Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of whether the recent presidential election in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was conducted in a free and fair manner.

In accordance with the rest of the international community, with the sole exception of Turkey, the UK does not recognise the self-declared 'Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' as an independent state.

We respect the right of the Turkish Cypriot community to choose their representatives in the UN-led settlement process, and we engage with Turkish Cypriot representatives under our non-recognition policy to support the UN-led settlement process. I will meet Mr Erhürman at the next informal UN-led talks to support momentum towards a just and lasting settlement. We followed his recent leadership election and are not aware of any evidence of irregularities.