War of words between MHP, HDP stokes tension

MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli (L) and HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş.

August 04, 2015, Tuesday/ 18:48:34/ ALİ ASLAN KILIÇ/ ARİF TEKDAL/ / ANKARA

Politicians have warned that the war of words between members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) caused by MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli's remarks insulting the “affluent” Turks who voted for the HDP in the June election could cause violence on the streets if not curtailed.

Bahçeli sparked a wave of criticism after he reportedly savaged the voting behavior of a “pathetic” group of affluent and “dishonorable” people during a meeting on Monday.

He said: “Those pathetic ones who relax in their summer homes in İzmir or Marmaris and refuse to vote for the MHP to counter the AKP [Justice and Development Party (AK Party)] but instead open the way for the HDP to enter Parliament; those dishonorable [people] who live in Bosporus mansions, sip their whisky and vote for the HDP… Now go and form a coalition government with the HDP.”

The Turkish word Bahçeli used, "şerefsiz," is an offensive insult that can be translated into English as dishonorable.

Ertuğrul Kürkçü, one of the HDP's founding deputies, warned that statements from leaders of political parties could inflame the streets and bring large groups of people to a standoff.

Speaking to Today's Zaman, Kürkçü said: “Statements that will bring large groups of people to a standoff will harm those groups the most. It will harm the country. There is no logic to creating an environment of civil war.”

“However, we cannot just stand here and act as if our 6 million voters were not insulted with the aim of being marginalized,” Kürkçü added.

“The AKP and MHP are racing with one another to see who can garner the nationalist voters. At a time when the AKP is trying to entice the nationalist voters with operations against the PKK, Bahçeli may be trying to keep them in line by hardening his rhetoric,” he said. “The HDP has made sure not to use any rhetoric or undertake any action that could inflame the public.”

DSP leader Türker: Erdoğan's marginalization policy bearing fruit

Masum Türker, leader of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), spoke to Today's Zaman on Tuesday, underlining that the norm was a war of words between the ruling party and the opposition and that a quarrel between two opposition parties was a very unusual sight.

“Unfortunately, President Erdoğan's policy of marginalization and polarization is bearing fruit,” Türker said.

He pointed out that political parties should shy away from using rhetoric that could inflame their supporters or create an environment that terror feeds from.

Bahçeli's MHP won 16 percent of the vote in the parliamentary election on June 7 while the HDP won an unexpected 13 percent, leaving each party with 80 seats in the 550-member Parliament. The HDP's election success is largely seen as a result of Kurdish voters expressing their disappointment with the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) by shifting their support to the pro-Kurdish HDP.

A considerable number of liberal Turks are also believed to have voted for the HDP, partly out of concern that the HDP's failure to pass a 10 percent election threshold would allow the AK Party to conjure up a parliamentary majority strong enough to approve constitutional amendments.

Demirtaş: ‘I reject all insults made about HDP voters'

HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş was also quick to respond to Bahçeli's stinging comments. “The HDP is the third-biggest party in İstanbul. It won more votes than the Turkish nationalists who cannot even speak Turkish properly,” he told reporters.

Demirtaş rebuffed Bahçeli's tirade on Monday evening. “It [the HDP] received votes from the poorest neighborhoods of İstanbul and of course, the well-to-do might also have voted for us,” he said. “Our voters are all very respectable. I reject all the insults made about our voters.”

Referring to Bahçeli's insult in which he called HDP voters “dishonorable,” Demirtaş said, “Do those who said they would bring the thieves to account before the election and relax in the thief's palace have any honor?” Demirtaş's words were directed at Bahçeli's pre-election manifesto, in which he promised to bring to account those implicated in alleged acts of corruption and bribery, but then sent a delegation of MHP deputies to the presidential palace for a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In December 2013, four ministers in then-Prime Minister Erdoğan's Cabinet had to step down due to allegations that they had participated in large-scale corruption and facilitated an illegal gold trade. A number of businessmen, bankers and ministers' sons were implicated, in addition to several members of Erdoğan's family.

