Turkey’s MHP backs AKP amid tensions with Russia

ANKARA

AA photo

Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will not let the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) stand alone on the issue of sovereignty and border rights, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli said in a Nov. 26 statement over increased tensions with Russia. 

“Turkey should defend to the end its kin, borders and rights to immunity that it derives from statehood,” Bahçeli said. 

“The Nationalist Movement Party will not leave the AKP government without support on this issue, securing all its rights to raise criticism,” he said. 

“Because this is an above-parties issue and related to national perpetuity.” 

According to the MHP leader, “it is groundless to expect that Turkey will fear it will be forced to compromise, keep down or part ways with a legitimate line.” 

Relations between Ankara and Moscow have been strained after a Turkish jet downed a Russian fighter that violated Turkey’s airspace on Nov. 24. Turkey has said the recent Russian bombardments in Syria were not targeting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but the Turkmen minority in the north of the neighboring country. 

“It is obvious that [Russia] is bombing on Bayırbucak Turkmens, behaving hostile to our kin, pouring death on Turkmen Mountain, thus pushing on Turkey’s patience and tolerance,” Bahçeli said. 

The MHP leader added it was “primitive that Russia was being a part of the Turkmen massacre right near our border on the pretext of operating against terrorists,” defining the act as “wildness.” 

Bahçeli also said remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said the downing of the plane was a “back-stabbing,” were a “sham.” 

“The tensions between Turkey and the Russian Federation, which are rising on a daily basis and resemble the Cold War’s conditions, are concerning by all means,” he said. 

The statement also said, “The Turkish pilots did what is necessary within the rules of engagement” following repeated air space violations.