MHP leader slams opposition parties over ‘weak’ reaction against Biden 

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chair Devlet Bahçeli has criticized opposition parties for “underreacting” against U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden who had suggested to help Turkish opposition parties in their effort to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in elections. 

“The reaction given so far by these opposition parties is weak, dull and ineffective,” Bahçeli, whose party was an electoral ally of Erdoğan’s ruling party, said in a written statement on Aug 20. 

Remarks made by Biden, a former vice president and the U.S. Democrat Party’s presidential nominee, on Turkish politics in an interview with the New York Times’ editors seven months ago have recently drawn strong reactions from both the government and opposition parties. 

Biden had described Erdoğan as an “autocrat” and argued to support opposition leaders to defeat the Turkish president through elections.

Bahçeli targeted the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and described Biden as a man “with a dark past.” 

“Biden’s dark past and shady background expose that his attempt against Turkey’s sovereignty is not incidental,” he said. 

The MHP leader claimed that the pressure on Turkey escalated during the Obama administration, for which Biden served as vice president, recalling it was these two politicians who let the U.S. “create bonds with terror organizations,” referring to the YPG in Syria. 

“[Voicing] the objective of toppling the elected president of a country means both hostility to democracy and plotting a coup,” Bahçeli said.