MHP deputies leave parliamentary session during DEM, CHP speeches

Turkey’s government ally MHP head Devlet Bahçeli on Dec. 25 left the parliamentary session in protest with other deputies as a pro-Kurdish DEM Party spokesperson took the rostrum for closing remarks of the budget hearings. They did not attend the main opposition CHP's speech afterward as well.

Monday December 25 2023 05:22 pm

Duvar English

Turkish government's far-right ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli on Dec. 25 left the parliamentary session with other deputies as pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party spokespeople took the floor for the party’s closing remarks of the parliament’s budget hearings.

Bahçeli responded to journalists’ questions that the MHP would also not hear the closing remarks from the main opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP).

“I am doing what the Constitutional Court (AYM) should be doing,” stated Bahçeli after he left the session, referring to various AYM rulings regarding DEM Party's predecessors.

In a March ruling, the AYM lifted its previous decision to freeze bank accounts of the then-called Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) containing Treasury grants. Previously, the court had denied the application to close down the HDP.

Bahçeli has since lambasted the Constitutional Court as the "backyard of the separatist terrorist organization," for its rulings on pro-Kurdish parties.