The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy chair expressed Thursday that Turkey is on the verge of a new, bipartite, political system based on the consolidation of current alliances in politics, namely the People's Alliance and the Nation Alliance, which is expected to empower Turkish democracy.
In the meeting with Ankara representatives of Turkuvaz Media Group, AK Party Deputy Chair Numan Kurtulmuş said the political alliances, which Turkey has been supporting since the June 24 general elections, is a beneficial experience for the country's democracy to build a consensus on national issues within different parties.
"Since there is no judicial base for the alliances yet, we can foresee that Turkish politics will be consisting of two main axes. However, these two axes consisting of different political fractions would have to look for common sense for the common good of the country," Kurtulmuş said.
The People's Alliance between the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was formed ahead of the June 24 parliamentary and presidential elections. The alliance received the majority in the Parliament, while their presidential candidate, incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also won the election by 52.6 percent of the vote. On the other hand, the Republican People's Party (CHP), the Good Party (İP), the Felicity Party (SP) and the Democrat Party (DP) formed the Nation Alliance, receiving 33.9 percent of the votes in the June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Emphasizing that the People's Alliance was established after the July 15 failed coup attempt as the reflection of Turkish people's demands, Kurtulmuş stated that the spirit of the alliances has been accepted by the majority of voters.
Since both parties consider the results of the June 24 elections successful, they now seek to continue their alliance in the local elections. AK Party Deputy Chairman Mehmet Özhaseki and MHP Deputy Chairman Sadir Durmaz have been carrying out the process for the People's Alliance.
Contrasting the opposition alliance which was formed between the right-wing İP and the center-left CHP, Kurtulmuş said the aforementioned alliance contains many differences in terms of its ideological and political dimensions. "A motivation of forming their alliance and common ground is to be just in an opposition side. However how do you hold together your constituencies, explain their differences? Thus, this is the main challenge for the opposition alliance now," Kurtulmuş continued.
As part of an alliance with the İP, the CHP is planning to bring new municipalities into the negotiations. According to the latest reports, the two parties decided to cooperate in more than 60 provinces in the March 31 local elections. Accordingly, the number of metropolitan municipalities and provinces that come under the alliance rose to 23 and 40, respectively.