ANKARA // Turkey’s parliament opened for a new session on Tuesday with political parties working to thrash out the first coalition government in over a decade.
It comes after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its overall majority in the June elections.
Turkey has not seen a coalition since the AKP came to power in 2002 and so far there has been no breakthrough in efforts to agree on a deal.
With president Recep Tayyip Erdogan looking on, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Deniz Baykal, who as parliament’s oldest member at 76 is acting speaker, declared the session open.
After a bruising election campaign, Mr Baykal urged for calm in Turkey, saying the “conditions no longer exist for continuing the polarisation of society”.
He also called for respect of Turkey’s secular traditions as set out by its modern founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
But in a sign of the divisions, opposition deputies refused to applaud Mr Erdogan as he was announced by Mr Baykal.
The opening of the single-chamber parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, is a largely ceremonial affair, with each of the 550 deputies individually swearing oath in a marathon event that will last to the early hours of the morning.
But the meeting fires a starting shot for the parties’ formal efforts to agree on a coalition after an election seen as one of the seismic events in Turkish politics in recent decades.
It also begins the process to elect the new parliament speaker, with parties set to propose their candidates in the next five days.
While the AKP emerged as the largest party, the results were a blow not only to its authority but also to Mr Erdogan, who had been hoping the new parliament would agree on a new constitution to cement his powers.
The parliament is also more diverse than any other in Turkey’s history with 96 women MPs and three lawmakers from Turkey’s Armenian minority.
The AKP have 258 seats in the 550-seat parliament, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 132, and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) 80 each.
* Agence France-Presse
