Turkey PM says coalition talks fail, snap polls likely

Turkish premier Ahmet Davutoglu will meet the main opposition leader Thursday for decisive talks that will likely determine if the country forges a coalition government or heads to snap polls.

“We have not been successful in assuring a favorable base for the creation of a government“, Davutoglu said at AKP headquarters afterwards, insisting the ruling party had “done its best”.

AK Party officials said the prospect of a November. 22 election, one week after a G20 summit in Turkey, is gaining credence within the party and was “one step closer” than the preference of a coalition with the CHP or nationalist MHP.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reported to favor renewed elections in the fall, in the hope that the ruling party, which he founded, can regain parliamentary majority.

Delegations from the ruling party and Kilicdaroglu’s secular party have held a series of meetings in search of common ground for a partnership despite their deep-seated rivalries.

The AKP had also backed the idea of a “reform-oriented” short-term government to take the country to an early election, while the CHP had been pushing for a long-term coalition agreement, Mr Davutoglu said.

Erdogan led the AKP for more than a decade before becoming president in August past year.

The main reason for the AKP’s failure to win an overall majority was the strong performance of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which won more than 13 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, Leader of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli issued a written statement on Monday, calling for an immediate formation of a coalition government between the AK Party and the CHP.

“We have not received a coalition proposal”.

As reports of the failed talks emerged, the Turkish lira dropped, hitting a new record low against the dollar.

I asked Demirtas about the Obama administration’s deal with Erdogan to use Incirlik for U.S. and Turkish strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria.

According to Milliyet columnist Serpil Cevikcan, 70 percent of AKP voters were opposed to entering coalition with the CHP.

Mr Davutoglu said, however, the perception that Mr Erdogan had been against a coalition deal was “completely false”.

It is not a big surprise that the leaders couldn’t build a coalition, considering their different views on the future of the country – be it on foreign policy, economics, education or changing the constitution. “A historic opportunity was missed”.

Erdogan had asked Davutoglu to form a new government on July 9, and negotiations between the AK Party and the second-placed CHP had been ongoing since July 13.