Turkey's PM Gives Gov't Mandate Back to President

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has handed the mandate to form a coalition government back to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after having failed to build an alliance with any of the three other parties elected to Parliament.

Erdogan is now due to either call for an interim government that would run the country until early elections are held or give the mandate to the second-largest political party.

The deadline is August 23, though the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), the one which gathered the second-biggest result in the June 7 elections, said the 45-period after election results is not enshrined in the country's constitution and is therefore not "extremely binding".

The meeting between Erdogan and Davutoglu lasted 85 minutes, Today's Zaman reports.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been in power since 2002 (Erdogan being PM most of the time until August 2014), lost its majority in Parliament after the June 7 elections, and Erdogan is pinning his hopes on a new vote.