Out of the 1,220 delegates that voted at yesterday's MHP Tenth Ordinary Congress, which was held at the Ankara Arena Sports Center, Bahçeli received the majority 725 votes, followed by Koray Aydın with 441 votes and Müsavat Dervişoğlu with 48 votes. Ankara Deputy Tuğrul Türkeş was elected as MHP Council Chairman.
Addressing the congress, prior to the vote, Bahçeli relayed the following messages:
A NATIONALIST PRESIDENT
"If you can recall, in this very same congress hall, the AKP mentality expressed their pride with Barzani. They were nearly going to announce their pride for the PKK and the murderer of İmralı.
We will prove that we can establish the Turkish government without seeking support from across the ocean. The election of a nationalist president, prime minister and speaker of the parliament is not a dream.
There have been times when we have ruthlessly criticized the government; there have also been times when we have offered out support on initiatives we felt benefitted our nation. We have a clear conscience and our minds are at ease.
Imperialism's lackeys are causing a ruckus through pushing issues such as Kurdish identity, constitutional status, hegemony, federation, education and court defenses in citizens' mother tongues. There is no Kurdish issue in Turkey, there are bids at separatism.
Providing things continue the way they are going, then the murderer of İmralı will first be sentenced to house arrest and then later will be released.
The municipal bill proposed will lead the way to a federation," stated Bahceli.
In his acceptance speech following the vote, Bahçeli went on to state, "Those instigators trying to rear their heads have not obtained their objective. Attempts to carve out our party internally and initiatives to render us ineffective have reaped no results. The traps set up against MHP were for nothing."
CENTRAL EXECUTIVE BOARD BRINGS ON NEARLY HALF NEW MEMBERS
MHP also formed a new 75-central executive board including Harun Öztürk, Chairman of the Ülkü Ocakları (self-titled the Flag-bearer of National Ideals), national footballer Saffet Sancaklı, former Deputy Chairman Şefkat Çetin, Bahçeli's attorney Hamit Kocabey, former undersecretaries Selçuk Coşkun and Alpaslan Kaya, former Izmir Deputy Şenol Bal, European Turk Federation Chairman Cemal Çetin and former Ankara provincial chair Ömer Demirel to name a few. The number of female members on the Central Executive Board was bumped up from the previous three, with members Hediye Akdere, Şenol Bal, Figen Tosuner, Emine Aybüken Yıldırım, Havva Baş and Zuhal Topçu all making the list.
This is a translation of an article originally written by Uğur Becerikli.
