The fear of the Turkish opposition party leader

The final stage has been reached in the dismissal of provincial Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) organizations which signed to convene an extraordinary party convention. Of the 18 provincial organizations in favor of the extraordinary convention, 16 have been closed down. 

Thus, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli is assuming he has prevented a “plot” organized against his party. 

As a matter of fact, it is not very easy to say why he is so afraid of a party convention. He does not have a single block opposition against him. Also, the number of provincial organizations that signed up for a convention was less than those that did not. 

But, again, he wants to make sure everything is guaranteed. 

There is only one reason for this: Bahçeli is afraid.

Bahçeli caused the three-party coalition government of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), the Motherland Party (ANAP) and the MHP to collapse and made way for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to come to power in 2002. After that he was never able to make correct politics. 

Since that day he has never won an election and was once under the threshold. With the policies he adopted after the June 2015 elections, he made it possible for a renewed election, in which he lost half his deputies.  

He is worried those provincial organizations which did not sign may be caught in the wind of the convention. For this reason, he has not refrained from totally shelving democracy in the party, which did not exist anyway. 

We will see, in the general elections, that this will not be good for the MHP or Turkey.

Advisor smashes government 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the decision of the Constitutional Court to release jailed journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, said, “I do not accept it. I do not abide by their decision. I do not respect it.” The aftershocks of this tremor have reached the government.

The AKP spokesmen had welcomed the decision initially, but when the president said he was not happy, they changed their opinion. 

However, the government could not change opinion that fast because this matter was brought up as a criticism by every foreign contact of the prime minister.

As a matter of fact, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said the president’s views were his own personal opinions. One of the chief advisors of the president, Mustafa Akış, replied that it was a statement made in his capacity as the head of the state. 

One day, there could be a change in the foundational law of the Constitutional Court, and the prime minister may not even know about it. 

Remember, the 4+4+4 practice in education was processed into a law against the opposition of the education minister. 

Like a sitcom 

When I read the tweet written by Akış, I smiled. The tweet said, “The president is the head of the state and the government according to our constitution. And he supervises the practice of the constitution.”

I smiled because I was curious how the president would perform this supervision; he has not hesitated to violate the constitution from day one in office.

He should have severed his contact with his party the day he was elected, but he did not do this until he took the oath and meanwhile he convened his party’s convention. 

He organized rallies during the election campaign. He asked for 400 deputies for the AKP. He said: “We have put the constitution in the waiting room.”

He repeated that the constitutional regime was “de facto” changed. 

And now, his chief advisor is saying he would look over whether the constitution was applied correctly. 

What can I say? The chief advisor has a very developed sense of humor.