Turkey’s political leaders discuss coalition, no agreement

Delegations from Davutoglu’s Justice and Development Party and Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s Republican People’s Party have held a series of meetings in search of a partnership, but had left more hard issues to their parties’ leaders.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolu has called on all political parties to take a common stance for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to lay down arms only one day before a key meeting with the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) to conclude weeks of coalition talks.

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”.

Deputy chairman Ozgur Ozel said in a press conference at the party headquarters in Ankara on Wednesday the party had given the head of the party Kemal Kilicdaroglu full authorization to form a coalition.

“It is vitally important for the country that the AKP and the CHP chairmen make sacrifices to forge a coalition without wasting any time”, he said in a statement.

Monday’s talks are expected to decide whether the AK Party-CHP coalition would be formed.

He also urged the two parties to hold coalition negotiations “without behaving reluctantly or having imaginary discussions involving infertile standoffs”.

These 14 principles include supremacy of law, electoral threshold, increase of minimum wage, president’s tenure, new foreign policy, media freedom, a democratic constitution and bringing corruption cases to account.

Since 2002, the AK Party has won three general elections to continue a single-party rule for well over a decade, which only ended after the June 7 elections this year produced no majority government.

“For two parties who are politically opposed to reach a consensus requires great effort”, he added.

Expectations of a snap election in November are growing within Turkey’s ruling AK Party, officials say, with its leadership emboldened by recent opinion polls and looking increasingly cool to the idea of a coalition government, Reuters reports.

Ahead of the August. 10 meeting between Davutolu and Kldarolu, the prime minister briefed his party members on the CHP’s preconditions for a coalition government.