Nationalist party gathers huge crowds in İzmir in reaction to peace process

The huge crowd caused disruption to traffic in the city, daily Hürriyet reported. Some MHP supporters followed the meeting near the seaside promenade on small boats. DHA photo

The opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) organized a meeting against the current peace process on the Kurdish issue initiated by the government in İzmir April 20, attracting thousands of people in a town known to view the ongoing talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) with skepticism.

Huge crowds waved Turkish flags and held photographs of soldiers killed during clashes with PKK militants. The city is bastion of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), but it is also home to a large population of Kurds who have migrated from the east to find work.

As a fierce opponent of the talks, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli has initiated a series of nine meetings in nine different cities, branded “Protect and Cherish National Values” meetings. The first was held in Bursa on March 23.

Describing the İzmir meeting, the second on the agenda, as the “flag meeting,” Bahçeli slammed critics who said supporters of the process outnumbered those who rejected it.

“We will not give permission to those who try to tear [the Turkish flag] apart. Because it’s the symbol of our independence,” Bahçeli said.

He also intensified his criticism of the 63 "wise persons" selected by the government to win public support for the process. “The PKK’s ambassadors, half intellectuals, terror peddlers, blood barons, death mongers, the immorals who speak seditiously of 'solutions' and 'peace' should fear this noise. These 63 should fear. They should quickly stop creating dissension,” he said.

Bahçeli also attacked Prime Minister Erdoğan. “If surrendering to the terrorist organization will bring spring, why did we fight for 29 years. Some thoughts about this, Mr. Erdoğan,” he said.

(Hürriyet Daily News)

MHP to continue with Bahçeli as leader

AA Photo

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) delegates have re-elected Devlet Bahçeli as their leader at the party’s congress today in Ankara, daily Hürriyet has reported.

Bahçeli retained his post with 725 of 1,241 delegates voting in his favor.

Bahçeli’s strongest rival was MHP Trabzon deputy Koray Aydın, who received 441 votes, according to Hürriyet. (hurriyetdailynews)

Turkish nationalist leader falls down during convention

Turkish nationalist leader falls down during convention

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli tripped on a carpet and fell during a party convention.

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Greek Neo-Nazi party protests Turkish MPs

Three Turkish lawmakers take their oath on the Quran in the Greek Parliament.

Lawmakers from Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party remained seated yesterday when the country’s three Turkish deputies took their oath on the Quran in Parliament.

Three-hundred deputies were sworn in during a religious ceremony led by Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of Greece’s Orthodox Church, including 18 members of the extremist far-right Golden Dawn party, a group that rejects the neo-Nazi label but whose members have frequently been accused of violent attacks against immigrants.

When Syriza lawmakers Hüseyin Zeybek, Ayhan Karayusuf and PASOK lawmaker Ahmet Hacıosman took their oath on the Quran, Golden Dawn lawmakers remained seated to protest them.

Greeks clash with police as Bahçeli visits Thessaloniki

In a separate incident, a group of Greek Cypriots and members of the Golden Dawn party clashed with police in Thessaloniki after trying to enter the Turkish general consulate yesterday to protest a visit by Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Turkish opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who is visiting Greece as part of his tour of Balkan countries.

Bahçeli was paying a visit to the house where modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was born while the city was under Ottoman rule in 1881, when a group of around 60 Greek Cypriot students gathered in front of the Turkish general consulate to protest his visit. A scuffle broke out between the group and Greek police officers protecting the consulate after the students tried to pass the police barricade. Around 40 members of Golden Dawn joined the melee, which ended after the police dispersed the group with tear gas.

Bahçeli left Thessaloniki in the afternoon for Macedonia. (Hurriyet Daily News)

Greeks clash with police as Turkish party head visits Thessaloniki

REUTERS photo

A group of Greek Cypriots and members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party clashed with police in Thessaloniki after trying to enter the Turkish general consulate today.

The groups were protesting a visit by the leader of the Turkish opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli to the city, who is visiting Greece as part of his tour of Balkan countries.

