MHP leader urges gov’t to shed light on deadly attack on party office

ANKARA

‘Separatists have proven that there is no change in their intention by continuing their provocations in the cities after the mountains,’ MHP leader Bahçeli says. DHA photo

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has urged the government to shed light on a deadly Jan. 26 attack on the opposition party’s election bureau.

“Do those who decided to shed the blood of nationalists to change the agenda in Turkey, those who are eager to spark a civil war in the country, belong to the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AKP or the [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK?” Bahçeli asked yesterday during his party’s parliamentary group meeting. “This mystery must be explained by the prime minister and his government.”

Cengiz Akyıldız, an adviser to the MHP’s Istanbul mayoral candidate, was killed and five others were wounded late Jan. 26 in an attack on one of the party’s campaign offices in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district. Seven people have been detained for alleged links to the attack, while the police said the motivation behind the attack was not political.

Bahçeli, however, said the perpetrators’ aim was to provoke MHP supporters to take to the streets.
“We will not give provocation campaigns a chance,” Bahçeli told his lawmakers. “We will not move one inch away from the rules and principles of democracy. We will not go beyond the rules of law.”
Bahçeli said the attacks would not derail his nationalist party. “No one should think that we have lost. No one should imagine we are overwhelmed.”

The attack targeted not only the MHP but also the Turkish nation and Turkey, the party leader said. “Turkish politics were shot at in Esenyurt,” he added.

“The national will was attacked in Esenyurt. Separatists have proven that there is no change in their intention by continuing their provocations in the cities after the mountains,” Bahçeli said, pinning the blame for the attack on the PKK.

“They hope that ethnic- and sectarian-based fighting will spread. They want the nationalist movement to take to the streets and be a part of the infighting in the country. But we will not give provocation campaigners a chance,” Bahçeli said.