Nationalist leader warns against associating Kurdish people with PKK

ANKARA

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Turkey’s nationalist opposition leader voiced growing concerns over the prospect of an ethnic conflict that could stem from ongoing polarization in society amid a spiral of violence between the country’s security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“Our Kurdish-origin siblings are indispensable, irreplaceable and indivisible members of our nation. Considering the PKK and our Kurdish-origin siblings as one and same is a definite murder,” Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli said at a press conference on Sept. 15.

“This is essentially the terrorist organization’s goal and the loathsome stage that it wants to arrive at. Equating the PKK and our Kurdish-origin siblings is a blind trap which denies the nation and dynamites the base of Turkey,” Bahçeli said, calling on all citizens and in particular, his followers, to act with common sense and not to fall into the trap.

Last week, Bahçeli released a similar warning, as he joined calls for “common sense” in the face of rising violence and polarization in Turkey, warning that any reaction against violence must not serve to spark an ethnic conflict. 

Bahçeli’s statement on Sept. 15 came a day after Turkish security forces rescued eight workers from Turkey’s east after they were attacked by a group of ultranationalist locals in the northern Bolu province’s Mudurnu district, allegedly on the grounds that they disrespected the Turkish flag.

Bahçeli blames Erdoğan for igniting crowds

The MHP leader also claimed that recent attacks targeting Kurdish people, as well as media outlets, were staged by a new group called the Ottoman Hearths, which is actually linked to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

He claimed that this group tried to dissimulate used the far-right Turkish nationalist “grey wolf” (bozkurt in Turkish) hand gesture associated with the nationalist movement. 

“Chaos plans drafted at the unlicensed palace [of Erdoğan] are being taken to the ground by organized crime and mafia-style groups,” Bahçeli said.

“Those who make grey-wolf gestures while pelting newspapers with stones and those who make grey-wolf gestures and bully others definitely have no ties or connection with us. If the responsible criminal is being looked for, it would be appropriate to look at those crowds who gather at the unlicensed palace and who are used as its tool,” he added.