Bahçeli calls for reconciliation between CHP and New Road Party
RastinewsNationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli issued a written statement on the turmoil within the CHP and its internal disputes. Political disagreements should not be turned into a personal reckoning, Bahçeli said, calling on all sides to show restraint.
Bahçeli also commented pointedly on the New Party, formed by cadres who broke away from the CHP.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's legal rights must be respected, Bahçeli said, adding that Özgür Özel's political standing should not be turned into a target either. He also addressed the recent badge ceremony and the "stand-in" allegations that have dominated headlines in recent days, calling for the disputes to be clarified.
In his lengthy statement on the New Party formed after the CHP split, Bahçeli sent pointed messages. The tension between the CHP and the New Party should not become Turkey's main agenda item, he said, calling for respect for Kılıçdaroğlu's legal rights and for Özel's political struggle. Bahçeli stressed that the MHP expects no political gain from internal strife within any party. "What endures is the state and the nation," he said.
Bahçeli's written statement follows:
"NO INTRA-PARTY STRUGGLE MATTERS MORE THAN THE COUNTRY'S FUTURE"
"Turkish politics, shaped by a historic tradition of statehood, gained momentum in light of the gains of the Constitutional Era and, ultimately, with the transition to multi-party life following the proclamation of the Republic. It is an inseparable part of our social life — one in which the national will has at times been tested by heated debate and sharp tension between rival benches, and which, though it has gone through conflictual phases from time to time, ultimately finds its legitimacy in the wisdom of the state.
The Republic of Turkey and the noble Turkish nation stand above political parties. The Turkish nation sits at the center of politics and above every political structure. No intra-party struggle, no contest over seats, and no personal grievance can be deemed more important than our country's shared future.
The Republican People's Party, founded by our first president and eternal Commander-in-Chief, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, is one of the deep-rooted institutions of Turkish political life.
It is clear that, at this point, deep differences exist between the Nationalist Movement Party and the Republican People's Party in terms of ideas, politics and worldview. These differences are the natural result of democratic life, and the same holds true for the other parties that make up our political scene. The existence of differences cannot be taken as a sign of weakness. On the contrary, every idea that stays within national bounds and democratic legitimacy adds to the richness of Turkish politics and democratic life.
Turkish democracy has never existed on a colorless, spiritless ground where every party repeats the same words. Democratic life is a great national consensus in which different voices are heard and different ideas compete before the nation, but a common will emerges whenever the survival of the state and the unity of the nation are at stake. Turning political differences into a pretext for conflict will not serve Turkey. Elevating disagreement into enmity, poisoning competition with a desire for revenge, and turning intra-party disputes into social tension will damage the standing of Turkish politics.
It is Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's most natural right to voice the injustices he believes he has suffered, to pursue legal remedies, and to state his views on the future of the party he chaired for years. Kılıçdaroğlu is a politician who has held responsibility in Turkish politics for many years and has won the democratic support of millions of our citizens. It is wrong for assessments of him to turn into a campaign of insult, belittlement and character assassination.
At the same time, dragging every past grievance onto today's political stage, reopening old scores at every opportunity, and constantly reopening wounds will benefit no one.
If politics becomes an arena of reckoning where anger never subsides, a competitive environment bounded by sharp, red democratic lines gradually turns into a vortex of hostility. A reckoning with the past must not become a quest for revenge that holds the future hostage.
Bahçeli's remarks draw attention: New Party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Özgür Özel, the "stand-in" debate...
Headline photoBahçeli's remarks draw attention: New Party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Özgür Özel, the "stand-in" debate...
Özgür Özel's political labor is also plain to see — both in what he carried out under the CHP's roof and, through the New Party that has just entered Turkish political life, in the office of chairman he now holds, backed by the 91 members of parliament who trust his politics and by a potential electorate that has not withheld its good wishes.
We would not wish to see Mr. Özel upset, his political standing battered amid day-to-day disputes, or turned into a target of the ongoing reckoning between the CHP and New Party camps.
Just as Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu's rights have been legally respected, Mr. Özel's experience and standing must be met with the same respect. Turkish politics allows no shallow approach that honors one person's rights while writing off another's.