Didim Today

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday expressed his belief that his party would elect a new president in collaboration with other parties without allowing any crisis in the new parliament.

He made the remarks during a press conference held after he submitted the resignation of Council of Ministers to President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Erdogan said he had talked on the phone with Chairman of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deniz Baykal, and Chairman of the Democrat Party (DP) Mehmet Agar who resigned after the parliamentary elections.

Both of them expressed their wishes for the election results to be well for Turkey, said Erdogan, who is also chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).He, however, said he could not reach Nationalist Movement Party(MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahceli.

Erdogan highlighted that the views and will of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, former presidential candidate of the AKP, was important for him.

President Sezer has accepted the resignation of the government, Erdogan said, adding that the president thanked him for the services done by the Council of Ministers to Turkey and asked him to continue serving as prime minister until a new government is formed. “I believe Turkey will emerge stronger from this process.

The 60th government will make Turkey go through a new period of leap forward,” he stressed. Turkey witnessed peaceful parliamentary elections on Sunday, in which the ruling AKP gained 46.5 percent of votes, and the CHP and the MHP garnered 20.9 percent and 14.3 percent respectively.

Other parties did not gain enough support to clear the 10 percent hurdle to enter parliament. The parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held on Nov. 4but were brought forward because of the failure to elect a new president after the opposition party CHP boycotted the presidential election in late April and early May.