MHP leader lashes out at CHP over İmamoğlu case

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli has strongly criticized the Republican People’s Party (CHP) for trying to create polarization in the country by politicizing the legal proceedings against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

“Distorting a legal case [to use it] for polarizing the politics is more than carelessness, it is a demonstration of bad intentions,” Bahçeli said, referring to the arrest of İmamoğlu over corruption allegations.

On March 19, İmamoğlu and scores of people including two district mayors of Istanbul were detained on alleged corruption and terror links. İmamoğlu and some 48 suspects were arrested pending trial on March 23.

“The Republican People’s Party has staged a war of violence and evil against the Republic of Türkiye,” Bahçeli argued, stressing that the Turkish citizens have stood calm against sabotages against Türkiye.

Describing the mass protests between March 19 and 23 as fascistic uprising, Bahçeli said that the CHP’s aim was to suffocate Türkiye through street incidents.

Draining this swamp of scandalous and unlawful corruption and holding the perpetrators accountable is a responsibility of a state of rule of law,” he stressed.

The start of street protests comes at a moment when Türkiye’s role and influence in its region grow amid hopes that the war between Russia and Ukraine will soon end, Bahçeli noted. He also recalled the efforts to create a terror-free Türkiye at the expense of disturbing some foreign powers.