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Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), took a step further in his bid to end PKK terrorism. “Let me end up on the gallows as long as peace prevails in Türkiye and the terrorism is gone forever,” he told the parliamentary group meeting of his party on Tuesday in Ankara.
Bahçeli was referring to criticism of the terror-free initiative he spearheaded and calls for his trial. The nationalist leader, on the other hand, has taken unprecedented steps through the initiative, even before its launch, and has been praised for them by his supporters. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in particular, has hailed the “bold steps” of Bahçeli that paved the way for the initiative involving disarmament of the PKK terrorist group.
“We are forever committed to ending, dismantling terrorism. Terror-free Türkiye is the will of the Turkish nation and the state. No politician will succeed in undermining this decisiveness,” he said.
The veteran politician has even volunteered to meet the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, to advance the initiative, the very terrorist he publicly called to be executed once. Bahçeli is firm in his faith that the PKK threat can be overcome by strengthening unity between Turks and Kurds, a community exploited by the terrorist group.
“(Detractors) of the initiative want us to be separated. They want us to continue carrying flag-draped coffins of our sons,” he said.
For roughly four decades, the PKK launched a violent campaign that cost the lives of tens of thousands in indiscriminate attacks targeting security forces and civilians all across the country. Bahçeli stated that opponents of the initiative play into the hands of more than a century of imperialist conspiracy that pitted Turks and Kurds against each other.
“They claim we commit a crime and will be tried. We are not afraid of whatever we face. I consent to be hanged on the gallows if it would mean that the terror-free Türkiye goal is achieved,” he said.
