(Bloomberg) -- Turkish Cypriots voted out a president who favors reuniting Cyprus under the European Union’s umbrella and elected a supporter of the two-state model backed by the government in Ankara.

Ersin Tatar, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed state recognized only by Turkey, won the presidency in a runoff with 52% of the vote, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency newswire reported.

He defeated incumbent Mustafa Akinci, who supports looser ties with Turkey and a reunification of Cyprus as an EU member. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated Tatar for his victory.

While the Cypriot government based in the Greek-majority part has formal sovereignty over the entire island, Cyprus has been divided since Turkish forces captured its northern third in 1974. That followed an attempted coup with which military rulers in Athens sought to unite Cyprus with Greece.

Frictions between the sides and with Turkey have grown over competing claims to any energy resources discovered off the island’s shore.

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