Turkish far-right MHP leader Bahçeli deems Constitutional Court 'backyard of terrorist organization'

Duvar English

Government-ally and far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on March 11 targeted Turkey’s Constitutional Court (AYM) over its ruling to lift the decision to freeze pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party's (HDP) bank accounts.

Bahçeli deemed the top court “the backyard of the separatist terrorist organization” while speaking in a press conference after a MHP meeting.

The AYM on Jan. 5 ruled to block HDP’s bank accounts holding Treasury aid as it continued hearing a case seeking the party's closure over alleged militant ties. Nonetheless, the AYM lifted its previous decision on March 9. 

Bahçeli also targeted the members of the Consitutional Court and stated that “they listened to the voice of betrayal, not the voice of conscience.”

Moreover, Bahçeli said “If the HDP aims to field its own presidential candidate, the president of the Constitutional Court (Zühtü Arslan) has the qualities they are looking for.”

Bahçeli stated that the first thing that the ruling People’s Alliance (“Cumhur İttifakı”) will do after the elections will be changing the constitution in order to “eliminate traitors in the Constitutional Court.” 

"The foundation and trial principles of the Constitutional Court should be radically changed, and its devastating existing structure, which offers olive branches to traitors, should be completely eliminated. The current Constitutional Court is not the court of the Turkish nation," MHP leader added.

A prosecutor filed a party closure case against the HDP in March 2021, seeking the ban over alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The HDP denies such links.