"Elections likely to be held sooner than planned"

The spokesperson for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) said on Monday that the elections in Turkey may be held sooner than June, the previously announced date.

Speaking to journalists at AKP's headquarters during a meeting attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ömer Celik said:

"I had earlier given a clue. I had said, 'We may move it a bit forward, but it will not be too forward, it will not really be a snap election."

He continued:

"Some options are currently being discussed before the public. I will let you know when a decision has been reached on the date, but like I've said, it will be an update involving only a short length of time."

As for a possible election alliance between AKP, its current partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the Islamist Free Cause Party (HUDAPAR), Celik said:

"We're not in the final phase of the talks. I'll let you know about it when we are. For the being, the talks are progressing in a very positive way."

HUDAPAR was founded by a Kurdish group of Islamists in December 2012 to challenge the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) that is the predecessor of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

HUDAPAR emerged from the circles of Kurdish Hezbollah, an armed group that operated throughout the 1990s in alliance with state forces against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and pro-Kurdish parties , and it is held responsible by many for numerous murders of Kurdish political activists.