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 In his first public appearance since Sunday's parliamentary
election deprived the ruling AK Party of a majority, Erdogan said
his own role as Turkey's first elected president was critical and
that he would play his part with the powers given to him by the
constitution.
Opponents have accused Erdogan of exceeding his authority in
meddling in government and campaigning for the AK Party he formally
left when he assumed the presidency last year with the aim of
imbuing it with sweeping new powers.
"Everyone should put aside their egos and form a government as soon
as possible," Erdogan said in a speech to students at the Ankara
chamber of commerce.
"This is our biggest responsibility toward our 78 million people. No
politician has the right to say 'I', we have to say 'We'," he said.
The lira, which has been hit hard by political uncertainty since the
start of the year, firmed on what markets took as a more
conciliatory tone after weeks of combative campaign rhetoric in the
run-up to the election.
 Any instability will be watched with concern by NATO allies that
value Turkey as a buffer against an increasingly unstable Middle
East. Islamic State militants stand at its borders and there are
fears violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast could reignite if
peace talks are hindered by coalition wrangling.
Sunday's vote ended more than a decade of single-party rule in the
EU candidate nation, dealing a blow to Erdogan's ambitions for a
more powerful executive role. Some critics view it as a turning
point for the president and for Turkey.
Erdogan, who founded the AKP in 2001 and has dominated politics ever
since, had hoped the party would win a strong enough majority to
change the constitution and introduce a U.S.-style presidential
system.
It was a plan viewed with suspicion by opponents who accuse him of
amassing too much personal power and becoming increasingly
intolerant of criticism.
"As the first elected president my responsibility is critical, I am
aware of this," Erdogan said.
"Those who leave Turkey without a government will not be able to
account for themselves before history and the people ... I invite
all political parties to remain calm and responsible to ensure this
process is moved forward as harmlessly as possible."
ILL-SUITED TO COALITIONS
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the AKP, its roots in Islamist
politics, could be flexible.
"We've used the coalition eras of the 1970s and 1990s as an example
to show that coalitions are not suitable for Turkey and we still
stand by that stance," Davutoglu said at a meeting of AKP officials
in Ankara.
"However, with the current political picture ... we're open to any
scenarios."
Fractious coalitions in the 1990s undermined the economy and
scuppered a series of International Monetary Fund economic aid
programs. Those traditional secular parties, riven by competing
egos, largely collapsed before an AKP avalanche in 2002.
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Davutoglu said in an interview on state TV late on Wednesday that
early elections would be considered only as a last resort. He made
clear Erdogan, barred from party politics, would not be directly
involved in efforts to build a coalition.
Davutoglu's comments were in themselves a sign of changing times in
the AKP, where until recently public criticism of its founder, even
in implicit form, would have been unthinkable. Criticism in the
media has also become a risky affair, with many journalists jailed
or sacked. ERDOGAN'S SILENCE
Coalition negotiations are likely to be complicated.
Passions must cool. Last year, at the height of a corruption scandal
he said had been engineered to topple him, Erdogan dubbed his rivals
terrorists and traitors locked in an "alliance of evil" with a
U.S.-based Islamic cleric working to topple him.
The right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has been seen as a
strong potential partner, but its supporters are fiercely opposed to
a peace process with Kurdish militants which Erdogan and Davutoglu
have said will remain a priority.
The AKP could also try to enter coalition with the secularist
Republican People's Party, but would have to bridge a gaping
ideological divide. Erdogan and many of his supporters view the
party of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as the
bastion of secularists whose elitist mentality he argues inflicted
decades of oppression on religious conservatives.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which crossed the
10 percent threshold to enter parliament and helped deprive the AKP
of its majority, has ruled out any coalition with the ruling party.
"We do not have a personal animosity towards President Erdogan. A
president that breaches the constitution, and violates the law and
justice will always be criticized by us," HDP co-leader Selahattin
Demirtas said.
But striking a more conciliatory note, he said his party would play
a constructive role in parliament, particularly in advancing peace
with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
Erdogan launched peace efforts in 2012 to end a three-decade
conflict with the PKK that has killed more than 40,000 people. Since
then, Kurds have accused him of backtracking on the process, which
has been on hold for months.
(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Nick Tattersall;
Editing by Ralph Boulton)
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