coalition Archives

Armenian Renaissance doesn’t rule out coalition with Republican Party

March 16, 2017 By administrator

After the parliamentary elections in April, there is a possibility for Armenian Renaissance to cooperate with the ruling Republican Party (RPA), candidate for the National Assembly Armen Harutyunyan said.

“We have maximum and minimum programs and expectations from these elections,” Harutyunyan said, according to Aravot.

“Our maximum goal is to form a full government,” he said, adding, however, that the party is ready to join a coalition only in the event of having a real impact on political processes.

Earlier, MP Mher Shahgeldyan also said that Armenian Renaissance will join a coalition only if the party can have a real influence on political decisions.

At the parliamentary elections slated for April 2, the Armenian Renaissance’s list is headed by Artur Baghdasaryan, the leader of the Rule of Law party, which was renamed to Armenian Renaissance in 2015. Also included in the list are Shahgeldyan, Heghine Bisharyan, as well as Hovhannes Margaryan and Ishkhan Khachatryan.

Armenian president creates coalition with anti-Turkish party Dashnaktsutyun

February 25, 2016 By administrator

943d62a3e6b1244354a6ef220459b343f4bd8c56 YEREVAN (AFP) – Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian on Wednesday invited a fiercely anti-Turkish party to join his government, in a controversial power-sharing deal highlighting a stalemate in efforts to normalise ties with arch-foe Ankara.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, or Dashnaktsutyun, took three ministerial posts and appointed two regional governors, according to the memorandum it signed with Sarkisian’s ruling Republican Party (HHK).

“This agreement marks the beginning of a long-term political cooperation based on common values and joint goals and action plans,” the HHK deputy chairman, Armen Ashotyan, told journalists.

In a decree signed by Sarkisian, Dashnaktsutyun’s Avik Minasyan was named economy minister. Davit Lokyan and Levon Mkrtchyan were appointed ministers of education and of the local administration respectively.

Armenia and Turkey are at loggerheads largely because of a historical dispute over a World War I-era massacre of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Dashnaktsutyun, a socialist party which currently holds five seats in Armenia’s 131-member parliament, also advocates territorial claims to Turkey.

Highly popular among Armenia’s influential diaspora abroad, Dashnaktsutyun went over to the opposition in 2009 after Armenia and Turkey signed an agreement to normalise relations.

The so-called Zurich protocols, which would have led to the opening up of the border between the two neighbours, have since languished without ratification in both nations’ parliaments.

In February 2015, Sarkisian recalled the protocols — brokered by the United States, France and Russia — from parliament, citing the “absence of political will” on the Turkish side.

The massacre of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces between 1915 and 1917 is formally recognised as genocide by some two dozen countries, including France and Russia.

Turkey rejects calls to recognise the killings as genocide, saying up to 500,000 Armenians died in fighting and of starvation after Armenians sided with invading Russian troops. It claims a comparable number of Turks were also killed.

Independent Greeks leader says ready to form coalition again with SYRIZA

September 20, 2015 By administrator

Greece’s right-wing Independent Greeks party said on Sunday it would ally with election winners SYRIZA to form a coalition government.

“From tomorrow morning, with Alexis Tspiras as Prime Minister we will form a government,” Independent Greeks president Panos Kammenos told reporters.

SYRIZA was emerging as the clear winner in Sunday’s poll, with 35.5 percent based on more than half of votes counted. That would give it 145 seats in the 300-strong parliament.

Kammenos’s party was polling about 3.7 percent, with an estimated 10 seats.

[Reuters]

Saudi-led coalition suffers deadliest day in Yemen, as UAE & Bahrain lose 50 troops

September 5, 2015 By administrator

In its deadliest battle incident ever, United Arab Emirates forces have lost at least 45 soldiers fighting among the Saudi-led coalition engaged in Yemen, after Houthi rebels reportedly fired a rocket into weapons warehouse at a military camp.

The deadly incident took place in the oil-producing Marib area of central Yemen, allegedly after the Houthi missile struck an ammunitions depot. At least 22 Emirati soldiers were killed on the spot while 23 others died from their wounds hours later, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

“A rocket and an explosion at a weapons cache has targeted the martyrs,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter.

The Houthis official confirmed that their fighters fired a Soviet-era Tochka missile in the area, AP reports.

https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/639876100261179392

In a separate incident five Bahraini soldiers were killed while “defending the southern border of Saudi Arabia,” Bahrain’s official news agency BNA said.

The Saudi-led coalition of Gulf nations has been launching airstrikes on Yemeni territory since March, targeting Houthi rebels and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in order to bring back to power President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi deposed earlier this year.

Friday’s death toll for UAE military is the largest the country’s forces have ever faced after being founded as a state in 1971. The previous death toll stood at six soldiers, all of whom died in combat in Kuwait in 1991.

Meanwhile in US, President Barack Obama hosting Saudi Arabia’s King Salman where he expressed hop for an inclusive, functioning government in Yemen, but has failed to condemn Saudi-led operation.

“We share concerns about Yemen and the need to restore a function government that is inclusive and that can relieve the humanitarian situation there,” Obama told reporters.

