THREAT NEAR SYRIAN BORDER
This week took off with Turkey’s first cabinet meeting since the June 7 election. The main issue discussed in the meeting was the ‘cantons’ set up by the Syrian branch of the PKK along the Syrian border. The Syrian PKK affiliate is known as the PYD and the cantons it has created along Turkey’s southern border are viewed as a national security threat. The PYD militia has also been accused of forcing northern Syria’s non-Kurdish population of Turkmens and Arabs from the area. People from these ethnic groups are now seeking refuge in Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu had said the demography of the border area is being re engineered by the PYD and Assad Regime. Leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli has called on the government not to delay any action to rectify this “national issue”. He also demanded the government protect against the risks posed by what he called an “uncontrolled refugee flow and relocation pursued with the cooperation of the US and the PKK."

INFLUX OF REFUGEES
Turkey continues to face a refugee influx from Syria due to clashes in Tel-Abyad. In the last two weeks the number of the Syrians who crossed the border into Turkey’s southeastern Sanliurfa province has reached nearly 15,000 while nearly 400 Syrian refugees were initially given permission to enter Turkey on Monday. Turkish deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc said Turkey should be prepared for an influx of at least 100,000 more refugees.

MINE ACCIDENT TRIALS
Trials concerning two tragic mining accidents that took place six months apart from each other in 2014 also began this week. Both accidents have left over 300 miners dead. The accident in the mine in the Soma district near the Aegean Sea was the deadliest in Turkish history.

DEMIREL PASSES AWAY
On June 17 Turkey’s ninth president Suleyman Demirel passed away at the age of 91 due to a respiratory infection and heart failure. The veteran politician had served as Turkey's prime minister seven times between 1965 and 1993. He was Turkey’s president between the years of 1993 and 2000.

COALITION TALKS COUNTINUE
Coalition talks between Turkey’s political parties have continued this week. Some parties have given positive signs to each other while others insisted on maintaining "red lines" for forming a coalition. The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People's Party, called on all the opposition parties elected to the country’s parliament to form a coalition together as they won a combined 60 percent of the vote. However, the party abandoned this idea the next day after it became clear that the nationalist party MHP would not step into a coalition including the pro-Kurdish HDP. Turkish prime minister and leader of governing AK Party called on opposition parties to ‘unclench their fists’ to negotiate a coalition. The MHP has suggested that any coalition must include majority vote winner the AK Party. The HDP also said they would support a coalition with the AK Party. The prominent business associations of Turkey TUSİAD and MUSİAD also paid a post election visit to the party leaders this week.

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