Kurdish party in coalition talks
July 15, 2015
Prime Minister Davutoglu held two hours of talks Wednesday with Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag (left in picture), co-leaders of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which has so far ruled out inclusion in a coalition government.
Davutoglu has 45 days to form a coalition after his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed in Turkey's June 7 election to win an overall majority. It lost its majority while the HDP entered parliament for the first time.
Waiting in the wings is the second-placed Republican People's Party (CHP), which has expressed interest in a coalition but insisted on several conditions.
HDP deputy Sirri Sureyya Onder told reporters that a coalition role depended on whether it was in line with HDP principles.
Ocalan's isolation life sentence detention on the prison island was Imrali, south of Istanbul, was unacceptable, Onder said.
In March, Ocalan, who was seized from Kenya in 1999, called on Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.
Ocalan said the armed struggle by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), mainly in southeastern Turkey, has been "painful" and could no longer be sustained.
Talks 'friendly' but inconclusive
Davutoglu, speaking after his talks Wednesday with Demirtas, said pledges made since peace talks were launched in 2012 "needed to be fulfilled as soon as possible."
The talks were friendly, but a coalition with the HDP did "not seem to be on the agenda," he added.
Kurds make up some 20 percent of Turkey's population. In the election, the pro-Kurdish HDP attracted support from more than 10 percent of the electorate.
The HDP electoral breakthrough handed it 80 seats.
That was as many as the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which on Tuesday met with Davutoglu but refused to enter a coalition.
Further coalition talks are expected next week after holidays marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Kurds are spread between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The PKK's campaign for self-rule since 1984 has claimed at least 40,000 lives. It has largely observed a cease-fire since 2013.
ipj/jil (Reuters, AFP)