Bahçeli hopes Erdoğan to convey Turkey’s unease over US’ affinity with PKK

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Party leader Devlet Bahçeli on June 8 said he believes that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will convey U.S. President Joe Biden Turkey’s discomfort over its “affinity” with the illegal PKK group.

Speaking at the parliament group meeting of the MHP, Bahçeli cited the killing of Selman Bozkır, a senior official from the PKK who was responsible for the Makhmur camp in northern Iraq, saying that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations expressed unease over the killing.

“The fate of terrorist Selman Bozkır disturbed the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,” he said, noting that this statement was “both worthless and rude.” He criticized the support of Washington to the YPG and identified the U.S. policy as a “disgrace.”

“I believe that our honorable president will tell U.S. President Biden about the scandalous developments that are incompatible with the alliance, the closeness established with the terrorist organization, and he will convey the messages of our nation to his face about reverting from wrongdoing,” Bahçeli said.

Bahçeli also urged the Constitutional Court to close the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) following Turkey’s top prosecutor refiling an indictment seeking dissolution of the party. The HDP must be “erased from Turkish politics,” he said.

“From now on, all eyes will be on the Constitutional Court. This court did not have the option to return the indictment a second time. Turkey cannot lose the enormous superiority, which it has gained against terrorism, in the parliament and no one can serve this loss,” Bahçeli said.

He also criticized the “delay” in lifting the immunities of the HDP lawmakers at the parliament whose summary proceedings were sent.