MHP head Bahçeli slams main opposition CHP for ‘acting in line with HDP’

ANKARA

AA photo

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli slammed Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on May 16 for “acting in line with” the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). 

“The ultimate goal of the games being played with Turkey is known and clear. In the first round, they want to impose a multiple-identity and multi-national state structure by redefining the understanding of the national sovereignty. The CHP has stepped into the picture to support this,” Bahçeli said in an address to his parliamentary group.

“The ultimate goal is to form Kurdistan and make it recognized. From within, there is [the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization] FETÖ and the [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK; from outside, there is [the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party] PYD, the [People’s Protection Units] YPG and [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] ISIL. They have accelerated their efforts to break our survival and destroy us,” he said.

Unlike the MHP, the CHP campaigned against constitutional amendments that were passed narrowly in a referendum on April 16, arguing that the changes would harm the principle of the separation of powers in Turkey. The CHP earlier announced that it will not partake in any process that would amount to “legitimizing the amendments.”

“The CHP has commenced a new process to write a new, more democratic constitution,” CHP Istanbul deputy Eren Erdem said on May 13, stating that in the upcoming period before the 2019 presidential election the CHP will work to consolidate all political segments that objected to the amendment.

MHP head Bahçeli slammed such a move as “an alignment with the HDP,” after Erdem visited the HDP’s imprisoned co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş in jail on May 12.

As announced earlier by the HDP’s spokesperson, Erdem said Demirtaş told him that the HDP would also work to commence a new process to write a new constitution to replace the current “illegitimate” amendments.

“The rapprochement between the CHP and the HDP, which began long before the April 16 referendum, is now highlighted by the 2019 [presidential election] and the preparation of a new constitution. It will be made official with an official political wedding,” Bahçeli said, blasting Erdem and saying the main opposition party “supported the PKK” by conveying messages from Demirtaş.

“The CHP’s couriers want to persuade our nation by carrying messages they received from the HDP’s co-leader, who is in prison now,” Bahçeli said.

“To be a voluntary spokesperson of the HDP amounts to openly winking at Qandil,” he added, referring to the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq, known as the headquarters of the PKK.


'President made right decision to visit US'

Bahçeli also lent support to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s official visit to Washington to meet U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The president has made the right decision to go to the U.S. I am announcing that the president is not alone. If the alliance with the U.S. is seriously damaged because of the PYD-YPG-PKK, and if it comes to breaking point, it will be correct to look after ourselves,” he said.