MHP leader calls PM Erdoğan's witch hunt remark ‘unpleasant'

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for saying the government would not hesitate to conduct a witch hunt against the Hizmet movement, describing the prime minister's remark as “ very unpleasant.”

“That [the prime minster] would describe those who have worked within the bureaucracy for his party for many years as witches is a manifestation of his confused state of mind,” the MHP leader said while responding to reporters' questions following his party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.

Erdoğan, while delivering a speech at the 22nd Consultation and Assessment Meeting of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on Sunday, said, “If reassigning individuals who betray this country is called a witch hunt, then yes, we will carry out this witch hunt.”

Following a graft probe that went public on Dec. 17 of last year, the government carried out a massive purge of the police force and the judiciary, maintaining that the Hizmet movement -- a grassroots movement based on voluntary participation aiming to spread interfaith dialogue and tolerance, with a particular emphasis on education -- is behind the probe.

Bahçeli also accused Erdoğan of forgetting his manners at a meeting held to mark the 146th anniversary of the establishment of the Council of State last weekend in Ankara.

“… What we feel even more concerned about is that the prime minister toyed with high state officials [by disregarding protocol]. It is a breach of proper conduct for a politician to walk out before the president leaves a place,” Bahçeli said.

When Turkish Bar Association (TBB) Chairman Metin Feyzioğlu was about to complete a long speech at the Council of State meeting, Erdoğan furiously stood up and interrupted the TBB head. In a severe tone, the prime minister said Feyzioğlu's speech was politically motivated and full of untruths.

“It was very rude for the prime minister to beckon to Mr. Gül to leave the meeting,” said Bahçeli, who believes the prime minister's assertiveness was humiliating for the president and Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel, who also followed him out.

The MHP leader said the prime minister was being too bossy and added, “It was sad and shameful for Mr. Gül and Mr. Özel to walk out [of the meeting hall] behind the prime minister.”

“Is Erdoğan a bully, and are those who followed after him a poor herd of people whose wills are held captive and who are ready to do anything for the prime minister?” the MHP leader asked.

At his party's group meeting in Parliament, Bahçeli also stressed that a common presidential candidate jointly nominated by opposition parties for the upcoming presidential elections would stand for an alliance of the people and not of political parties. He underlined that some people have been purposefully trying to misinterpret the opposition's initiative in this regard.

By “some,” the MHP leader is believed to have been referring to Erdoğan. Bahçeli said, “[Our] common candidate formula embraces all social and political actors.”

He said that those engaged in polarization tactics to maintain their political positions have twisted the reasoning for the MHP's common presidential candidate proposal.

“Our proposal is addressed to our brothers who voted for the AKP and the CHP. It is for our brothers who voted [in the past] for other political parties ranging from the Democrat Party (DP) to the Felicity Party (SP) to the Grand Unity Party (BBP),” Bahçeli said. He added that the purpose of the MHP's proposal is to have people join forces rather than for political parties to do so.

Published on Today's Zaman, 13 May 2014, Tuesday