MHP head Bahçeli returns to office after heart surgery

Umut Erdem - ANKARA

DHA Photo

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli returned to his office on Feb. 8 after resting for 24 days following heart surgery. 

Bahçeli went to the MHP headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara on Feb. 8. It is also reported that he will be addressing his party’s weekly group meeting in parliament on Feb. 9. 

He was welcomed by many supporters at the party HQ, to whom he vowed that he would “continue the struggle.”

Bahçeli was discharged from hospital on Jan. 20 after undergoing preventative open-heart surgery. 

Supporters of the long-time MHP head were waiting in front of the hospital on Jan. 20 when he left the hospital building on foot.

Prof. Dr. Sertaç Çiçek told reporters on Jan. 20 that Bahçeli had undergone the four-hour-long operation on Jan. 15 at a private hospital in the Gebze district of the northwestern province of Kocaeli. 

“His health situation is very good now,” he said. 

Recalling that the MHP leader also underwent heart surgery in 2004, Çiçek said they had fixed a problem in one of Bahçeli’s heart valves that could have caused problems in the future. 

“This was a planned surgery to prevent such problems in the future,” said Bahçeli’s doctor at the time.