Opposition leader likens police crackdown on demonstrators in Turkey to ‘Nazi gas chambers’

ANKARA

MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli has heavily criticized the excessive use of tear gas by the police against the demonstrators. DHA Photo

Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has heavily criticized the excessive use of tear gas by the police against the demonstrators in countrywide protests, while urging calm.

“Yes it is true that the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AKP has established gas chambers similar to the Nazis, it is true that the AKP pokes its nose into everybody’s private lives,” Bahçeli told his party members in Parliament during a group meeting. “But the only place to overcome the AKP is the elections, those who are irritated by the prime minister’s authoritarian tune should not leave the path of legality. Whatever happens, the solution is democracy.”

Bahçeli said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was “vindictive and arrogant.”

“The real reason behind the incidents is the stubbornness of the prime minister,” the MHP leader said. “One side will remain missing if we say that what happened is just because of cutting down trees.”

Bahçeli also said that a shopping mall and the historical artillery barracks could not be built in Taksim without the approval of the people of Istanbul, while calling on all the demonstrators to calm down the tension.

“Those who support Taksim deserve praise,” he said, adding that members of terrorist groups had been involved in the protests. “I invite everybody to maturity and common sense,” Bahçeli said.

Prime Minister Erdoğan is facing down some of the fiercest protests in his decade-long rule.

 The unrest, which began on Friday after police cracked down on a demonstration in Istanbul, quickly blew up into anti-government protests across the country.

Bahçeli: MHP not involved in protests

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has made it clear that his party and its supporters have not and would not get involved in the ongoing anti-government protests and that they wanted a democratic resolution to the unrest in the country.

“Not only the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) coming together with the divisive and destructive formations, even being mentioned with these groups is a shame to the MHP’s honorable name,” Bahçeli said, speaking at a parliamentary group meeting of his party.

“By the way, I have to mention again that it is not possible for us to get involved with any Taksim incidents. None of the members of Nationalist Movement Party will be involved in any incidents. For us, the only place for the AKP to fall and be unseated is the ballot and this is only possible by the blessed will of the Turkish nation. No matter what happens, the only resolution is democracy,” Bahçeli stated.

Similarly, Bahçeli said it was interesting that supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were attending the protests by carrying posters of their leader and also said he believed that the PKK had considered this a chance to divide the crowd. He claimed that the PKK sympathizers had engaged in strenuous efforts to use the incidents to their advantage.

Bahçeli further indicated that President Abdullah Gül should assume a more active role in order to calm down the ongoing unrest.