Turkish gov’t rescuing the PKK, convicting military: Nationalist leader

ANKARA

The resolution process is linked to PM’s ambitions, Devlet Bahçeli says. DAILY NEWS photo / Selahattin SÖNMEZ

Prosecutors’ demands, released on March 18, for aggravated life imprisonment of a number of suspects in the alleged Ergenekon coup plot case came exactly on the same day as the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) delegation met with outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli noted earlier today, saying that this was not an innocent coincidence.

According to Bahçeli, the entire “resolution process” is solely related to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ambitions for the presidency.

“Take presidency, give autonomy. Release the PKK, imprison the TSK [Turkish Armed Forces],” Bahçeli summarized the process, addressing his party’s parliamentary group as he referred to detained retired generals in the Ergenekon case.

“I can say that Prime Minister Erdoğan has added new circles to the bargaining he is conducting with the İmralı murderer, the main theme of which is ‘Take presidency, give autonomy.’ Here is the reality being seen within this framework: ‘Take PKK, take autonomy, no matter what you do with the TSK,’ ‘Rescue PKK, convict TSK.’ This is what is happening, all developments are toward this direction,” Bahçeli said.

Efforts to turn Parliament into ‘Kandil’

Bahçeli also claimed that efforts have been underway to turn Parliament into “Kandil.”

Bahçeli recalled recent remarks by Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin in which he said the government could consider allowing Parliament to participate in the resolution process aimed at ending the three-decade-long conflict between security forces and the PKK.

“You, the corrupts, who try to turn Parliament into Kandil, watch out” Bahçeli said.

The Kandil Mountains are a range located along the Iranian border of Iraq. Kandil has become synonymous in Turkish politics for the PKK, which has had its headquarters and military camps there for nearly 20 years.

The MHP leader maintained that Kurds in Turkey haven’t ever been deprived of any rights that are equal to those that other citizens have and they have not been subject to any discrimination. He, added, however, that separatists were trying to sow seeds of discord between people with such arguments.

“How happy is the one who says ‘I am a Turk.’ How happy is [s/he] to remain a Turk,” he concluded, reiterating a proverb by the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.