Turkish nationalist politician Devlet Bahçeli, Erdoğan’s ally and leader of the National Movement Party (MHP), has declared that a reform of Turkey’s constitution is necessary to allow the current President of the Republic, Tayyip Erdoğan, to run again in the presidential elections scheduled for May 2028.
‘Mr. President Erdoğan is the only option to secure the ‘Century of Turkey’, the continuity of the state and political stability. In this context, a constitutional amendment must be carried out,’ Bahçeli said in his weekly appearance at the parliament building in Ankara before his party’s deputies, in remarks reported by Turkish media.
‘Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a guarantee, he loves the nation. With his experience and knowledge, he is the only choice for us,’ Bahçeli insisted, calling for the charter to be amended to allow the current Turkish president to run for a third term.
Responding to his controversial proposal to release the leader of the PKK terrorist group, Abdullah Öcalan, if he in return asks the armed organisation to renounce violence and lay down its arms, Bahçeli stressed that ‘I stand by my words’: ‘If the leader of the terrorist organisation (PKK) who was sentenced to life imprisonment, says that terrorism will end and the organisation will be dismantled, let him come to the (parliamentary) group of the DEM party (to deliver a speech to parliament). I keep my word. I insist on my offer. Out of all the suffering endured, many possibilities will emerge,’ he declared.
In his speech, Bahçeli stressed again that Turks and Kurds are brothers who have lived together in Anatolia for more than 1,000 years, and he stressed that there is not a Kurdish problem in Turkey but a problem of terrorism. ‘The MHP will not tolerate those who see our Kurdish brothers as a problem,’ said the Turkish nationalist leader, who also called on the Kurdish nationalist DEM party to distance itself definitively from the PKK: ’We have zero tolerance for terrorism. The terrorist organisation is a legitimate target, but the Kurds and the PKK are not the same. The greatest harm that can be done to Turkey is to treat the two as one and the same’.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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