MHP leader questions the president’s conscience

ANKARA

AA Photo

The leader of Turkey’s nationalist party has questioned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s conscience, adding the families of security personnel killed over the past several months across the country were crying out in vain.

“Does he ever suffer a twinge of conscience while the parents of martyred soldiers face great sorrow every day?” Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli asked reporters in Ankara on Sept. 24, apparently referring to Erdoğan, after performing a feast prayer in a mosque in the capital. 

Bahçeli criticized that the president has been reiterating his demand for 550 deputies to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Nov. 1 election amid an upsurge in violence ripping through the country’s east and southeast, with dozens of security personnel killed in attacks by outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants.

“He is on the wrong track. Mr. President should know where his statements go. How could he possibly sleep in such an environment of violence when requiems are shouted out to the sky?” Bahçeli said, expressing his criticisms against Erdoğan.  

Bahçeli said terrorism was not a problem with Kurds, but was rather an intentional act against the Kurdish citizens of Turkey in particular as well as against all other citizens of the country. 

“Fighting against terrorism should continue. It has been figured that terrorism is not a ‘Kurdish’ problem as some say, but rather an intentional act primarily against Kurdish citizens and all other peoples of Turkey,” he said.

Bahçeli also stressed the need for a collective mindset to create a harmonious environment in the country.

“A mindset based on collectiveness and inclusiveness should be made up to consolidate an environment for living in harmony in Turkey,” he said.