PM Ecevit refuses coalition partner's call for new government
Associated Press - September 11, 2002, ANKARA, Turkey - Embattled Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Wednesday turned down a coalition partner's demand for a new government, saying the move would hurt Turkey ahead of November elections.

Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz on Tuesday called for Ecevit to step aside, threatened to withdraw his own party from the government, and later called on nationalists to leave the three-party coalition and for a new government to be formed.

Ecevit accused Yilmaz of trying to delay elections in which all the government parties stand to suffer. Polls show that Yilmaz's party is not likely to pass the 10 percent threshold needed to enter parliament.

"If Mesut Yilmaz's suggestion is accepted, there will be confusion," Ecevit said.

But Yilmaz later denied any intention to push back the polls.

"Our wish is for elections to be definitely held on November 3," he told reporters.

Yilmaz's calls came after nationalists in the coalition petitioned Turkey's top court to overturn sweeping reforms recently passed by parliament as part of Turkey's EU bid. The reforms were drafted by Yilmaz's center-right Motherland Party.

They grant Kurds the right to teach and broadcast in Kurdish and abolish the death penalty in peace time, all demands of the EU.

"It is clear a government with the (nationalists) will get nowhere on the European Union issue," Yilmaz told reporters late Tuesday, adding that his party would make a final decision on the government Wednesday.

Nationalists rejected Yilmaz's call to step aside.

"The government will carry Turkey to the elections," nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli said Wednesday. If Yilmaz leaves the government, Ecevit could lead a minority government until the elections.

Also Wednesday, Tansu Ciller, a former premier, announced her center-right True Path Party was forming an alliance with another small center-right party led by Mehmet Ali Bayar, a former diplomat at the Turkish Embassy in Washington.

The alliance with Bayar's Democrat Turkey Party is designed to boost the two parties' chances of surpassing the 10 percent hurdle. Democrat Turkey was formed in 1997 by a group of politicians who split from True Path over disagreements with Ciller.