MHP leader Bahçeli hails police violence against opposition Islamist group  

Duvar English

Government-ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has hailed the police violence against members of the opposition Islamist group Furkan Foundation at a protest on March 20 in the southern province of Adana.

“I kiss the virtuous foreheads of our police officers who worked in Adana,” he said at his party’s weekly parliamentary group meeting on March 22.

Police on March 20 used batons and beat up members of the Furkan Foundation who gathered for a protest demanding freedom for eight jailed volunteers of their group in Adana.

Videos showed police beating the protestors with batons and pushing them.  

Lawyer Ayhan Erdoğan told daily Birgün that behind the police violence was a war between cults within the police forces.

“They [officers] cannot do something like that without the order or approval of their unit chiefs. If they do, the unit chiefs would block them and prevent them; we would’ve at least seen an effort like this,” he said.

Launching only a disciplinary action against the police officers involved is not enough, because there was torture that was done intentionally, he added.

The police officers’ relations with cults should be investigated, Erdoğan said.

Separately, Bahçeli has once again targeted the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and called for its closure.  

He accused the TTB of being “separatists” who “cannot represent Turkish doctors.”

“We have nothing to say against Turkish doctors who deserve love and respect. But wherever there is malice, the TTB chair and the collaborator management are there. They are a handful of people and anti-government,” he said.

He accused them of standing alongside the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“The TTB must immediately be shut down,” he said.

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