The safety of Turkish-Cypriots through the presence of the Turkish army in Cyprus and maintaining Ankara's guarantees is not up for discussion, Ersin Tatar said eight days before the 'electoral' process in the occupied territories, accusing his rival Tufan Erhurman of being willing and prepared to negotiate the status of said guarantees and consider the withdrawal of the Turkish army.
'Erhurman is a candidate to those voters who say guarantees are not taboo', he added, noting that his opponent, who maintains a slender lead in the polls ahead of the Sunday October 19th clash, is willing to sit down with the Greek-Cypriots and negotiate 'with zero army and zero guarantees', putting the safety of Turkish-Cypriots at risk.
Tatar stressed that such issues, foremost security, should not be a subject of debate and called on 'voters' to defend this argument by casting the right ballot come next week.