Turkey’s interim cabinet holds first meeting

ANKARA

DHA photo

The interim cabinet that will take Turkey to polls on Nov. 1 held its first meeting under the leadership of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Sept. 1.

Davutoğlu appointed the interim power-sharing cabinet on Aug. 28, including nationalist and pro-Kurdish opposition politicians. 

The new cabinet consists of 12 members of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), two members of the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), one lawmaker from MHP, and 11 independents.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) refused to participate in the 26-member interim cabinet, forcing Davutoğlu to fill ministries allocated to the opposition with independent figures. 

Tuğrul Türkeş was the only MHP lawmaker to accept Prime Minister Davutoğlu’s offer for a seat in the interim government, breaking ranks with his party’s decision. 

Davutoğlu was forced to form the temporary cabinet after his party failed to find a junior coalition partner following the loss of its parliamentary majority in June 7 election, which ended more than a decade of single-party AKP rule.