Turkey’s political leaders in talks over coalition alliance

Turkey’s prime minister has said his country will push again for a no-fly zone over Syria.

“What is important is not just securing any deal, but one which is permanent and continuous”, Davutoglu said.

Both parties are eager to avoid new elections and a CHP spokesman told reporters in Ankara on Monday evening, after four hours of talks between the party leaders, that “the two leaders made various evaluations in the broadest spectrum in a move not to leave the country without a government”.

The AKP discussed the outcome of preliminary coalition talks with the CHP at the meeting of the Central Executive Board (MYK) on late August 7.

AK Party and CHP have ended a series of “exploratory” talks over forming a coalition that began on July 24.

Ozgur Ozel, CHP group deputy chairman, reiterated the 14 principles put forward by his party for a possible coalition with AK Party. “However, there are still efforts being made to reach a conclusion”.

The prime minister’s remarks came after Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirta’s call on the Turkish government and the PKK to resume their ceasefire before visiting the family of a slain soldier.

AKP party members are anxious about the closure of mam Hatip schools – religious vocational high schools – along with the CHP’s future attitude over the position of President Recep Tayyip Erdoan.

After the June 7 elections, in which the AKP failed to gain the 276 seats required to form a government, most commentators had predicted that an AKP and MHP coalition would be the most likely outcome, as the two parties have the largest crossover among their conservative, religious-voting bases.

The economy cadre of the government instead prefers a broad-based coalition government, arguing the current situation produces instability and eventually influences the country’s economy negatively. For this reason Davutoğlu started negotiations with the political parties which had overcome the threshold of 10 percent. Mitov said that as well as remaining differences between the CHP and AKP.

He added that CHP leaders would arrive at a final decision over the AK Party-CHP coalition possibility by Thursday.