Constitutional provision

As enshrined in the Constitution of Turkey, an interim cabinet formed together by all the parties in Parliament must be formed in the event that the President calls for a new vote. The number of ministries given to each party is determined by how many MPs they have in Parliament. The Speaker of the Grand National Assembly, İsmet Yılmaz, determined that the AKP would be given 11 ministries, the CHP 5, the MHP 3 and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) also 3. The Ministry of Transport, Maritime and Communication, Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior would be overseen by independent ministers, as is also the case for any government going into an election. Parties who do not wish to take part in the government can opt out, in which case the individual tasked with forming the government (in this case Davutoğlu) must offer their ministries to independents. The CHP and MHP announced that they would not take part in the government.^[1][2]

Formation process

Davutoğlu was tasked with forming the interim cabinet on 25 August 2015, after which he sent out letters to members of different parties offering them a ministerial position in the new government on 26 August 2015. He has five days to form a government. Amid claims that the AKP was uncomfortable with going into government along with politicians from the HDP, Davutoğlu made offers to CHP and MHP politicians despite their party leaders announcing that they would not take part.^[3][4] It was also rumoured that Davutoğlu could offer ministerial positions to independents who were seen as close or formerly a member of the CHP and MHP to weaken the perception that the interim government was just an AKP-HDP coalition.^[5] In a last-ditch attempt to keep the HDP out of government, Davutoğlu proposed a triple coalition government between the AKP, CHP and MHP until an election took place.^[6] The offer was rejected by both the CHP and MHP.^[7]

Initial invitations

The following tables show the politicians from all four parties represented in Parliament that were invited to become ministers in the interim cabinet.

AKP seats: 258, ministries: 11 (+ Prime minister) Invited Response Yalçın Akdoğan Y Accepted Numan Kurtulmuş Y Accepted Cevdet Yılmaz Y Accepted Mehmet Şimşek Y Accepted Mehmet Müezzinoğlu Y Accepted Nabi Avcı Y Accepted Fikri Işık Y Accepted Nihat Zeybekçi Y Accepted Akif Çağatay Kılıç Y Accepted İdris Güllüce Y Accepted Veysel Eroğlu Y Accepted Party stance Y Accept

CHP seats: 131, ministries: 5 Invited Response Deniz Baykal N Declined[8] Erdoğan Toprak N Declined[9] Gülsün Bilgehan N Declined[10] Tekin Bingöl N Declined[11] İlhan Kesici N Declined[12] Party stance N Decline[13]

MHP seats: 80, ministries: 3 Invited Response Tuğrul Türkeş Y Accepted[14] Meral Akşener N Declined[15] Kenan Tanrıkulu N Declined[16] Party stance N Decline[13]

HDP seats: 80, ministries: 3 Invited Response Ali Haydar Konca Y Accepted[17] Levent Tüzel N Declined[18] Müslüm Doğan Y Accepted[17] Party stance Y Accept[19]

MHP MP Tuğrul Türkeş caused an uproar within his party after accepting Davutoğlu's invitation to become a minister, despite his party's staunch refusal to take part. The MHP issued a statement demanding that he resign from the party and that he would be suspended if he didn't do so.^[20] The MHP later began disciplinary proceedings to suspend Türkeş from the party, while Davutoğlu praised him for showing true statesmanship.^[21][22] He was formally suspended from the MHP on 5 September 2015, with the MHP subsequently falling behind the HDP and becoming the fourth largest party in Parliament with 79 seats.^[23]

HDP MP Levent Tüzel rejected a ministerial position despite his party's approval of its MPs to participate. The reason was due to opposition by the Labour Party (EMEP) to Tüzel's involvement. Tüzel had founded the EMEP in 1996 and led it until 2011, with the party supporting the HDP in the June 2015 general election.^[18]

With 8 politicians declining ministerial positions and the Ministries of Transport, Interior and Justice being reserved for non-partisan independents, the cabinet will consist of 12 independent ministers.

Pro-AKP Independents

With 11 independents due to be appointed, it was observed that many independents were in fact former AKP politicians or individuals with close ties with the AKP.^[24] These included the following ministers.

It was revealed that Ali Rıza Alaboyun, Kutbettin Arzu and Vecdi Gönül all resigned from the AKP shortly before the cabinet was formed so that they could take part as an Independent. Cenap Aşçı was a civil servant with no political affiliation before his appointment, despite trying unsuccessfully to become an AKP parliamentary candidate.^[25]