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Afzal Khan, a Labour MP and Britain’s special trade envoy to Turkey, is under mounting pressure to resign after a controversial trip to the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus.
Khan attended a ceremony in Kyrenia to receive an honorary doctorate from the self-declared “American University of Kyrenia” and met Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, actions critics say breach the UK’s role as a neutral guarantor in Cyprus peace talks.
Priti Patel, the Conservative shadow foreign secretary, accused Khan of “undermining Britain’s credibility” and sending a “worrying message” to UK citizens of Cypriot origin, many of whom were displaced from the areas he visited. The UK, along with most of the world, does not recognize the breakaway state declared in northern Cyprus in 1983.
Cypriot community groups in Britain, representing roughly 300,000 people, have joined calls for Khan’s removal.
Khan, a veteran politician who once served as Manchester’s first Asian Lord Mayor and was awarded a CBE in 2008 for his work on social cohesion, has yet to comment publicly.
