Turkish Cyprus President to visit Turkey

Talat, who is seeking re-election against Premier Dervis Eroglu in the election on April 18, will meet with Turkey's President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

TRNC spokesman Hasan Ercakica told a press conference Tuesday that Talat would discuss the recent developments regarding the Cyprus issue with Turkish officials.

Ercakica said ways to speed up the extensive settlement talks in the island, which is suspended until after the elections would be also discussed during the meeting.

Talat will return to Cyprus on Thursday.

With only a six weeks left before the election, a new poll made public in the TRNC showed Premier Dervis Eroglu 5.8 pts ahead of his rival Talat.

The poll carried out by Cyprus Center for Social and Economic Research-KADEM with 1786 participants showed that Eroglu would receive 52.9% of the votes with Talat slightly narrowing the gap with 47.1%.

In another poll carried out by KADEM back in October 2009, Eroglu got 53.7% while Talat received 46.3%.

The outcome of the election is also critical for the ongoing settlement talks with Greek Cypriot side aiming to find a lasting solution to the Cyprus issue.


/World Bulletin/