President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday met his close ally Devlet Bahçeli, the head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), for first time in over three months since the latter underwent a cardiac surgery, Turkish media has reported.
Erdoğan paid a visit to Bahçeli’s home in Ankara for a meeting that lasted nearly 40 minutes, media reports said.
No further information was released about the meeting.
The 77-year-old politician, a key partner of the People’s Alliance led by Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), underwent a surgery for the replacement of a heart valve in early February.
He and Erdoğan last met on Jan. 9 but the MHP leader has remained dedicated to his duties within the alliance during the period.
Bahçeli is behind the recent “terror-free Türkiye” initiative that has paved the way for the impending dissolution of the PKK, a terrorist group that has plagued the country for over four decades.
Bahçeli launched the initiative last year when he unexpectedly shook hands with lawmakers of the opposition Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) during the inauguration of the new session of Parliament.
The move was surprising as Bahçeli is known for his staunch opposition to DEM’s very existence due to its links to the PKK, which killed thousands across Türkiye since the 1980s.
It was also Bahçeli who called jailed ringleader of terrorist group Abdullah Öcalan to “come to the parliamentary group meeting of DEM and announce the dissolution of PKK.”
Öcalan did not visit Parliament, but in a February message from the prison where he is held in the Marmara Sea, he made the historic call to the group.
The PKK is now expected to announce a dissolution of its ranks and operations, including in northern Iraq and Syria where it operates through its local offshoot, the YPG.
