Mustafa Akinci elected leader of breakaway Turkish Cypriots

[alp227]

Source: AP

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) —Mustafa Akinci, a veteran politician with a strong track record of reaching out to rival Greek Cypriots, has been elected as leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots in ethnically divided Cyprus.

Akinci handily defeated hard-line encumbent Dervis Eroglu with 60.38 percent of the vote, preliminary official results showed. Turnout for Sunday's vote was just over 64 percent.

Akinci is seen as a moderate who can propel forward stalled reunification talks that are expected to resume next month. Akinci rode a wave of discontent with five years of rule by Eroglu who failed to rally right-wing supporters.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b8d333acdbb24f7ca596bb80a748e9ae/breakaway-turkish-cypriots-vote-leader-runoff

[bemildred]

1. Good.

Beautiful island, long history, and much better off without the Greek-Turkish ethnic dispute.