Is War On The Horizon?

With the result of the recent general election, the Turkish nation invested tremendous power in the opposition parties, but this opportunity may soon go to waste. The election of the parliament speaker was a good test to see if the opposition parties could unite and change the balance of power in Turkey.
For the past 13 years, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has held the three main sources of power -- namely the presidency, the prime ministry and the position of parliament speaker. On Wednesday, once again, an AKP candidate was elected parliament speaker. If the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had been a little bit cooperative, a member of the opposition parties could have filled the position.
It is hard to believe, but the MHP has only one explanation for this result. It says the party would not support any candidate who is supported by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
On social media, people continue to poke fun of this incredibly peculiar reasoning. You can see jokes everywhere. One says MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli decided to become Buddhist because he had just heard that HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş is a Muslim.
The MHP, in a stance that differs to that of its election campaign, seems to put all of its weight into opposing the HDP, as if this party were in power. The nationalist party has long been rather vocal in voicing its discontent with the peace process, which it calls the “dissolution process.” If you check what the party's various spokespeople put forward as preconditions to be a part of any coalition, ending the “peace process” was paramount.
Viewed from this angle, some recent developments take on different meanings. For example: Why, all of a sudden, do we found ourselves in a discussion about a possible military intervention into Syria?
We can read this “Syria intervention” as a gesture from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the nationalists, showing them that the AKP is ready to end the peace process. Obviously, entering Syria also promises a confrontation with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) that are in Syria, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
If this was a sign of “flirtation” between these two parties, the MHP also made its own gesture by allowing the AKP to maintain the role of parliament speaker, which is not only a symbolic one. When the coalition parties attempt to set up inquiry commissions that would lead to the referral of all four ex-ministers to the Constitutional Court on historic corruption charges, it will be very important whose side the parliament speaker is on.

The MHP, in this sense, may be using its fierce opposition to the HDP to hide its real intentions. In this way, it may try to ease possible discontent among its grass roots regarding its cooperation with AKP.
Well, in Turkey, things may change quite rapidly. But all of these signs show us that the AKP and the MHP are on the way to forming a coalition if they can reach an agreement on power sharing and other things.
If they can form a coalition, it is unfortunately and highly likely that the Kurdish peace process will become collateral damage.
If an AKP-MHP coalition is formed, we will also have a war cabinet. Whether such a coalition would last long is another question. But if formed, it would promise serious tension for Turkey and the region.

ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ (Cihan/Today's Zaman)