Minister calls on MHP to allow parliament decision on snap elections to block HDP

KOCAELİ

DHA Photo

Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Işık has called on the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to pave the way for fresh elections through a parliament decision before the night of Aug. 23, if it wants to prevent the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) from being part of any interim pre-election government.

As the MHP and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) have both refused to partner the AKP in an election government, only the HDP can play a role in the government with three ministers, Işık said on Aug. 22 at a provincial meeting of his own party. 

“If we have to form an election government with the HDP at a time when a struggle against terror is being carried out, all responsibility for this would be in the hands of the MHP,” he said.

Işık added that if parliament does not take a decision for early elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will call for snap polls using his authority derived from articles 114 and 116 of the constitution and an election government will rule till the elections. 

The minister also claimed that some 700 PKK members have been “neutralized” in recent Turkish security operations, with nearly 500 wounded, as all targets have been hit “100 percent directly.”

“The PKK has received the biggest blow in its history in just the last month,” Işık said, vowing to continue military operations until the group is “brought to its knees.” 

He also claimed that military strikes had hit the PKK’s “safe-box,” destroying much of its store of money and drugs. 

The Turkish authorities are following movements in the region through the Göktürk Satellite, Işık added.