PM: AK Party open to all parties for coalition

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is open to negotiate coalition possibilities with the other three parties with seats in Parliament.

Speaking at an iftar event in Istanbul on Sunday hosted by the state-owned poorhouse organization Darülaceze, Davutoğlu said he would speak with the three leaders once President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presents him the task of forming a government as the leader of the party with the highest number of seats in Parliament.

The June 7 general elections produced no single-party majority, necessitating a coalition.

Davutoğlu emphasized that the AK Party, which has ruled the country for 13 years, would do its best to form a government to manage the country effectively and in good faith.

"Our doors are not closed to anybody, our mind is not closed, our ears are not closed, our heart is not closed," he said in an emphatic statement.

The prime minister said he interpreted some of the statements from other leaders regarding possible coalition formulas as "testing the waters."

He said real positions would become clear in official negotiations, in a particular reference to a recently floated right-wing and center-left coalition possibility.

Earlier in the week, Devlet Bahceli, chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), rejected an offer by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), to make him the prime minister of an MHP-CHP coalition government.

According to the official results of the June 7 general elections, the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party will seat 258 deputies in Parliament.

The CHP has 132 seats, followed by the MHP and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) each with 80.

In order to form a government, any coalition needs to have the support of 276 deputies, a simple majority in the 550-seat Parliament.