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NICOSIA: Breakaway Turkish Cypriots on ethnically divided Cyprus cast ballots Sunday in an election that many see as a choice between an even deeper alignment with Turkiye or a shift toward closer ties with the rest of Europe.
There are some 218,000 registered voters. Polls close at 1500 GMT. Seven candidates are vying for the leadership spot but the main two contenders are the hard-right incumbent Ersin Tatar and the center-left Tufan Erhurman.
Tatar, 65, vociferously supports permanently dividing Cyprus by pursuing international recognition for a Turkish Cypriot state that will be aligned even closer to Turkiye’s political, economic and social policies.
Tatar has taken his cue from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who repeated at the UN General Assembly last month that there are “two separate states” on Cyprus while calling for the international community to extend formal recognition to a Turkish Cypriot “state.”
Erhurman, 55, advocates a return to negotiating with Greek Cypriots on forging a two-zone federation. He has criticized Tatar’s reluctance to engage in formal peace talks during his five-year tenure as a costly loss of time that has pushed Turkish Cypriots farther on the international periphery.
Cyprus was divided in 1974, when Turkiye invaded days after Greek junta-backed supporters of union with Greece mounted a coup.
Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983, but only Turkiye recognizes it and maintains more than 35,000 troops in the island’s northern third. Although Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, only the Greek Cypriot south — where the internationally recognized government is seated — enjoys full membership benefits.
Many Turkish Cypriots hold EU-recognized Cyprus passports but live in the north.
Greek Cypriots consider the two-state proposition as a non-starter that’s contrary to the UN and EU-endorsed federation framework. They reject any formal partition for fear that Turkiye would strive to control the entire island. Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has repeatedly said there’s no chance that any talks premised on two states can happen.

SEOUL: A North Korean soldier was taken into custody by the South after he voluntarily crossed the heavily fortified land border separating the two Koreas on Sunday, Seoul’s military said.

The soldier was seeking to “to defect to the South,” a defense ministry official said.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, with most going overland to neighboring China first, then entering a third country such as Thailand before finally making it to the South.

Defections across the land border that divides the peninsula are relatively rare, as the area is densely forested, ridden with land mines and monitored by soldiers on both sides.

“Our military secured the custody of one North Korean soldier who crossed the military demarcation line (MDL) in the central front on Sunday,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

“The military identified the individual near the MDL, tracked and monitored him, and conducted a standard guidance operation to take him into custody,” it said.

The MDL runs through the middle of the Demilitarized Zone – the border area separating the two Koreas, which is one of the most heavily mined places on earth.

“The soldier’s likely familiarity with the area may have helped him navigate the heavily mined terrain,” Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said.

“The latest crossing will not be received positively by Pyongyang, as he could provide the South with information on its troop movements and operations in the border area,” added the analyst.

34,000 defectors

North Koreans are typically handed over to Seoul’s intelligence agency for screening when they arrive in the South.

The South’s military said relevant authorities would investigate the details of Sunday’s crossing.

The incident came months after a North Korean civilian made it across the land border with help from the South’s military in a delicate 20-hour operation.

In August last year a North Korean soldier defected to the South by crossing the MDL.

More than 34,000 North Koreans have escaped the isolated country to the South, according to data from the Unification Ministry.

Last year, 236 North Koreans arrived in the South, with women accounting for 88 percent of the total.

Pyongyang uses harsh words such as “human scum” to describe citizens who have escaped.

The two Koreas technically remain at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June, has vowed a more dovish approach toward Pyongyang compared with his hawkish predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol.

Lee vowed in September at the United Nations to work to end the “vicious cycle” of tensions with the North as he promised not to seek regime change.