MHP to 'inform public about CHP-HDP alliance'
MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli has said that he will send his officials all over Turkey for them to expose the “real face” of the main opposition CHP, as part of the 2023 election campaign. Bahçeli said that the party officials will tell citizens about the CHP's “alliance with” the HDP in 131 electoral areas where the CHP won the most votes in the 2018 parliamentary elections.
Duvar English
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has once again targeted the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), claiming that the CHP was “opposing the fight against terrorism.”
Bahçeli said that the MHP had launched its campaign for the 2023 elections and one of their missions would be to expose the “real face” of the CHP.
“As of today, one of our works will be to explain the real face of the Republican People's Party on every ground, in every region, as it has turned its back on its history, drifted apart from its roots, has been invaded,” Bahçeli said during his party's parliamentary group meeting on Nov. 2.
Bahçeli said that in electoral areas where the CHP garnered the most support during the June 2018 parliamentary elections, the MHP will talk about the CHP's “alliance with” the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
“Especially in the 131 electoral areas where the CHP garnered the highest number of votes in the June 24 [2018] elections; we will share with our people one by one about its alliance with the HDP, its opposition to the fight against terrorism, its breaking the bonds with [founder of modern Turkish Republic] Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,” Bahçeli said.
Bahçeli said that he cannot “leave the 100th anniversary of the Republic to chances” and that he would be as of Nov. 3 task party officials to undertake the defamation campaign against the CHP.
Bahçeli also recalled that both the CHP and HDP had last week refused to back a motion that extended troop deployment in Iraq and Syria.
“The CHP and HDP held hands together and said 'no' to the sending of soldiers across the borders, the continuation of the struggle against terrorism and defeat of betrayal,” Bahçeli said.
Bahçeli went further to refer to the CHP and HDP as “the columns of the PKK,” using the acronym of the Kurdistan Workers' Party -- recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU.
“The CHP and HDP have united in one single body and turned into the PKK's columns in politics...Together with the HDP, the CHP said 'no' to the motion [extending troop deployment], 'yes' to the PKK. They have said 'no' to Turkey, 'yes' to enemies of Turkey and Islam,” Bahçeli said.
Bahçeli's remarks came as the ruling coalition alliance is losing support amid deteriorating economy. Along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Bahçeli is appealing to nationalist voters and targeting the CHP and HDP with accusations of siding by terrorism.
After the Constitutional Court earlier this year accepted a state prosecutor's indictment calling for the HDP's closure, Bahçeli said that the party must be closed forever.