Rauf Denktash, former leader of the Turkish minority in Cyprus, who for decades successfully opposed reunification of that divided Mediterranean island in his resolute pursuit of a separate state for his people, died there on Friday at the age of 87.

Dr. Charles Canver, who had treated Mr. Denktash for a heart ailment, said he died of multiple organ failure at Near East University Hospital north of Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, The Associated Press reported. He had been in poor health for years, treated for diabetes, for a heart attack in 1996 and for a stroke last May.

In a country split along ethnic and religious lines since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island after a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece, Mr. Denktash had been the standard-bearer of the Turkish Cypriot cause — and the obstructionist archvillain to Greek Cypriots — for demanding partition to prevent what he called massacres at the hands of the Greek Cypriot majority.

Starting in 1983, when Turkish Cypriots proclaimed independence in the name of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus — a government recognized only by Turkey, which still maintains 35,000 troops there — Mr. Denktash won four consecutive five-year terms as president. In 2004, he announced he would not seek re-election.