MESOP : BAHCELI NOT WITH ERDOGAN – MHP leader denies coalition with AKP, suggests AKP-CHP coalition

July 9 – 2015 – MESOP – The Leader of Turkey Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, has denied his party would form a coalition government with winner Justice and Development Party (AKP) and said the best option for forming a new government in Turkey is a coalition between the AKP and the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Bahceli claimed that a coalition government between the country’s two largest parties would help solve the deep polarization in Turkish society. “We will tell [Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu] that as the AKP is not able to form a one-party government, a coalition should be formed so the polarization of society can come to an end. The best coalition model for this is an AKP-CHP coalition. We will tell them to put that model into practice,” the MHP leader told daily Hurriyet on July 7, speaking ahead of a meeting with Davutoglu due to be held later this week. Bahceli said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had deliberately polarized Turkey socially in order to win votes for the AKP, adding that the most important problem of today’s Turkey was social division, which could only be eased by an AKP-CHP coalition, Hurriyet daily reported. “We said [this] on the election night of June 7. We intend to be the main opposition. If [an AKP-CHP] coalition model comes out of the talks then we will support all practices that are in the country’s interests. We will oppose all practices that are not in the interests of Turkey. We would be a substantial opposition [party],” he said. The MHP head also said he would tell Davutoglu that the Dec. 17 – 25 corruption investigations are still a major issue and his party will refuse to take any part in the Kurdish peace process.