President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ally and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader, Devlet Bahçeli, has hit out at the opposition for failing to join a parliamentary chorus condemning a terrorist attack that killed 12 Turkish soldiers in Iraq over the weekend.
“Approaching terrorists that shoot at Turkish soldiers with tolerance is a crime and these lawmakers will have to account for it,” Bahçeli told a parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.
Türkiye’s political parties on Sunday signed a joint declaration condemning the terrorist group PKK’s deadly attack on a Turkish military base in northern Iraq, stressing that the group was targeting “our unity and integrity, peace and security.”
Bahçeli, whose MHP is partners with Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) under the People’s Alliance, was referring to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and pro-PKK Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (Dem Party), who abstained from signing the declaration.
YSP co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan stirred up outrage before the PKK attacks by saying, “People in Tekirdağ or Trabzon will not be in peace as long as the Kurdish question persists.” The PKK claims it is fighting for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Türkiye. The CHP sought the support of the YSP before the latest general elections and upcoming municipal elections.
“Türkiye doesn’t want terrorists or enemies in its Parliament,” Bahçeli said. “All political parties here are obligated to present a message of unity and no party has the right to hide behind excuses like calling for ‘more information’ in the face of a terror problem.”
The MHP leader accused the CHP of “disliking” the joint declaration and “acting as a pillar” for the YSP.
He also proposed that YSP should have its Treasury funds and wages of its 57 lawmakers cut off, “which would be transferred to the terrorists.”
“CHP is losing its political identity by drifting behind the YSP,” Bahçeli said and declared the party was now “standing against the Republic of Türkiye” due to its current stance.
Referring to the outcry CHP Chair Özgür Özel sparked in his hometown, Manisa, following the PKK attacks, Bahçeli said, “If (Özel) doesn’t pull himself together, he soon won’t be able to show his face on the streets.”
The PKK has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people during its decadeslong campaign of terror against Türkiye. It currently operates and plots attacks on Turkish cities and security forces from its headquarters in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq.
