TURKEY-POLITICS/PRESIDENCY Turkish Prime Minister: No debate on presidency in coalition talks

Record ID: 151452

  • Title: TURKEY-POLITICS/PRESIDENCY Turkish Prime Minister: No debate on presidency in coalition talks
  • Date: 16th June 2015
  • Summary: MEMBERS OF AK PARTY LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER, AHMET DAVUTOGLU, SAYING: "They are trying to create an atmosphere to open the legitimacy of the first president, who was elected with 52 percent of the votes last year, into discussion. The source of [determining] the legitimacy is people. Legitimacy cannot be granted by lobbies or negotiations tha
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9PZ874UG76TDTHWTWNVAVONEK
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Turkey's prime minister said on Tuesday (June 16) he would not tolerate any attempt to undermine President Tayyip Erdogan's authority during the AK Party's talks to form a coalition government.
    Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said his ruling AK Party, which lost its overall majority for the first time in 13 years in June 7 elections, would exhaust all options to form a government before it would consider an early election.
    But such negotiations would not include a debate on the role of the presidency, Davutoglu said, which may give pause to opposition parties concerned about Erdogan's outsize political influence.
    "We will not allow the legitimacy of our president to be questioned and secondly, we will not allow the title of the presidency to be harmed," Davutoglu said.
    Erdogan stepped down as prime minister last year and assumed the presidency with the aim of transforming a largely figurehead position into a powerful executive post. Over the last year, he has played an active role in government that his opponents say violates the constitution.
    The elections failed to produce the two-thirds majority Erdogan wanted, which would have allowed the AKP to change the constitution and hand him greater power. Opposition parties have suggested they would not tolerate Erdogan, by far Turkey's most popular leader, meddling in any coalition government.
    Davutoglu also called on both the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the rightist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to assess the election results from the "perspective of the people", in an apparent attempt to accelerate negotiations.
    Turkish Prime Minister also said in a speech to members of his AK Party that the death sentence for Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, would be a litmus test for Western countries.
    "We will see what they will do as one of the most important figures of a political movement that has never supported violence is walking on a road to death penalty. We will see whether supporters of democracy and freedom in Turkey will be able to raise their voices," he said.
    After becoming Egypt's first freely elected president in 2012, Mursi hoped his Muslim Brotherhood movement could emerge from decades of battle with the Egyptian state and transform the country.
    Barely a year into his presidency, Mursi was toppled by the army following mass protests and thrown into jail. The final act in his downfall came on Tuesday when an Egyptian judge sentenced Mursi to death.
    The ruling marks another setback for leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and increases the chances of its youth taking up arms against the authorities, breaking what the group says is a long tradition of non-violence.
    Mursi, accused by critics of abuse of power and mismanagement of the economy while in office, has been entangled in one legal case after another in unrelenting pressure against Islamists.
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