At the same time the UN has released a further $15 million to help the suffering of the civilians.

“The civilian population is bearing the brunt of the conflict: a shocking four out of five Yemenis require humanitarian assistance and nearly 1.5 million people are internally displaced,” said Stephen O’Brien, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, as he announced additional funds.

Turkey coalition deal fails

August 18, 2015 By administrator

A last-ditch effort by Turkey’s incumbent prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, to form a coalition failed on August 17 as a meeting with the country’s main nationalist party ended with no agreement, paving the way for new elections, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“Mr. Bahcheli said he doesn’t consider a coalition with the AKP [Justice and Development Party] possible,” Davutoglu told reporters at a press conference following his meeting with Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahcheli.
Bahcheli was the one who first put forth his position on the matter during their meeting, Davutoglu said, adding that the MHP leader repeated his strict conditions for the formation of a coalition.
Bahcheli not only shut down the prospects for a coalition partnership, but also refused to be part of a short-lived alliance to govern until early elections and support a minority government that would be held by the AKP, Davutoglu said.
“He said they would be present in parliament in the event of a vote on an early election but would not support such a decision,” Davutoglu said after the meeting which took place days before a 45-day deadline to establish a new government runs out on Aug. 23.
Labor and Social Security Minister Faruk Chelik accompanied the AKP leader, while MHP Deputy Chair Semih Yalchin accompanied Bahcheli during the meeting. Following their gathering at Bahcheli’s office in parliament, both leaders reviewed the meeting with the executives of their parties.

Turkey the price of a coalition with the AKP “shielding Erdogan corruption and illegal acts”

June 10, 2015 By administrator

EMRE USLU

By EMRE USLU,

Coalition is the main discussion in Ankara now. Politicians talk about coalition options among political parties; but in fact, there are not many choices. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) must be a part of the coalition options.

As I noted before the elections, the AKP has to stay in power. Most recently, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınç noted this. The AKP has to remain in power because otherwise, they will be prosecuted over their corruption and illegal acts. The AKP will lose by 10 percent in the next elections if one corruption file — that does not have to the Dec. 17 file, even the file on the expenses of the Ak Saray would be sufficient — is reopened. Once this is done, there will be no trace of this party. Many deputies will resign because serving in such a corrupt party would mean the end of a political career. Thus, the AKP has to remain in power. So this means that the AKP will not allow others to form a coalition government which does not include the AKP. They will try hard to be part of a government. Therefore, I think that all coalition options which do not include the AKP are not realistic.
When it comes to a coalition with the AKP:
The AKP will use the coalition partner as a shield to cover up all its corruption and illegal actions over the last 13 years. For this reason, forming a coalition government with the AKP is a gravely flawed decision.
A party which will make a coalition with the AKP actually endorses the following:
1- It means that it endorses the bribe money Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab gave the ministers
2- It endorses the money stashed in shoe boxes, steel safes and others
3- It endorses the TL 700,000 watch of former Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan
4- It endorses former Interior Minister Efkan Ala, who violated the Constitution to arrest journalists
5- It endorses former EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış, who mocked verses of Quran
6- It endorses the luxury car of the president of the religious affairs directorate
7- It endorses the violation of the Constitution by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who did not act impartially during the election campaign
8- It endorses all the waste and unnecessary expenses at the AK Saray, the TL 1,000 glasses, marble imported from Italy, trees from Germany and private stud farm
9- It endorses the ultra lux apartments in Şehrizar Condominiums
10- The money whose source cannot be identified
11- Illegal villas in Urla
12- Pressure upon journalists
13- Arrest and intimidation of journalists
14- Blackmailing businessmen
15- Money in a pool used for pro-government media outlets
16- It endorses the legality of the vessels of Bilal and Burak Erdoğan
17- It endorses the fleets of ships of former minister Binali Yıldırım’s sons as legitimate
18- It accepts that the railway tender bids are transparent and there was no corruption in that process
19- It endorses the insults published in the pro-government media outlets
20- The illegal order in pro-government media
21- The nepotism in the AKP
22- The money transferred to the Foundation of Youth and Education in Turkey (TÜRGEV), the buildings and funds illegally transferred to this foundation
23- Erdoğan’s illegal acts gain attractive lands
24- It endorses the destruction of all values and the skyline of İstanbul
25- Cursing and humiliating the nation
26- Kicking the miners in Soma
27- Killing Berkin Elvan and then booing his mother
28- Police violence in Gezi
29- TOMA and its tenders
30- The arrest of the police officers who went after corruption
31- The arrest of judges for their decisions
32- Trucks transporting weapons to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
33- Weapons transported to ISIL and al-Qaeda
34- Prosecution of the prosecutors who stopped ISIL trucks
35- Oslo talks

A party which forms a coalition with the AKP will endorse these and many other illegalities that cannot be mentioned here due to space constraints. If a party takes such a huge risk, it should at least ask for critical ministries in the government. If this is done, then it will be able to tell its supporters that it will be able to become very influential in the government. It should prosecute at least some of the items I cited above. Otherwise, that party will lose serious support in the next election because the AKP support base already endorses these illegalities and they vote for this party despite them.