Erdoğan’s partner MHP wants opposition leader to be jailed

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli wants his election partner President Tayyip Erdoğan to target yet another politician, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, following the resignation of ruling-party heavy gun Bülent Arınç.

The MHP leader named Arınç a “fool” before the member of Erdoğan’s High Advisory Board who was among the founders of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) resigned. In the same Nov. 24 speech, Bahçeli said Kılıçdaroğlu “should urgently be jailed.”

His efforts to throw İYİ Party leader Meral Akşener out of parliament via judiciary are known.

While Erdoğan speaks of judicial, economic and political reforms, his partner Bahçeli considers jailing opposition leaders and keeping others who are already in jail, such as Selahattin Demirtaş, behind the bars as a way out. Bahçeli,wants more each time his demands are fulfilled but there is something that he does not want to see.

Erdoğan has even ended the tenure of his son-in-law Beat Albayrat as the Treasury and Finance Minister despite the risk of a family discomfort, showing that he could afford anything to remain the president. What is more, he quitted Arınç, one of the three pillars of the AKP, together with himself and former President Abdullah Gül.

Does Erdoğan, who dropped Albayrak and Arınç without a wink, Erdogan, have an unlimited tolerance for Bahçeli? This is the question.

Dangerous attacks on Kılıçdaroğlu

It is like someone is playing a dangerous game again. Physical attacks have always been made against CHP leaders in Turkey’s political history. In the 1950s, İsmet İnönü, the War of Independence hero, was beaten, punched, he was not let into the cities that he saved from Greek occupation. He was banned from parliamentary work and he faced efforts to terminate his tenure as a lawmaker. In the 1970s, Bülent Ecevit was also stoned, and he survived an assassination attempt. In 2010, Kılıçdaroğlu was the target of the PKK’s assassination attempt, he was punched at the funeral of a fallen soldier. He was subject to the insulting threats of crime gang leader Alaattin Çakıcı. Now, Bahçeli wants him to be left out of parliament and put in jail.

“Do it if you dare,” Kılıçdaroğlu responded to the Nov. 14, MHP attempt against him. The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a summary of proceedings against Kılıçdaroğlu and sent it to parliament upon the legal complaint by a group of MHP members. This was a first for the Turkish parliament in history. A committee consisting of the MHP deputy chairs acted almost like a “people’s court” and found Kılıçdaroğlu guilty, and the chief prosecutor found this appropriate.

Let us remind you that the marriage ceremony of Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor  Yüksel Kocaman brought the summit of the state together in September.

Does MHP leader  want Erdoğan to pay off?

There are other summaries of proceedings pending in parliament against Kılıçdaroğlu and they include accusations of insulting President Erdoğan and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

What Bahçeli wants to be processed “urgently” is the one prepared on Nov. 14. The justification is that Kılıçdaroğlu objected to pre-trial arrests of Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş that have taken years. This is also what cost Arınç his office.

This issue is the main reason for the discomfort not limited to the MHP, although the MHP is disturbed the most.

They want the opposition figures to be silenced by being kept behind the bars with accusations of terrorism.

The reason why Efkan Ala, a former Prime Ministry undersecretary and interior minister who had prepared the most critical draft laws in the past, was quietly recruited into the Presidential Palace staff after Albayrak’s resignation is the preparations for the new laws.

Ala was previously the governor of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and knows about the Kurdish issue well.

In his Nov. 24 speech, Bahçeli clearly expressed his discomfort over the rumors of “change of route”. Bahçeli feels the need to constantly remind Erdoğan that he owes his seat to him, almost like trying to force him to pay off. However, as mentioned above, what he does not want to see is that Erdoğan, who does not hesitate to quit those in his closest circle for the sake of his political goals can quit Bahçeli, too, if his tolerance expires.