Devlet Bahçeli, head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who was hospitalized on Feb. 4, announced on Sunday that he was recovering.
In a written statement, the veteran politician, a key partner of the People’s Alliance led by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), said he went through an illness and was swiftly recovering. Earlier, media outlets reported that he underwent surgery for the replacement of a heart valve.
Bahçeli’s message on Sunday focused on the 56th anniversary of his party and U.S. President Donald Trump’s notorious offer to relocate Palestinians in Gaza.
"Turkish nationalism is the sole front of resistance against a U.S. President who frantically triggered political, economic and diplomatic crises since he took office and is against a chaotic international order,” Bahçeli said. He stated that "the mafia-like attempt to take over Gaza is a ticking timebomb,” adding that sending oppressed Gazans into Egypt and Jordan was a demonstration of cruelty by "imperialist bandits." "This is a revival of exploitation similar to those by U.S. plantation owners. Its consequence may be a harsh conflict on a global level,” he said.
"It is a troubled conundrum when the imperialism will stop after this horrible Gaza project and to what extent Türkiye would be targeted by them. Emptying Gaza means challenging Türkiye and the Muslim world. The U.S. President who acted in a humiliating way by giving the Israeli prime minister a chair made an early choice on serving Zionist ambitions,” Bahçeli said, referring to Trump pulling out a chair for Benjamin Netanyahu as he hosted him at the White House last week.
MHP anniversary
On the 56th anniversary of his party, Bahçeli said they left a mark in mainstream Turkish politics throughout the decades. He noted that MHP, both as a coalition partner of past governments and as an opposition party, existed for a long time as the home of those who love the nation, as a school of politics that raised cadres representing national policies and nationalism in the Turkic world.
The MHP was founded in 1969 when its founder, Alparslan Türkeş, changed the name of the Republican Villagers Nation Party (CKMP). Türkeş, a former colonel, was elected as its first chair. The party secured 3% of the vote in the 1969 elections, with Türkeş elected as a lawmaker from the constituency of southern Türkiye’s Adana. The party increased its vote in the 1973 elections and was given two ministerial seats in a government set up by Süleyman Demirel and Alparslan Türkeş, who served as deputy prime minister. Its vote rose to 6.4% in the 1977 elections and again, it formed a coalition government with veteran politician Süleyman Demirel.
The party was closed after the 1980 coup, but its cadres returned to politics with the Conservative Party founded in 1983. The party was renamed the Nationalist Task Party in 1985, and Türkeş was elected as chair of this party in 1987 after a political ban on nationalist leaders was lifted. It was renamed MHP again in 1993 with Türkeş at the helm. After Türkeş died in 1997, the party elected Bahçeli as chair. Under Bahçeli, the MHP secured more than 17% of the vote in the 1999 elections, trailing behind the leading Democratic Left Party (DSP). It became a coalition government partner after those elections.
MHP’s vote declined in the 2002 elections and failed to win parliamentary seats. But it made a strong comeback in the 2007 elections, winning 71 parliamentary seats. Another vote decline in 2015 paved the way for dissent in the party. Sinan Oğan, Koray Aydın and Meral Akşener, three prominent figures in the party, sought a new intraparty election. Bahçeli resisted attempts to oust him, while Akşener and Aydın later left the party and founded the Good Party (IP).
In 2016, MHP led the efforts to switch to the executive presidency system and, in 2018, joined the presidential elections as part of the People’s Alliance, which was formed with the AK Party. Since then, it has been an inseparable part of the alliance.
In the 2023 general elections, MHP secured a 10.07% vote and currently has 48 parliamentary seats.