Erdoğan, Bahçeli meet at presidential palace

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on April 10 at the presidential palace in Ankara.

It was their first meeting since the local elections on March 31. Their meeting, which was closed to the press, started at 12:10 p.m. and lasted about 30 minutes, media reports said. No official announcement was made following the meeting.

Erdoğan and Bahçeli had forged an election alliance called the “People’s Alliance.” After their joint efforts to win the referendum to shift the country to a presidential system in 2017, the AKP and MHP formed the alliance ahead of the June 24, 2018 elections. Their alliance later extended to the local elections on March 31.

Bahçeli said on April 9 that his party supports its ally AKP for a re-election appeal in Istanbul.

Commenting on the AKP’s demand that elections in Istanbul be redone, Bahçeli said: “Redoing an election is a necessity of democracy. Instead of a social chaos, it is better to go to the ballot boxes once again and the nation feels peaceful.”