Turkey's nationalists threaten AKP alliance with calls to ban pro-Kurdish party
While claiming loyalty to the ruling party, Turkish nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli is squeezing the president by demanding the outright banning of the pro-Kurdish HDP.
Devlet Bahceli, leader of Turkey's far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), took to Twitter today to shoot down conjecture that his informal alliance with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in its death throes. Bahceli declared that his alliance with Erdogan, which was “a standard-bearer of tranquility for our honorable people and yet unborn Turkish children,” would continue “no matter the cost.” Those who claimed the opposite were liars seeking to sow discord, he said.
Bahceli also pooh-poohed the notion that Erdogan was looking for new allies in the run-up to possible early elections before 2023 when they are due to be held. Erdogan has been meeting with the leaders of several smaller parties, including the Islamist Felicity Party and the ultranationalist Grand Unity Party, over the past days. Bahceli insisted the visits served to broaden and bolster the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) existing alliance with the MHP. “There is no question of the MHP being upset by these visits. We support them in full,” he said.
