ANKARA
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said his AK Party is open to negotiate coalition possibilities with the other three parties with seats in the parliament.
Speaking at an iftar event in Istanbul Sunday hosted by the state-owned poorhouse organization Darulaceze, Davutoglu said he would speak with the three leaders once President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presents to him the task of forming a government, as the leader of the party with the highest number of seats.
The June 7 general election produced no single-party majority, necessitating a coalition.
Davutoglu emphasized that the AK Party, which has ruled the country for over a decade, would do its best to form a government to manage the country effectively and in good faith.
"Our doors are not closed to anybody; our mind is not closed, our ears are not closed, our heart is not closed," he said in an emphatic statement.
The prime minister said he interpreted some of the statements from other leaders regarding possible coalition formulae as “testing the waters”.
He said real stances would become clear in official negotiations, in a particular reference to a recently floated rightwing-center left coalition possibility.
Earlier in the week, Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), rejected an offer by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the Republican People’s Party, to make him the prime minister of an MHP-CHP coalition government.
According to the official results of the June 7 general election, the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party has 258 MPs elected to the Turkish parliament.
The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has 132 seats, followed by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) each with 80.
In order to form a government, any coalition needs to have 276 MPs' support -- a simple majority in a 550-seated parliament.
