Erdogan looms large as Turkey's AK Party mulls coalition options

Whether it teams up with the nationalist or secularist opposition, Turkey's ruling AK Party must navigate the same obstacle in its search for a junior coalition partner: the ambition of President Tayyip Erdogan.

Though his efforts to forge a powerful executive presidency have for now been thwarted, Erdogan has held on to the reins of government despite stepping down as prime minister last August to take on the largely figurehead role of president.

Opposition leaders who could now enter government in a coalition have made clear they will not tolerate his meddling, suggesting his days of hosting cabinet meetings in his new 1,000-room palace could be over, at least for now.

"A coalition seems inevitable, and the AK Party will be in it. That is evident," a senior party official told Reuters, at the start of what he said could be weeks of strategy meetings with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the AKP top brass.

Erdogan's past utterances on political opponents scarcely smooth the way to compromise. Last year, at the height of a corruption scandal he said had been engineered to topple him, he dubbed his rivals terrorists and traitors locked in an "alliance of evil".

Sunday's election, in which the Islamist-rooted AKP lost its parliamentary majority, ended more than a decade of single-party rule, dealt a blow to Erdogan's ambitions for a U.S.-style presidency and plunged Turkey into uncertainty not seen since the 1990s.

Though it could try to rule alone in a minority government, senior party sources said the AKP was determined to at least try to form a coalition, with the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) seen as its most likely partner.

The negotiations will not be easy. MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, who has spoken out against Erdogan's ambitions for an executive presidency, warned on Sunday that the Turkish leader should "remain within his constitutional limits".

The negotiations will not be easy. MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, who has spoken out against Erdogan's ambitions for an executive presidency, warned on Sunday that the Turkish leader should "remain within his constitutional limits".

The MHP's core supporters are also vehemently opposed to peace talks with Kurdish militants meant to end a three-decade insurgency in Turkey's southeast, a project to which Erdogan and Davutoglu both say they are fully committed. - Read More

Erdogan looms large as Turkey's AK Party mulls coalition options

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