ANKARA
The central disciplinary committee of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has expelled its Ankara deputy Tugrul Turkes from the party on Saturday after he accepted an offer to join the country's caretaker Cabinet.
Turkes was the first MP to accept Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's invitation to join his interim government. He was assigned as the deputy prime minister of the new Cabinet that was formed on Aug. 28. in the run-up to the Nov.1 election.
He was referred to the disciplinary board of the party on Aug. 26 after he accepted the deputy prime minister post in defiance of his party's instructions not to participate in an interim administration.
According to party sources, Turkes did not submit a written or verbal statement within the one-week legal period given after the notice of his referral.
"I am a member of MHP and I brought my party to power even if it is an interim government," Turkes said during a press briefing he held at the Turkish parliament on Friday.
"Nobody can expel me from my party for this," he added.
In response, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli expressed his disapproval, saying "I brought my party to power”.
The provisional government, which will steer Turkey to a rerun of June’s general election on Nov. 1, includes representatives from Davutoglu’s Justice and Development (AK) Party, one lawmaker from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and two from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
The Republican People's Party (CHP) -- the second largest in Turkey’s parliament -- refused to join the interim Cabinet.
The June 7 election saw a stalemate with no party winning the majority necessary to form a single party government. Ensuing coalition talks between the Justice and Development (AK) Party and the other three parliamentary parties did not produce any result.
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