Turkey's Nationalists Threaten Inter-Communal Fighting
The peace process between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has given raise to a nationalist backlash, writes Cengiz Candar.
![MHP leader Devlet Bahceli addresses his supporters during an election rally in Ankara Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli addresses his supporters during an election rally in Ankara, June 4, 2011. Turkey will hold parliamentary elections on June 12. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: ELECTIONS POLITICS) - RTR2NA7B](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2013/04/1-RTR2NA7B.jpg/1-RTR2NA7B.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=MyPhr_YF)
To challenge the opposition nationalists, Turkey’s ever self-confident Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan alluded to the Ottoman eyalet system of semi-autonomous provinces and recalled that during the Ottoman era there were eyalets called Kurdistan and Lazistan.
Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkey’s arch-nationalist opposition Nationalist Action Party (MHP) that at times assumes a racist outlook, realized the message of reconciliation from imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan that was read to more than a million people at Diyarbakir on March 21 could lead to a peace process and add much to Erdogan’s credibility. He decided to counter the process by organizing a series of public meetings.