Under the leadership of Bahçeli, the MHP said it would push for the reopening of the two graft investigations that came to public attention in December 2013 before being shut down the following October after the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) assigned new, pro-government prosecutors to the case.

As a staunch opponent of the settlement process launched by the AK Party in 2012 to peacefully resolve the Kurdish issue through talks with Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the MHP has asked the AK Party to give guarantees that the process will be halted as a precondition for joining a coalition.

HDP and ÖHD file criminal complaints against Bahçeli

Cavit Uğur, the HDP provincial co-chair for the western province of İzmir, said that the party had filed a criminal complaint against Bahçeli to the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on the grounds that his statement was “insulting” and “provoked malice and hatred among the public.”

Uğur demanded an investigation into Bahçeli's statement and said that a summary of proceedings may be prepared in Parliament to revoke his parliamentary immunity, so that he can face trial.

In addition, members of the Association for Libertarian Lawyers (ÖHD) have filed a criminal complaint against Bahçeli for his insults against HDP voters.

Speaking outside the İstanbul Courthouse on Tuesday, ÖHD İstanbul head Sinan Zincir said: “Even before today, both the ruling party and the MHP and Devlet Bahçeli insulted the values of the HDP. But now, these insults have reached such a point that their insults are directed at the 6 million people who voted for the HDP.”

Bahçeli's adviser on TV program: I have a 3,000-person list here with me

Bahçeli's top adviser, Metin Özkan, supported Bahçeli's statements insulting HDP electorates during a television program he appeared on Monday evening, even going so far as to say that he had the list of 3,000 people who were living in the Bosporus mansions and drinking whiskey.

Stating that he had a list of the 3,000 “dishonorable” people that Bahçeli was talking about, Özkan said: “Who are they? If you want, I have a list with me, but there are 3,000 people, I won't name them, we might not have enough time.”

He then continued to defend the list, saying it was “not profiling” but that the MHP would take “notes” about everything wrong in the country.

Özkan also added that many of the “group of 63”, in reference to the Wise People Commission, a group of 63 opinion leaders, academics and journalists who were tasked with working on the details of the settlement process aimed at ending the decades-old conflict with the terrorist PKK, were among those Bahçeli was talking about.

MHP Secretary General: MHP calls the dishonorable, dishonorable!

Secretary-general of the MHP İsmet Büyükataman replied to Demirtaş's critique of Bahçeli. saying, “Selo [Demirtaş] you should know that with it 46-year glorious history, the MHP will call the dishonorable, dishonorable; and the dishonest, dishonest.”

“Were we to call someone who can't even call the terrorists in the mountains terrorists honest?” Büyükataman said.

Büyükataman also criticized Demirtaş over a recent holiday he was reported to have taken right as the conflict between PKK militants and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) heated up after the PKK assassinated two police officers in Turkey's southeastern Şanlıurfa province in July.

The PKK was reported to have killed police officers Feyyaz Yumuşak and Okan Acar on July 22, in retaliation for the state failing to prevent a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) militant from detonating a suicide bomb in Şanlıurfa's Suruç district and killing 32, injuring over 100.

“Our Kurdish-origin citizens are not falling for Demirtaş's dogmatization as he enjoys the swimming pool. The PKK and HDP have never been the representatives of our Kurdish-origin citizens,” Büyükataman claimed.

Ertuğrul Kürkçü, one of the HDP's founding deputies, explained to Today's Zaman that every statement that could bring large groups of people to a standoff is very dangerous.

“We cannot just stand here act as if our six million voters were not insulted with the aim of being marginalized,” Kürkçü said.

“The AKP and MHP have a race between them to bag the nationalist voters. As the AKP tries to entice the nationalist voters with operations against the PKK, Bahçeli may be trying to keep them in line by hardening his rhetoric,” he added. “We as the HDP made sure not to use any rhetoric or undertake any action that could inflame the public.”