Conservative Felicity Party open to form electoral alliance in Turkey’s November 1 snap elections

As Turkey is heading to the snap elections to be held on November 1, the leader of a minor political party in Turkey on Sunday said he was open to form an alliance in the upcoming general election.

"We are ready for an alliance with the parties that we can compromise with under certain principles," Felicity (Saadet – SP) Party leader Mustafa Kamalak told a news conference in Erzurum, eastern Turkey.

In the last couple of weeks, the party was rumored to have made an election alliance with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

"We will definitely not make concessions to our principles and policies," Kamalak said. Referring to renewed violence in Turkey, he added: "Our country is burning and we are ready to ally with those who are eager to put out the fire."

The AK Party, which had ruled Turkey since 2002, won the June 7 elections by receiving 41 percent of the votes, however, without a parliamentary majority and following efforts to form a coalition government proved futile, a fresh election was called last week by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

SP, which is not represented in parliament, won just over 2 percent of the national vote in June. SP Chairman Mustafa Kamalak and former Grand Unity Party (BBP) Chairman Mustafa Destici created an alliance for the June 7 elections. As the formation of an alliance was impossible legally, BBP candidates participated in elections as part of the SP.

Although SP and its voter base may provide AK Party with a minor increase in votes in terms of percentage, it may create an important change in distribution of seats in the parliament. SP votes can especially affect the race in provinces with conservative tendencies where votes are being casted among AK Party, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and SP.

However, this alliance may also backfire in terms of vote increase as such a move may be interpreted as a more conservative stance on behalf of AK Party's liberal voters, especially in large metropolises and cities in Western Turkey that have had an inclination to vote for center right parties in the past.

The SP, which is known as the last party of the conservative National Vision Movement, shares similar political roots with the AK Party. As SP's predecessor Fazilet (Virtue) Party was controversially banned by Turkey's Constitutional Court for its violations of secularist articles of the constitution in the aftermath of the February 28 modern coup, reformist faction within the party founded the AK Party with remarkable rhetorical (later practical) changes in issues such as secularism, economy, membership to European Union and foreign policy.