Turkey's main opposition leader rules out coalition with AKP

Gamze KOLCU - ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has ruled out a coalition with Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) after the June 7 elections.

"I say 'No' to a coalition. Our only goal is to form a one party government. If we can achieve it, it would be possible to change Turkey completely in four years," Kılıçdaroğlu said late May 1, responding to a student of Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) in Ankara who asked if the CHP was warm to a coalition with the AKP.

Kılıçdaroğlu had announced last month that his party could form a coalition with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) after the upcoming elections, on the condition that they embrace an independent media and judiciary. 

While answering ODTÜ students' questions on May 1, Kılıçdaroğlu repeated that HDP should be represented in Turkey's parliament.

 "We would like to see HDP exceeding [the 10 percent] election threshold. We would like to see the Kurdish political movement in parliament, as it is healthy for the ongoing peace process to have this legitimate movement in parliament," he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu engaged in self-criticism for his party, too.

"Our citizens' main problem is about buying a bread, but we have been telling him about secularism and democracy. We overemphasized secularism and forgot about social state," he said, referring to the CHP's much-debated election manifesto, which was based on economic promises, not secularism, this time.