Nationalist leader calls on PM to give up ‘devastating project’

Sunday, December 13, 2009
ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey is at risk of division, said nationalist leader Devlet Bahçeli,
calling on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan to give up the
"devastating project," referring to the government-led initiative to
end the decades-old Kurdish question.

The Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, staged a mass meeting in
Ankara under the theme of "Live and Let Live: 1,000-year-old
Brotherhood" on Sunday. Bahçeli said Turkey was encountering enormous
threats. "The problems at stake are division and terror in Turkey," he
said.

Rain did not prevent thousands from gathering at Tandoðan Square and
chanting slogans such as "Martyrs are immortal, homeland is
indivisible" and "How happy is he who can call himself a Turk."

The audience listened to an original voice recording of Mustafa Kemal
Atatürk’s famous address, called Nutuk, at the gathering after a folk
music concert and a theatrical show. The crowd also sang anthems and
watched folk dance shows.

"The Turkish people, who have enjoyed brotherhood ties for over 1,000
years, met to write history once more and protect this brotherhood,"
Bahçeli said in his speech. He thanked the crowd for looking after
martyrs and veteran soldiers.

"The dirty games played on the 1,000-year-old brotherhood have failed
to succeed," said Bahçeli, asserting the country had suffered at the
hands of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
"Destruction has reached a huge level of disaster. The social
structure has been damaged."

Bahçeli also criticized the administration’s foreign policy and
accused the government of following a policy of "give and get rid of."

"Turkey became a country that followed Greeks in Cyprus, [Iraqi
Kurdish leader Massoud] Barzani in Iraq, and Armenians in the
Caucasus. It gave Iraqi Turkmens a cold shoulder and made Azerbaijani
brothers upset. It also forgot our brothers in the Balkans," Bahçeli
said.

The nationalist leader claimed: "Our country is now facing much bigger
and more important threats and risks. The problems at stake are
division and terror in Turkey. Our sons continue to fall, and their
mothers’ cry and elegy harrow our feelings."

Bahçeli defined the government-led democratic initiative as a
"destructive project" and called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan to give it up.

"As a prime minister, you are responsible for the safety of the
country. You don’t have the responsibility for those bloody-handed
terrorists but for innocent victims among our people. Give up the
destruction of this so-called initiative."

"You have damaged our national values too much over the last seven
years. You encouraged those betrayers by asserting their ‘being from
Turkey and Turkish.’ You’ve invited the [terrorists] to negotiate at
the table and cooperated with Ýmralý [the island where terrorist
leader Abdullah Öcalan is imprisoned]. You have done what the PKK [the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] did by tolerating terror and
accusing us of taking advantage of bloodshed."

Urging his party members to be careful against provocations and stay
away from violence, Bahçeli said: "We have no future for what we’re
looking for in the streets. While others are taking to the streets, we
will be in power and overcome terror thanks to the power of the
state."

"Do not let those provocateurs attempt to take us away from our main
goal," he said. "Be careful against any kind of provocation. You will
act in solidarity. The Turkish people need you today and tomorrow."