Bahçeli was paying a visit to the house where modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was born while the city was under Ottoman rule in 1881, when a group of around 60 Greek Cypriot students gathered in front of the Turkish general consulate to protest the nationalist leader's visit. A scuffle broke out between the group and Greek police officers protecting the consulate after the students tried to pass the police barricade. Around 40 members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party joined the melee, which ended after the police dispersed the group with tear gas.

Bahçeli left Thessaloniki in the afternoon for Macedonia. (Hurriyet.com.tr)

MHP leader asks PM if jailed PKK leader is on İmralı

AA Photo

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has asked the government whether the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) imprisoned leader is still on the prison island of İmralı given his silence on recent efforts by the ruling and main opposition parties to solve the Kurdish question.

"Why is [Abdullah] Öcalan silent now while the ruling and [main] opposition parties have come together to solve the Kurdish question even though he has always expressed his opinions from İmralı before?” MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli asked. “Is he unaware of what is happening? Or isn't he on İmralı? I want to ask [Prime Minister] Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Is he?"


"What are you going to do if you personally see that Öcalan still lives on İmralı? Then we should take the gentlemen [Bahçeli] to İmralı. However, this is going to set a bad example for the BDP," Erdoğan said in response. "We will keep on responding to Mr. Bahçeli and his friends with graciousness … not with revilement.”

Last week, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) accepted the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) proposal to collaborate in an effort to solve the Kurdish problem, recommending also the establishment of a dual mechanism on the matter. The MHP, however, has categorically refused to participate in the collaboration. (ISTANBUL- Hürriyet)

Ruling party, nationalist opposition eye closer ties

MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli supports Interior Minister Şahin on his Uludere remarks. AA photo

The AKP and MHP look ready to make common cause as they coalesce in their ideas on the charter and the Kurdish issue, especially in regard to Uludere.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) appear to be enjoying rapprochement as the two converge on their approaches to the Kurdish issue and deliberations on a new constitution.

Both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli lashed out at critics of last year’s botched air raid in southeastern Uludere, backing controversial suggestions by Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin that there were links between the slain smugglers and Kurdish militants.

The two sides’ common stance on the politically explosive issue comes at a time when the AKP and the MHP have already displayed similar attitudes on contentious topics at Parliament’s constitution-making commission, where the ruling party will need an ally to pass the new charter if efforts for an all-party consensus fail.

Given the fact that the AKP and MHP adopted similar lines in writing constitutional articles on equality, human dignity and fundamental rights, political observers believe this trend is likely to continue in future discussions on the charter.

In a recent statement, Erdoğan said he would not push for an all-party consensus if he faced impositions during the constitution-making process. Instead, he announced that he would make an alliance with one of the parties.

Echoing the much-criticized remarks of Şahin, Erdoğan suggested yesterday that the 34 smugglers killed mistakenly at the Iraqi border on Dec. 28, 2011, could have been linked to or aided by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). He also questioned how they had managed to move safely in an area where militants plant handmade explosives. “It’s remarkable that none of those smugglers stepped on a bomb. Who has a map [of the explosives]?,” Erdoğan said at his party’s parliamentary group meeting ahead of visits to Şanlıurfa and Diyarbakır on the weekend.

The interior minister had suggested last week that the smugglers were “extras” in a ploy “orchestrated entirely” by the PKK and that the goods they were bringing from northern Iraq had been supplied by the militants. His allegations triggered a harsh response by AKP deputy chair Hüseyin Çelik, an ethnic Kurd, and reportedly irked other Kurdish members of the party.

Bahçeli supports Şahin

But Şahin also received support from Bahçeli, who hailed the minister’s attitude as “comforting and appreciated” in the struggle against the PKK. “Even though his manners are sometimes wrong, the interior minister is carrying out his duty in good faith. Setting aside the separatist terrorists and grappling with the minister instead is playing into the hands of the PKK,” he said.

In further remarks yesterday, Erdoğan insisted that the unrelenting debate over the botched strike was part of an “orchestrated campaign” to tarnish the government, which, he said, is being backed by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP), as well as the Turkish media and foreign media linked to “Jewish lobbies.” (ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News)