MHP leader Bahçeli calls on Erdoğan to have a meeting with Assad

Duvar English

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ally and the leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli on Nov. 22 said Erdoğan should organize a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad.

Welcoming Erdoğan’s meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Bahçeli said “The meeting that our President had with Egyptian President Sisi in Qatar was right. In our opinion, more (ties) should be developed.”

“Not only that, but also a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad should be organized, and a common will should be formed against terrorist organizations. Turkey has and is known to have very strong historical ties with Egypt, Syria and Iraq,” Bahçeli said during his party’s parliamentary group meeting.

Erdoğan shook hands with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the sidelines of the World Cup in Qatar on Nov. 20.

Ankara's ties with Cairo have been strained since Sisi, then Egypt's army chief, led the 2013 ouster of Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was strongly supported by Erdoğan.

Lately, Erdoğan has said that he would not rule out a possible meeting with his Syrian counterpart.

In his speech, Bahçeli once again called for the closure of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

“It is unfair that such an organization that looks like a party exists in our political life. Should this separatist organisation continue to pour the money they received from the Treasury to the terrorist organizations? Shouldn't we ask what the Constitutional Court (AYM) is still waiting for?” Bahçeli said.

The HDP faces a possible closure decision by the Constitutional Court (AYM) as a result of the pending case.