Bahçeli asks to cut Treasury aid to DEM Party amid row over PKK attacks

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party's (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has launched a scathing critique against the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in the aftermath of last week's deadly PKK attacks, arguing that Treasury aid to the party should be immediately severed.

Describing the attacks as a "heinous operation aimed at undermining Türkiye's progress," Bahçeli accused the DEM Party of being complicit following its failure to sign a joint parliamentary statement condemning the terrorist actions.

The parliamentary statement was signed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the MHP, the İYİ (Good) Party and the Felicity Party.

"We do not want terrorists in the parliament. The salaries of 57 DEM deputies and the Treasury aid to be paid to the terrorist nest should be immediately cut and transferred to the fight against terrorism and the families of martyrs," Bahçeli said during his party's group meeting on Dec. 26.

Bahçeli reiterated his longstanding concerns about the pro-Kurdish party's and its precedessors' alleged ties with the PKK and criticized the Constitutional Court for not deciding on pending immunity files of some DEM Party deputies.

Addressing top court's head Zühtü Arslan directly, Bahçeli questioned, "Mr. Zühtü, in whose hands is your command?... I wonder what Constitutional Court president must have felt in the face of the news of martyrs," and went on to call the court's members "collaborators in black robes."

The MHP leader also took aim at DEM Party deputy Ömer Öcalan for suggesting dialogue with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan as a solution to the Kurdish question. "In our view, the solution is the total annihilation of terrorism and terrorists and the ruthless eradication of their supporters," Bahçeli said.

Turning his attention to the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Bahçeli criticized them for abstaining from the joint statement against terrorism made by four political parties in the Turkish parliament. He accused CHP leader Özgür Özel of having "gone out of his mind" and becoming ensnared in the "narcosis of separatism."

CHP's response to last week's attacks came swiftly, calling for a closed session in parliament to discuss regional security and condemning terrorism in a separate statement.

"To pretend that the problem has been solved by signing a piece of A4 as if nothing has happened is to deceive the nation. Twelve sons of the homeland have been martyred, and no one thinks of declaring national mourning," Özel elaborated on his party's stance.