MHP vice chairman resigns, calls for extraordinary congress

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Vice Chairman Ümit Özdağ submitted his resignation to the party on Wednesday and called for an extraordinary congress amid heavy pressure by dissidents on party Chairman Devlet Bahçeli.

"An extraordinary congress should be called in order to end the instability in the party," Özdağ said, making his resignation publicly known.

Dissidents in the MHP have been pushing for an extraordinary congress for a long time and, following its poor performance in the Nov. 1 elections, intra-party opposition pressed the button to oust Bahçeli as chairman.

Meral Akşener, Sinan Oğan and Koray Aydın were the first to declare a so-called intra-party war against Bahçeli. The trio submitted 543 signatures to the party in the presence of a notary public in mid-January for an extraordinary congress. This number is sufficient to call for an extraordinary congress, but it is far below the threshold to change the party bylaws, which disallow elections for the chairmanship at extraordinary congresses.

Bahçeli quickly dismissed the three dissidents and said that he would not convene the congress, pointing to 2018 as the earliest time for elections on the matter.

The case is now before a court, and the party is yet to submit its defense for dismissing calls for the congress. The party has until March 11 to submit its defense.

There were also accusations that the Gülen Movement attempting to seize MHP chairmanship through Akşener's candidacy. Bahçeli publicly shared his concerns in early December 2015, saying: "Three fellow members declared their candidacy for the chairmanship. One of them does not have such a right because he [Oğan] was expelled. Then there is a candidate who joined the MHP as a political figure of the Gülen Movement."

Akşener quickly responded to the claims: ""I have no connection to the Gülen Movement. I would have proudly said if I had." Her statement, however, was interpreted by certain columnists as a clear sign of her affiliation with the Gülen Movement.