Kılıçdaroğlu opts for a political collision course

So far the AK Party has displayed a positive manner by being open to any coalition formula, but the opposition parties are not acting responsibly as they push the negotiations into deadlock



Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has publicly declared that he favors a coalition between the parties that opposed the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), saying that this bloc won 60 percent of the vote in the June 7 general elections.So he is actually saying that the CHP should join forces with the conservative Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) to form a coalition and run the country and push the AK Party into an opposition role. At first sight, what Kılıçdaroğlu is saying seems perfectly sensible. Yet when you look at it in depth you see that this in essence is harder to achieve than any coalition formula that includes the AK Party.The CHP has no objection to the peace process between the Turkish state and the militant Kurds of Turkey. The HDP, in essence, represents the militant Kurds of Turkey. However, the MHP, which is ultra-conservative and until now has vehemently opposed the peace process, cannot be a partner in such a coalition. You cannot get the MHP and the HDP sit at any negotiations table, let alone force them to become political partners. Such a thing may happen in the distant future, but today that is called "mission impossible." However, it seems clear that what Kılıçdaroğlu is after is not a coalition that will create national and historical reconciliation between Turks and Kurds and the left and the right that will take on the challenges facing Turkey at home and abroad. On the contrary, he is after a coalition that will put the AK Party on trial, dismantle whatever the AK Party did and create a new witch hunt in Turkey.Does Turkey need to question the AK Party era of the past 12 years? There may be some even in the AK Party that want to question what some people did in the AK Party like the four former ministers who were allegedly involved in corruption and who were saved by a cover-up, or at least that was how it was conceived by the masses, and thus hurt the ruling party in the recent elections. Yes, the AK Party has to face its own mistakes, yet this does not mean we have to forget the colossal improvements the AK Party introduced in Turkey. The fact that Turkey spends more on its health system and education than it spends on defense speaks for itself. The fact that the government has introduced massive social improvements cannot be denied.Yet, while Kılıçdaroğlu says there is no room for emotional actions in politics, he himself is acting emotionally, targeting the AK Party and forgetting the realities of the country. It is true that there are immense obstacles before a coalition between the AK Party and the CHP as their concepts and approach to life are completely different. But a coalition also means finding a minimum common denominator and take on the challenges awaiting Turkey. If by any chance the CHP, MHP and HDP managed to establish a coalition through a miracle then Kılıçdaroğlu should know that this is a prescription to bring the AK party back to power with a massive landslide in the next elections, which will probably be early. The country gave these three parties 59 percent of the vote, but did not give it to them as an alliance, whereas the 41 percent given to the AK Party was for a single political party, which would have normally won a majority in Parliament in another democracy, but because of the intricacies of the Turkish electoral system, it could not obtain a majority of the seats. With this attitude Kılıçdaroğlu is forcing a coalition between the AK Party and the MHP. But that too could be a prescription for early polls.