MHP leader readying for 2011 elections

The ninth general assembly of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, will be held over the weekend in Ankara. MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli is expected to run as the single candidate for the leadership of the party during the event. 

Bahçeli will identify his prospective list of who will carry the party to the 2011 general elections during the assembly. Bahçeli is also expected to banish around 10 people from the party’s Central Executive Board, or MYK; these ministers are close to former minister Koray Aydın, a rival to Bahçeli despite not having announced his candidacy for the party’s leadership.

Three crucial political figures, three sons

In forming the party’s top cadre, Bahçeli will give places to the sons of three important political figures in Turkey in the MYK. These include Deniz Bölükbaşı, son of the former founder, leader and deputy of the Nation Party, or MP, in the 1940s, Osman Bölükbaşı. The second is the intellectual Mithat Melen, son of former Prime Minister Ferit Melen. Another crucial name is Tuğrul Türkeş, son of Alparslan Türkeş, the founder and former leader of the MHP.  

Deputies in the MYK

In the MYK, Bahçeli plans to include people with civil servant background as well as people who were formerly affiliated with other right-wing political parties. Among them are Adana deputy Yılmaz Tankut, Niğde deputy Mümin İnan and Mersin deputies Behiç Çelik and Akif Akkuş. Bahçeli is also expected to include İzmir deputy Şenol Bal in the MYK.  

Bal was involved in mediation efforts with Azerbaijani female deputies when the latter were part of a delegation that visited Parliament in October to lobby the Turkish government not to reopen its border with Armenia until a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is found.

Yozgat deputy Mehmet Ekinci, known for his outburst against Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Democratic Society’s Party, or DTP, is expected to chair the MYK.

Bahçeli targets right-wing votes 

Bahçeli also plans to give party management roles to Gürcan Dağdaş, Bekir Aksoy and Zeki Ertugay, who were previously affiliated with other right-wing parties. With the move, Bahçeli hopes to attract votes from other rightist parties in the upcoming general elections in 2011 and especially confront Democrat Party, or DP, leader Hüsamettin Cindoruk who is bidding to unite the center-right.

Grey Wolves at rally, not on street 

Bahçeli shut down the Grey Wolves, the MHP’s ultra-nationalist youth organization notorious for its violent activities, with a radical decision in the past. However, violent outbursts of these youth, called “idealists,” are still heard from within the party, thereby putting the party in a difficult position. When he closed the organization, Bahçeli said idealist youth from the Grey Wolves should be in front of their computers instead of getting involved in street demonstrations.

Bahçeli is preparing to take measures against street demonstrations that have emerged in reaction to the government’s Kurdish initiative. He warned the party’s provincial presidents to not allow anyone to join illegal demonstrations, a point that he will reiterate at the upcoming general assembly. He is also expected to announce that he himself will tour Anatolia with a series of legal rallies. 

At the events scheduled for after the general assembly, Bahçeli will both criticize the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP’s, Kurdish initiative and create a platform for the MHP’s angry youth to demonstrate their reaction at these rallies under the control of the MHP management itself.