Two pro-Kurdish MPs part of Turkey’s interim government
President approves government that will lead nation until November 1 election, including two members of pro-Kurdish HDP.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has approved the makeup of the provisional government that will run the country until November 1 elections, including for the first time pro-Kurdish MPs.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was tasked with forming a caretaker government earlier this week after he failed to form a coalition government following an inconclusive vote on June 7.
The two pro-Kurdish legislators are from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which for the first time managed to pass a 10 percent minimum vote threshold required for it to be represented in parliament in the June election.
Davutoglu said HDP legislators Muslum Dogan and Ali Haydar Konca will become ministers in charge of development, and of relations with the European Union.
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The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its overall majority in parliament for the first time in 13 years in the June polls.
Erdogan appointed Davutoglu to form an interim “election government” which according to the constitution must be made up of all parties represented in parliament.
The cabinet spots are divided up according to the parties’ share of seats in parliament – with 11 going to AKP, five to the second-placed Republican People’s Party (CHP) and three a piece to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
Opposition parties have refused to take part in the interim government, making the HDP – which the government accuses of being a political front for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – and the AKP major partners in the new cabinet.
Speaking to his party’s provincial heads earlier on Friday, Davutoglu said: “We will work just like a four-year government as we are heading toward November 1.”
In a deviation from the party line, MHP legislator Tugrul Turkes, son of the nationalist party’s founder Alparslan Turkes, accepted an invitation to serve as a deputy prime minister in a move denounced by the party’s leadership.
Davutoglu had to appoint non-partisan figures to fill the seats snubbed by the opposition parties.
Selami Altinok, former Istanbul police chief, was appointed interior minister and foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu was named as the new foreign minister.