Erdogan calls for stability after inconclusive election result

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for stability after his 13-year reign of solid majorities for the Justice and Development Party (AFK) came to an end in last weekend’s general election.

The AFK Party secured 41% of the total votes, a sharp drop from the 49% it has obtained in 2011, and must now form a coalition or enter a minority government.

"I believe the results, which do not give the opportunity to any party to form a single-party government, will be assessed healthily and realistically by every party," Erdogan said, adding that the high voter turnout of 86% indicated Turkey’s “determination for democracy”.

After the final result is declared, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will have 45 days to form a government.

None of the three main opposition parties have yet ndicated a willingness to form a coalition with the AKP and they might yet try to form a tripartite alliance against the AKP.

However, Numan Kurtulmus, one of Turkey's four deputy prime ministers, warned that there would be no government without representation by the AKP, and admitted that another election was possible.

The election results wrecked Erdogan’s plans to rewrite the constitution to establish himself as an all-powerful executive president , while Turkey’s large Kurdish minority has been granted its biggest voice yet in Turkey’s Parliament.

The leftist HDP, a new party mainly representing the Kurds but also encompassing liberals, won over 12% of the vote and around 80 seats in the 550-seat-strong chamber.

HDP co-chair Selahattin Demitras dismissed any possibility of forming a coalition with the AKP.

“We stand behind our words. We will be in parliament as a strong opposition,” Demirtas told a press conference in Istanbul on Sunday night. “As of this moment, the debate on the presidency, the debate about dictatorship, has come to an end in Turkey. Turkey has returned from the edge of a cliff.”