PM visits MHP leader in surprise meeting
ANKARA
Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım paid an unannounced visit to the head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli on April 3.
“I paid a courtesy visit to congratulate [Bahçeli] after the [MHP] convention. That’s all,” Yıldırım told reporters after the meeting in Turkish Parliament. Yıldırım explained that he informed Bahçeli over the latest developments in the field of the fight against terror and Turkey’s ongoing operation in Syria’s Afrin province.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the MHP have established what they call the “People’s Alliance” for the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections and have aligned most of their policies on current issues.
The Yıldırım-Bahçeli meeting came right after the MHP leader addressed his parliamentary group on April 4, where he stressed that the use of epic rhetoric would never be sufficient in winning the hearts of a hopeless generation.
“Any word in this direction will be futile without the realization of ‘a happy nation, a strong state and peaceful people,’” Bahçeli said.
It was uncertain over which development he had said these remarks.
The MHP leader has long been extending great support to the AKP’s policies in Syria, especially in the fight against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin, the offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Syria.
“Manbij, Ain al-Arab, Tal Abyad, al-Hasakah and al-Jazira must be saved from terrorists. Countries supporting terrorism should either give up this rotting policy or these regions need to be crushed,” Bahçeli told his parliamentary group earlier in the day.
“To eliminate all these terrorists from northern Iraq, where the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK] has its headquarters, to northern Syria, is a matter of honor and existence for the Turkish state,” he said, calling on the government to take all measures against the roots of the PKK before terrorists carry out their acts in the metropolitan areas of Turkey.
The MHP leader described French President Emmanuel Macron’s reception of Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) representatives at the Elysée Palace in Paris last week as “a shameful disgrace” and “treason.”
“Macron has shown he may be a candidate to become the Paris representative of the YPG. We are facing a new Sykes-Picot play. France’s enmity against Turkey is nothing new and is motivated from historical ambitions,” said Bahçeli.
On Turkey’s ongoing fight against the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), Bahçeli urged that the efforts to fully eliminate hidden members of the organization within the state should continue without stopping.
“Since the masters of the project are still there, because this [FETÖ] project did not work, they could implement another one. Is there a guarantee that another small religious or ideological group will not attempt a coup in the coming years?” he asked.