The General Assembly, which was convened in an extraordinary session under the chairmanship of Speaker Ziya Öztürkler, was attended by Vice President of the Republic of Türkiye Cevdet Yılmaz, President of the Supreme Court Bertan Özerdağ, Second President Mehmet Ali Talat, Ambassador of the Republic of Türkiye to Lefkoşa Ali Murat Başçeri, members of parliament, senior officials, former speakers, prime ministers, ministers, and other distinguished guests, as well as the First Lady, Nilden Bektaş Erhürman.

The Presidential Standard was raised in the courtyard of the Parliament for the occasion, which drew wide media attention from both the TRNC and Türkiye. Upon his arrival, President Erhürman was welcomed by Speaker of the Parliamentary Assembly Öztürkler. During the military ceremony, President Erhürman saluted the guard of honour, followed by a 101-gun salute in his honour.

At 10am, the General Assembly session was opened under the chairmanship of Assembly Speaker Öztürkler. The session started with the reading of the notice confirming that Tufan Erhürman, who served as a Member of Parliament for Lefkoşa, representing the Republican Turkish Party since 2013, had chosen to assume the Presidency.

President Erhürman then entered the assembly, took the podium, and read the Presidential Oath as enshrined in Article 100 of the Constitution of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus:

"I swear upon my honour and dignity to safeguard the existence and independence of the State, the indivisible integrity of the homeland and the people, and the unconditional sovereignty of the nation; to uphold the rule of law, democracy, secularism, and the principles of Atatürk; to strive for the welfare and contentment of my people; to remain faithful to the ideal that every citizen shall enjoy human rights and fundamental freedoms; to uphold the Constitution and the laws; to work with all my strength to elevate the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and to perform the duties entrusted to me with impartiality.”


Following the oath, the National Anthem was played and the parliamentary session was adjourned.

Following the ceremony, President Erhürman will be laying wreaths at the mausoleums of Dr. Fazıl Küçük, the leader of the Turkish Cypriot people in their struggle for existence and freedom, and Founding President Rauf Raif Denktaş. At 11.30am, he will formally assume office from the 5th President, Ersin Tatar, during a handover ceremony at the Presidential Palace.

President Erhürman swept to victory in the 19 October election with 62.76 per cent of the vote, becoming the 6th President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

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Biography of President Tufan Erhürman

President Tufan Erhürman was born in Lefkoşa in 1970. He graduated from the Türk Maarif College in 1988 and from the Faculty of Law at Ankara University in 1992. Between 1995 and 2001, he served as a research assistant in the Department of Administrative Law at the Faculty of Law of the Ankara University, where he also lectured at Hacettepe University and the Middle East Technical University on academic courses including Introduction to Law, Administrative Law, and Constitutional Law.

From 1999 to 2004, he served on commissions established by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Türkiye to draft legislation on the Ombudsman Institution. In 2001, he earned his Doctorate in Law with his thesis entitled “Non-Judicial Oversight of the Administration and the Ombudsman.”

President Erhürman served as a lecturer at the Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Faculty of Law between 2001 and 2006, later joining the Near East University (NEU) Faculty of Law from 2006 to 2008, before returning to EMU. He served as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law of EMU between 2002–2006 and 2010–2013, and between 2008 and 2010, he was a member of the negotiation team under the 2nd President, Mehmet Ali Talat.

Elected as a Member of Parliament for Lefkoşa in the 2013 general elections, he became an Associate Professor of Law in 2014. He served as Secretary-General of the Republican Turkish Party between 2015 and 2016 and was elected Party Chairman at the 26th Ordinary Congress in 2016, serving in that capacity for nine years. Following the early general elections of 7 January 2018, he served as Prime Minister in the four-party coalition government.

President Erhürman is married to Nilden Bektaş Erhürman, and they have a son.