TURKEY-POLITICS/DAVUTOGLU Turkish PM urges parties to unite before Sunday deadline
Record ID:
143332
TURKEY-POLITICS/DAVUTOGLU Turkish PM urges parties to unite before Sunday deadline
- Title: TURKEY-POLITICS/DAVUTOGLU Turkish PM urges parties to unite before Sunday deadline
- Date: 20th August 2015
- Summary: ANKARA, TURKEY (AUGUST 20, 2015) (REUTERS) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER AHMET DAVUTOGLU ON PODIUM REPORTERS TAKING NOTES (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER AHMET DAVUTOGLU, SAYING: "Let's unite together before August 24 and let's fulfill our duty and form a government and take the decision for a snap election in the parliament before the president takes that decision because a government cannot be formed." OFFICIALS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER AHMET DAVUTOGLU, SAYING: "I am ready to sit down and talk. It could be after Friday prayers as (MHP leader) Devlet Bahceli suggested or any time, as long as we find a solution in parliament. The possibility of a coalition is no longer available so instead of blaming each other, let's form a government." REPORTERS LISTENING DAVUTOGLU LEAVING
- Embargoed: 4th September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Turkey
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA363ZBL6FO0TB3YVEGF191VW1S
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made a last-ditch call for Turkey's political parties to agree a working government on Thursday (August 20), three days before a deadline that would otherwise see President Tayyip Erdogan call a snap election.
Davutoglu formally gave up efforts to find a junior coalition partner for his ruling AK Party on Tuesday (August 18), more than two months after it lost its overall majority for the first time since coming to power in 2002.
Turkey's politicians have until Aug. 23 to agree a working government or else Erdogan could call for an interim, power-sharing cabinet to lead the country to a new election, which would be expected to be held in November.
That would prolong uncertainty which has sent the lira to a series of record lows. Investors have already been unnerved by rising violence in the mostly Kurdish southeast and by Turkey's growing role in the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
"Let's unite together before August 24 and let's fulfill our duty and form a government and take the decision for a snap election in the parliament before the president takes that decision because government cannot be formed," Davutoglu told a news conference in Ankara.
"I am ready to sit down and talk any time, as long as we find a solution in parliament. The possibility of a coalition is no longer available so instead of blaming each other, let's form a government," he said.
An interim "election government" would see power shared between four political parties with deep ideological divides, a scenario likely to lead to stagnation in policy making. Forming such a cabinet is in any case uncertain as two parties, the secularist CHP and the nationalist MHP, have said they would not take part.
Parliament could theoretically vote to back Davutoglu's current caretaker cabinet staying in office for now, but opposition parties have little incentive to do so and either way an early election is all but inevitable.
In a note to political parties, the election commission proposed that any new election should be held on Nov. 1, AKP officials said.
The prospect of another election has failed to assuage market worries about the $870 billion economy, not least because there is no guarantee that a re-run will produce anything other than another inconclusive outcome.
The lira is now down over 20 percent against the dollar this year, making it one of the worst performing currencies among its emerging market peers.
Erdogan, who founded the Islamist-rooted AKP, could still in theory ask the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to try to form a government.
But the CHP has shown little sign of being able to assemble a majority, and Erdogan told a meeting of village administrators on Wednesday that he would not "waste time" with those who did not know the address of the presidential palace, an apparent reference to the head of the CHP.
The crisis has coincided with rising insecurity, as Turkey's military jets pound Kurdish militant positions in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq in response to attacks on the security forces, and as it opens its air bases for U.S.-led coalition air strikes on Islamic State insurgents in Syria. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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