MHP in dirty bargain with AKP: Demirtaş

ANKARA

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The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is engaged in a “filthy bargain” with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) over shifting Turkey to a presidential system, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has said. 

“I don’t have any specific information but [MHP head Devlet] Bahçeli and the AKP are preparing an agenda via holding meetings behind closed doors,” Demirtaş told reporters on Oct. 17, adding that he added that the MHP “pretends to be doing opposition but is actually having secret meetings with the AKP.”

“[On the presidential system], Bahçeli passed the ball to the AKP to help it score. I think they be more moral and ethical. Conducting presidential system negotiations while still trying to act like the opposition doesn’t befit political ethics. A party may decide to support a government on an issue and that’s a reputable act. But it is unethical to act like the opposition while engaging in dirty negotiations at the same time,” he said.

“This is a deliberate scenario set up by the AKP and the MHP. No one should try to sell us a dictatorship under the name that the parliamentary system doesn’t work,” he added, stressing that the HDP opposes the presidential system. 

“Regarding the presidential system, the semi-presidential system, or anything else, the most important thing is not the name of the system, but whether or not it will include democracy. To build a one-man dictatorial regime has been sought for a long time. They call it the presidential system. We have already announced that we are against it,” Demirtaş added.