Ergenekon court should avoid injustice: MHP

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli is seen during a meeting with journalists in ankara. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

Nationalist opposition leader Devlet Bahçeli urged the Ergenekon court not to lead a trial of injustice as the controversial case nears an end.

“Our wish is for there not to be any mistakes that could lead to injustice in the court, whose job is to seek justice,” Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Bahçeli said in a meeting with the press.

Highlighting that the trial started four years, one month and 23 days ago and that its scope had been expanded with new findings, the factuality of which is under question, Bahçeli stressed that it was not clear whether prosecutors’ deliberations would provide further clarification on the evidence.

“Our expectation from the judges is for a verdict in the fairest manner that will also satisfy public opinion after this long trial process,” Bahçeli said. Recalling that a parliamentarian from the MHP was also in prison as part of the ongoing coup plot trials, Bahçeli said his party has always been careful not to disrespect the judiciary and they would wait until the court gave the final verdict. “I think we can be patient for some more time,” he said.

Kurdish opening

On reports that the government was preparing to launch a new process for the solution of the Kurdish question, Bahçeli urged it not to initiate such proceedings and accused Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay of misleading Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the matter. “[The government] should better reveal what important steps it has taken for the continuity of the Turkish state, rather than steps meeting the demands of the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party]. If that is not the case then the new opening process is nothing but a contribution to the foundation of an independent Kurdistan,” he stated.

The MHP leader also criticized the government for giving imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan credit in the course of the hunger strikes. “Now we are wondering how the government will save itself from this,” he said, once again reiterating that the MHP would support the government if it moved to reinstate the death penalty.

In an ongoing discussion on whether the immunities of nine Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) lawmakers and one independent deputy should be lifted, Bahçeli also repeated his well-known stance suggesting immediate action for those deputies “who want to use their parliamentary immunity as a shield for actions that could drag Turkey to the edge of division.”

Regarding the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) proposal to lift all immunities for parliamentarians except for “rostrum immunity,” Bahçeli argued that this move was in fact made to protect BDP deputies.

Turning his attention to the government’s foreign policy, especially with regard to Iraq and Syria, Bahçeli drew attention to the situation of Turkmen, especially in the Kirkuk region in northern Iraq.

Bahçeli said they had not forgotten Massoud Barzani’s attacks against Turkmen that aimed to destroy their land registers and oppress Turkmen businessmen.

He also indirectly urged the CHP leader not to visit Iraq after the Iraqi prime minister had insulted Turkey by not allowing his delegation to visit Kirkuk or allow Energy Minister Taner Yıldız to travel to Arbil. CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu recently stated that he was planning to visit Baghdad, Kirkuk and Arbil, after receiving an invitation from the Iraqi authorities.