Addressing his fellow deputies at a weekly meeting on Wednesday at Parliament, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli criticized Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for offering him the Prime Ministry in return for joining a coalition with the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). "I wonder how Kılıçdaroğlu dares to present a prerogative to us, which was not given to us by the people?" Bahçeli said, claiming that Kılıçdaroğlu attempted to set a trap against the MHP. "The Turkish nation has entrusted the position of being the main opposition to the MHP," Bahçeli said.
Bahçeli said that the people bestowed the MHP the duty of being the main opposition party and harshly criticized Kılıçdaroğlu saying he was not in a position to make the proposal. Moving on to coalition scenarios, Bahçeli asserted that the MHP would never cooperate with the HDP as Kılıçdaroğlu suggested, seeing the HDP as the political apparatus of the PKK terrorist organization. He stressed that the MHP would never compromise on its nationalist principles or disregard them, not even for a coalition. "We cannot explain it to millions of voters if we make concessions and give up our nationalist stance," Bahçeli said.
Evaluating the possible coalition between the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the CHP, Bahçeli claimed that its formation was imminent referring to Kılıçdaroğlu's statement that affirmed the CHP would not follow a revanchist policy toward the AK Party. He said that Kılıçdaroğlu's statement was received positively by AK Party chairman and interim prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, and they were currently working on a coalition formula. He underscored that the CHP should not waste its time trying to persuade the MHP to form a coalition government with the HDP, and dismissed all speculations that the MHP could be included in such a coalition even when he was offered the Prime Ministry by Kılıçdaroğlu.
Touching on recent events transpiring near the Syrian border, Bahçeli said that Turkey would not bow to the PKK, Democratic Union Party (PYD) or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). He claimed that the PKK and PYD were committing ethnic cleansing in the regions under their control and stressed that Turkey should act against these atrocities without waiting for the approval of the international community. He asserted that he was not calling for war, but for self-defense, as Turkey is under siege from all sides and according to him the possible establishment of a Kurdish corridor would pose a threat to Turkey's unity.
