Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said on Thursday it was open to all options for a coalition government other than with the ruling AK Party and that President Tayyip Erdogan should remain within his constitutional limits.
HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas also said that the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, was ready to make a call for disarmament and that a peace process with his group should accelerate.
In the same day, Erdogan urged the country’s political parties to work quickly to form a new government, saying egos should be left aside and that history would judge anyone who left Turkey in limbo.
In his first public appearance since Sunday’s parliamentary election, Erdogan said no political development should be allowed to threaten Turkey’s gains.
He said he would do his part in finding a solution with the powers given to him by the constitution.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday that AKP will exhaust all options in trying to form a new government before an early election is considered.
In an interview with state broadcaster TRT, Davutoglu said Erdogan would not be involved in coalition negotiations after the AKP lost its parliamentary majority in a weekend election, and that he would only intervene in the event of a crisis.
Sunday’s election ended more than a decade of single-party rule in the NATO member and EU candidate nation, dealing a blow to Erdogan’s ambitions for a powerful U.S.-style presidency and plunging it into political uncertainty not seen since the 1990s.
“President Erdogan is not part of coalition negotiations but will step in to help overcome deadlocks,” Davutoglu said in the hour-long interview.
“If everybody carries out their duties and responsibilities within the constitutional limits, a culture of reconciliation will emerge,” he said, in an apparent warning to Erdogan.
