Turkey's election to be 'stable and peaceful'

ANKARA

Turkey’s Nov. 1 general election will be held in a “stable and peaceful” environment, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday.

“Every kind of measure has been taken so that Turkey will have peaceful elections,” he told journalists in Konya, central Turkey. “I ask for everyone to be calm.”

Davutoglu said Turkey’s security forces had been assigned to deal with any potential threats during the election campaign.

“The government has taken measures so the elections will be held in a stable and peaceful way within the scope of the rules that the Supreme Election Council [YSK] determines.

“Yesterday, we reviewed the security measures at the Council of Ministers. As I said, the decisions that YSK took are unquestionable.”

Last June's election, which failed to produce a party with a majority, were marred by violence, the most notable incident being a deadly bomb attack on a Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) rally just days before the ballot.

Davutoglu also commented on the resignations of two ministers from the HDP who quit the Cabinet over the escalating Kurdish conflict and a lack of security in the run-up to the election.

“This is not a cabinet of the Justice and Development (AK) Party or a coalition cabinet,” he said.

“We made our offer to all parties' deputies properly. Some deputies accepted it - two deputies from HDP and one from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) - and a government was formed.

“The Republican People's Party (CHP) and the MHP expressed that they would not join this government.”

Addressing criticism that the interim government is not independent of Davutoglu’s Justice and Development (AK) Party, he said: “They do not have the right to say anything. Because we asked them to join this government, this is not an AK Party government.

“This is a constitutionally obligatory government. The CHP said 'We will not join'. So how can they question this government?”