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Friday April 19, 2024

Erdogan wants ‘early elections’

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for early elections if efforts to form a coalition yield no results after the ruling party lost its overall majority in June 7 elections, media reported on Friday.Turkey is without a full time government even as it presses cross-border military operations against

By our correspondents
August 01, 2015
ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for early elections if efforts to form a coalition yield no results after the ruling party lost its overall majority in June 7 elections, media reported on Friday.
Turkey is without a full time government even as it presses cross-border military operations against Jihadists in Syria and Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.
Some critics accuse Erdogan of launching the military operation in the hope of triggering early elections to try reversing the ruling Justice and Development Party´s (AKP) lacklustre performance in the legislative polls.
“It remains to be seen if a coalition will be formed,” Erdogan told reporters on his plane while travelling on an official visit from China to Indonesia, the Hurriyet newspaper and other media reported. “If not, we should turn to the national will immediately so that people will decide again and we will emerge out of the current situation,” he said.
The AKP took power in 2002 as a single party government after rocky coalition governments in the 1990s and a severe financial meltdown in 2001.
Erdogan made clear he had little enthusiasm for coalitions. “If we expect them (coalitions) to bring benefits to our country, it is in vain,” he said. “Investments will not flow if there is no stability and trust.”