Deputy PM Türkeş objects to his expulsion from MHP

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Hürriyet Photo

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Tuğrul Türkeş has objected to his expulsion from his own Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) after he accepted an offer to join the country’s interim cabinet.

The central disciplinary committee of the MHP expelled Türkeş from the party on Sept. 5 on disciplinary grounds because he accepted the offer in defiance of his party’s instructions not to participate in the interim administration.

Türkeş, a deputy from Ankara, is the son of MHP founder Alparslan Türkeş. He was the first Turkish parliamentarian to accept Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s invitation to join the caretaker government.

Türkeş became the deputy prime minister of the new cabinet formed on Aug. 28 in the run-up to the Nov.1 election.

In a letter of protest to the central disciplinary committee of the MHP, the deputy prime minister objected to his expulsion and wanted the party’s decision to be declared null and void.

“I made my party be in power. I did not commit a disciplinary act. No one can assert that,” he said in the letter.

“It cannot be accepted as a disciplinary act anywhere in the world for a person who serves as a deputy to accept a constitutional and national duty,” he added.

“By accepting the ministerial duty, I did not participate in any illegal organization,” he said.

The provisional government, which will steer Turkey to a rerun of June’s general election on Nov. 1, includes representatives from Davutoğlu’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and two from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), in addition to Türkeş.      

The Republican People’s Party (CHP), the second largest in Turkey’s parliament, refused to join the interim cabinet.