Davutoglu’s efforts to form a coalition alliance failed last week, setting the stage for Erdogan to declare repeat elections he is reported to have favored all along.
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He is the first president in Turkish history not to grant the party with the second-largest vote count a chance to set up a working coalition before ordering new ballots.
This forces Davutoglu to form an interim cabinet with the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HDP) as well as non-partisan figures outside parliament.
Erdogan on Monday called the early election which the presidency said “has become a necessity” after the inconclusive June 7 legislative vote where his ruling party lost its overall majority.
“The refusal of Turkey’s two other opposition parties to take part raises the prospect of the interim cabinet being dominated by the AK Party”. This is the fulfillment of the party’s course for national legitimacy, and the party suggested to Davutoglu that the government be made up of half women and made available all 80 of its deputies except for Demirtas himself, and co-leader Figen Yuksekdag, busy in the electoral campaign. Failed talks over the political coalition are blamed for a 10 percent decline on Istanbul’s stock market and a severe loss of the Turkish lira against the U.S. dollar.
“The only way for the AKP to avoid looking as if it’s forming an election government with the HDP would be not offering any HPD lawmakers any government position thereby wholly leaving the constitution to one side”, he said.
Under the Turkish constitution, a caretaker government should comprise members from each parliamentary party but the CHP and MHP rejection led to speculation that their cabinet places would go to independents recruited from outside parliament.
The Islamic-rooted ruling party, which Erdogan founded, lost its parliamentary majority in June for the first time since 2002.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Reuters in an interview on Monday that 61 soldiers and police officers had been killed by the PKK and that air strikes on PKK targets would continue until the group laid down weapons.
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.
“Six million people voted for us and we have the right to have three ministers”, Demirtaş said, adding that participation in the interim government was more a matter of principle than an attempt to accumulate political power.
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