Nationalist leader slams ongoing peace process saying, 'Our last word won't resemble Taksim'

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Devlet Bahçeli argued that the ongoing protests was diverting the attention away from the resolution process. AA photo

The leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has urged the revival of the debate on the withdrawal of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, arguing that the ongoing wave of protests in Turkey was diverting the attention away from the resolution process.

Devlet Bahçeli slammed the government's push for federalism and the presidential system, as well as the organization of the "North Kurdistan Union and Resolution Conference" in Diyarbakır, adding that his party would protect the unity of the nation at any cost.

"We have not said our last word about it. Our last word won't resemble Taksim," Bahçeli told reporters today in Ankara.

Bahçeli also accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of obtaining the results in the process of negotiations between the government and the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan during the "chaotic" atmosphere of the process.

"Has the withdrawal process ended or not? Our people know nothing about it, or about issues such as how the new Constitution will meet the PKK's demands," Bahçeli said, calling for scrutiny of the process. "Nobody should cheat the people. Nobody should say they are asking for a fourth legislature.

Nobody who has no right should aspire for the presidency. The illusion of a presidential system and a federalism that will be used to divide Turkey should be abandoned," he added.

The PKK had announced that it started the withdrawal of its troops from Turkish soil as of May 8. The process is said to be ongoing while the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) is increasingly expressing concern over the government’s uncompromising stance, saying that it could bring the process to a deadlock.