglu is "too easy a target" for CTP, given the latter man's undistinguished past as both "PM" and UBP leader. He expects UBP to win at most 35 percent of the vote, turning the election into a horse race. Ertugruloglu claimed his greatest fear is Eroglu's inability to conduct crucial economic reforms. Eroglu only knows how to distribute Turkish aid money and cannot "fix" anything, he explained. Ertugruloglu also believes that UBP still has not managed to repair its relationship with AKP. Last, were the party to manage somehow to form a "government" after April 19, he predicted an economy-triggered UBP meltdown so strong that the party would be forced to call another round of elections in 2010 or 2011. ¶9. (C) Comment: While UBP enjoys a healthy lead in the polls fueled by raw anger at CTP, elections are still a month off, with the official campaign begining on March 24. Should UBP's lead endure and the party succeed in forming a new "government," we expect little structural economic reform unless Turkey forces the issue, and even then it will be a tough fight. Regarding support for Talat and the on-going Cyprus settlement process, Eroglu and UBP -- despite their darker instincts -- will probably take their lead from the AKP government, which for now supports the broad outlines of NICOSIA 00000199 003 OF 003 Talat's solution efforts. To compensate, however, the UBP-led "government" will probably try to pick fights with pro-solution forces on the margins, exemplified by the party's recent threat to rewrite school textbooks that CTP earlier had stripped (in line with Council of Europe guidelines) of nationalistic and anti-Greek Cypriot language. Urbancic