Turkey PM forms interim government including pro-Kurdish party

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is due Friday to submit for presidential approval the makeup of a provisional cabinet which will run Turkey until new elections in November.

Three legislators from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party, or HDP, were also invited to join the Cabinet and two of them accepted, as did a prominent member of Turkey’s nationalist party who broke ranks with his party.

Opinion polls, suggest the new election might not reverse the losses made by AKP and another parliament that can agree on a coalition would result.

As Turkey announced that the snap general elections for the summer’s inconclusive polls will be held on November 1, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched his unofficial campaign with an attack on the Kurds.

But the AKP’s coalition talks with opposition parties failed to produce a government.

Ayhan Bilgen, HDP spokesperson, stated that “We view our collaboration in the interim cabinet as a responsibility towards our voters”.

The Islamic-rooted ruling party, which Erdogan founded, lost its parliamentary majority in June for the first time since 2002.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) fell short of securing sufficient votes during the legislative elections in June to form a single-party government.

In a potential caretaker government, the AK Party is likely to have 12 ministers, the CHP to have seven while the MHP and the HDP will have three ministers each, according to number of seats in parliament.

“I nearly begged them”, he remarked, recalling his public invitation for opposition parties to collaborate in forming a government.

“You can not lead a country by shutting the doors”, Davutoglu said. Erdogan’s AK party lost its majority, for the first time in 10 years, in June’s vote, and a coalition could not be organized within the required 45 days.

Since late July, Turkey has been waging a relentless “anti-terror” offensive against PKK rebels in the southeast and in northern Iraq, which critics say is largely aimed at tipping the balance in the next polls.

The President took up his post after previously being Prime Minister himself and had hoped to make his position more powerful once his party was re-elected.

Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, said the AKP has a chance of winning back its simple majority but would be unable to win the 3/5 of seats needed to call a referendum to change the constitution and give Erdogan the broader powers he craves.