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Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has upped the ante in his bid for the elimination of the PKK terrorist group.
The government ally who first proposed the terror-free Türkiye initiative last year for the dissolution of the PKK made waves on Tuesday when he volunteered to hold talks with the group’s ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan.
Öcalan is incarcerated at the Imralı island prison near Istanbul and responded to Bahçeli’s call for the PKK’s dissolution last year by urging his terrorist group to dissolve last February.
“I won’t take offense at going to Imralı,” Bahçeli said at his party’s parliamentary group meeting in Ankara. Bahçeli’s remarks are yet another significant shift in the discourse of a veteran nationalist politician who once called for the hanging of Öcalan. As a matter of fact, he launched the terror-free Türkiye initiative by shaking hands with lawmakers of a party he once called for closure for its links to the PKK.
Bahçeli defends the shift in his views as a new phase in eliminating the scourge of PKK terrorism that claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s. In earlier statements, he has reasoned that the terrorist group had no option but to dissolve itself thanks to intense military operations across Türkiye and in Iraq, which dramatically reduced the PKK’s clout. The MHP leader often underlines the need to disarm the PKK to ensure Türkiye’s unity, especially between Turks and Kurds. The PKK justifies its campaign of violence as a means to carve out a self-styled state for Kurds, and for years, lured members of the community disillusioned by prospects for improvement of their rights.
The terror-free Türkiye initiative took several critical turns after Öcalan’s written statement in February. The terrorist group announced it would heed Öcalan’s call last spring and started “burning weapons” in a ceremony in Iraq this summer. Earlier this week, it announced it had withdrawn from Zap, a former stronghold of terrorists in northern Iraq. This move was preceded by an October announcement that said the PKK withdrew all its members from Türkiye to Iraq.
The initiative is mostly shrouded in secrecy except for the PKK’s public statements, and nowadays, it is largely confined to meetings of a parliamentary committee set up exclusively for the initiative. The committee will chart a road map for Parliament and in turn, lawmakers are expected to draft bills to move forward with the PKK’s disarmament. This may or may not include leniency in sentencing of PKK members. Bahçeli agrees with the pro-PKK Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on what he calls the need for the committee to hear Öcalan in person. The committee, so far hosted people affected by terrorism, academics, nongovernmental organizations and families of PKK terrorists. On Tuesday is scheduled to be briefed by top security officials overseeing the disarmament.
At the same table as Öcalan
In his speech on Tuesday, Bahçeli said there should not be foot-dragging in the committee’s visit to Imralı. The committee and political parties have been largely quiet on the matter while Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç, whose ministry oversees prison visits, told reporters on Tuesday that it was up to the parliamentary committee to decide upon the matter. “If we don’t contact one of the main actors in the initiative, I wonder how we will make progress in it. If the committee cannot make up its mind, if everyone insists on silence, I will go to Imrali with three friends of mine,” Bahçeli said. He did not elaborate on why he would pick three colleagues, but the MHP lawmakers broke into applause as Bahçeli said they supported his decision. “If the need arises, I won’t abstain from going to Imrali and sit on the same table (with Öcalan),” Bahçeli said.
Last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hailed a “new phase” in the terror-free Türkiye initiative after the PKK announced its withdrawal from Turkish soil.
“It appears we have reached a new crossroads on the path toward a terror-free Türkiye,” Erdogan said in a speech at the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting. “Everyone needs to step up and do their part.”
“We consider it extremely valuable that … all relevant parties are heard without leaving anyone out, and that different opinions, even if contrary, are expressed,” he has said, referring to those speaking at the parliamentary committee for terror-free Türkiye. The committee has heard views of a diverse array of people, from families of PKK victims and parents of terrorists campaigning for what they call “peace.”
Bahçeli on Tuesday said their terror-free Türkiye goal was one of the most important, historic opportunities Türkiye had in the last 100 years.
“Our nation’s ill fate will change, the sinister and hostile ambitions of those who conspire against us will fail, and the Turkish nation will enter a springtime that is both dazzling and lasting. The nests of discord and division that use terrorism for political gain while striking poses of so-called patriotism will, God willing, collapse,” Bahçeli stated.
“The political opportunists who have stepped in to undermine the state policy of terror-free Türkiye, who cloak their schemes in a veneer of goodwill, lack the intellectual capacity to understand the bond between the state and the nation. In this sensitive and delicate period for Türkiye, our sole wish is for everyone to act with a sense of responsibility, with a disposition toward compromise, and with respect for civility,” he added. Several far-right circles and a political party founded by former MHP members fervently oppose the initiative, claiming it is a betrayal of the victims of PKK terrorism. Both Bahçeli and President Erdoğan repeatedly lashed out at critics of the initiative, accusing them of politicizing the issue.
Bahçeli emphasized that everything is for Türkiye and that the principle of “my country and my nation first, then my party and myself” forms the backbone of their politics.
“We are striving and committed to charting a road map for the future, guided by the momentum of the many painful or proud memories we have uncovered from the yellowed and faded pages of history and to protecting our independence and national existence at all costs,” Bahçeli said.
Bahçeli noted that the state is the nation and the nation is the state, saying the state is an indivisible whole with its land and its people. Separating them, evaluating them separately, or at times setting them against one another is not only a grave mistake but also the handicap and frustration of upstart “democratic bigots” unable to accept the nature and dignity of the state.
“The goal of a terror-free Türkiye is not only a well-known state policy but also the unshakeable political and democratic aim of the nation. Those who seek to disrupt Türkiye’s political nerve system and who ruminate over fantasies of weakening the state-nation unity will, with deep disappointment, be left embarrassed and defeated.
“We are at a decisive point. The ships have been burned upon reaching the shore, leaving no possibility of return,” he added.
The first reaction to Bahçeli’s unprecedented statement was from the DEM Party. The party’s co-chair, Tuncer Bakırhan, heaped praise on Bahçeli as he spoke at the parliamentary group meeting of his party.
“It is very important and worth appreciation. He is bold enough to take a historic responsibility,” Bakırhan said, noting that his party has always advocated “dialogue.”
“Mr. Bahçeli wants to prevent a stand that aims to delay the process and preserve the progress. He should have his response,” Bakırhan said, calling on the parliamentary committee to visit Imralı as soon as possible.
