Nationalist MP blames president for failure of coalition talks

ANKARA

CİHAN photo

A senior lawmaker from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has blamed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the possible failure of the coalition-making process between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) while noting the difficulty of organizing early elections.

“I think there is only one person in Turkey who doesn’t want a coalition and it is President Erdoğan,” Ümit Özdağ of the MHP told reporters at a press conference Aug. 7 in Ankara. “Other than him, I don’t think there is anybody who wants to go to early elections.” 

Questioned about the possibility of a coalition between the AKP and the MHP in the event that current negotiations between the AKP and the CHP fail, Özdağ said he would have no further remarks in the name of his party as necessary assessments had been made by MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli.

Bahçeli earlier declared his party’s intention to remain as the opposition party and suggested an AKP-CHP government was the best option for Turkey. 

In response to recent violent attacks against Turkey’s security forces by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the government declared that counter-terrorist operations would continue until the group completely withdraws from Turkey, Özdağ said.

“It means we are not talking about a short-term [struggle]. I am of the opinion that politics and political leaders will take into account that Turkey has engaged in a long-term fight against the Middle East’s two dirtiest terrorist organizations,” he said. 

In view of these elements, Özdağ considered that it would be difficult to hold early elections. “That’s why if the AKP accepts MHP’s conditions, the MHP would give away its body and soul. And it’s not the first time we say this; this is what we have kept saying since the elections,” he said.