The Bahçeli Model!..

MHP members have declared October 22, the day Devlet Bahçeli called on the terrorist leader to "Come and speak in Parliament," a "turning point." According to MHP members, political assessments are now made as "before October 22 and after October 22."

Let us go back 6 months before October 22. Deputy Chairman Feti Yıldız, who made a statement regarding the 100-article constitutional amendment proposal prepared by the MHP, said that "they would oppose changes to the first four articles of the Constitution and Article 66, which regulates citizenship." Yıldız also noted that they would limit the number of vice presidents to two and that these deputies would be elected.

What happened after October 22?

MHP Leader Bahçeli gave the title of "founding leader" to the terrorist leader in Imralı...

He welcomed the DEM members, who are the spokespeople for Imralı and the PKK rather than our citizens of Kurdish origin, at the doors and offered his gratitude...

Reading from the text in his hand at the Nationalist Martyr Commemoration ceremony in May, he said, "Indeed, there is a time for everything, and that time is approaching. That time is symbolized by the Century of Turkey, and it is manifesting with a new national identity and a century of brotherhood."

While the phrase "a new national unity" was used instead of "a new national identity" on the MHP's official website, no explanation was deemed necessary for this confusion...

We come to July 12; the day after the PKK's show of burning 30 weapons, Erdoğan spoke of "Turkish, Kurdish, and Arab brotherhood"...

While almost everyone was asking, "What is happening?", Bahçeli supported Erdoğan on this issue as well, calling that speech a "historic breakthrough" and stating that those who wanted to overshadow this breakthrough were "not ignorant, but externally connected mankurts"...

On July 19, Halk TV writer İsmail Saymaz claimed that in a meeting Bahçeli held with MHP deputies a few months ago, he said, "Let there be two vice presidents; let one be Kurdish and one be Alevi."

At first, no one believed this ethnic and sectarian distinction, and a denial was practically expected from the MHP. When that denial did not come, debates about "Are they trying to make Turkey resemble Iraq, Lebanon, or Yugoslavia?" increased. Finally, speaking three days later, Bahçeli confirmed these words but again lashed out at those who reacted.

WHICH BAHÇELİ?

Before putting that statement on the table, we need to remember the old Bahçeli.

Back in December 2005, that is, in the third year of the AKP government, he emphasized that the sole purpose of bringing the concepts of the Turkish state, the Turkish homeland, and the Turkish nation to the political agenda for separatist purposes was to prepare the ground for ethnic discrimination and political separatism, and summarized the following:

"Prime Minister Erdoğan has been the flag-bearer of this latest provocation campaign with his delusions of 'Turk-ness' (Türkiyelilik) and constitutional citizenship. And sadly, the Prime Minister's greatest supporter has been the villain in Imralı. The Prime Minister, who established a contact channel with Imralı through state officials, has entered into a unity of discourse with the terrorist leader on this issue... By inventing a category called 'those of Turkish origin,' the Prime Minister has reduced Turkishness to the status of a sub-identity like other ethnic characteristics. According to this flawed understanding of the Prime Minister, the 1000-year-old Turkish identity in Anatolia will be counted as just one of nearly 30 ethnic elements he claims exist in Turkey... The Prime Minister, who tries to derive a national identity from geographical terms like 'Turk-ness' or legal statuses like constitutional citizenship, has finally fallen into the absurdity of using religious belief ties for this purpose, attempting to show Islam as a superior identity... While Prime Minister Erdoğan says that Turkey cannot be a Yugoslavia experiencing internal conflict and fragmentation due to this religious tie, he has inadvertently revealed his shallow knowledge and background... The Prime Minister has forgotten the example of Iraq, which is right next to Turkey and is in the process of division and whose unitary structure has changed... He could not bring to mind that the vast majority of Iraq's population is Muslim; and that the religious tie, which is a unifying element apart from the sectarian differences between Arab, Kurdish, and Turkmen elements, could not prevent the division process... The first step in this process is the acceptance of Turkish citizens of different ethnic origins as national minorities. The next goal is to grant political and legal status to these ethnic differences. For this purpose, the Constitution will be changed, and the founding principles and foundations of the Republic of Turkey state will be reorganized... More clearly, the Turkish nation is being tried to be fragmented. At the end of this, a new partnership state consisting of different nations on an ethnic basis and having different national partners will be established... This is also the democratic Republic project of the villain in Imralı... Prime Minister Erdoğan, forgetting the reality that national identities are formed within a historical process, is under the delusion that this identity is a badge pinned to the lapel that can change according to every outfit."

In 2007, he reacted to the AKP again as follows:

- "No one will have the power to make Turkey into Lebanon, Yugoslavia, or Iraq... they will not be able to turn it into a crushed society pushed into a psychosis of guilt."

- "Prime Minister Erdoğan's calls for the terrorist organization to lay down arms, his invitations to come down from the mountains to the city and engage in politics, the fostering of hopes for a political solution, and promises of a covert political amnesty to terrorists should be seen as infrastructure preparations for the political setup intended to be brought against Turkey... The wheat and the chaff have been mixed; the name of surrender and negligence has become 'democracy,' and the name of treason reaching up to Parliament has become the 'path of democratic struggle.' These treason projects of those who want to lead our Republic toward destruction under the name of rebuilding it can never, ever be accepted. Ultimately, the examples of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia still maintain their vividness in memories."

During the 2013 resolution process, he once again said, "Let it be known that Turkey will not be Iraq, Yugoslavia, or Lebanon," and noted the following:

"The AKP-PKK negotiations, conceptualized under the name of the Ladder Strategy, are being advanced step by step... In the short-feature treason film titled the Imralı process; Prime Minister Erdoğan's co-stars are the terrorist leader and his organization, the director is the USA, the makeup artist is the EU, the stunt double is the BDP, the set decorator is the CHP, the editor is the Peshmerga, the cameraman is the so-called intellectuals, and the sound designers are some former movie stars... Prime Minister Erdoğan has put the indivisible integrity of Turkey, with its land and nation, up for sale in order to become president and establish his dynasty as a single man, and has called on the separatist terror network to transfer its national unity. From now on, if the words 'Erdoğan is President, PKK is the champion' are heard... no one should find this strange... Prime Minister Erdoğan will be the president of a confederal structure that has been dispersed, separated, and divided into clusters of ethnic identities, and the Imralı villain will be the head of the so-called Kurdistan autonomous region in the first stage."

In the "Turkey" rally he organized in Ankara's Tandoğan square, while asking our Kurdish-origin brothers and sisters who are distant from division and reactive to terror to finally raise their voices and react to the bloody plans of the Imralı villain and PKK terror, and their insistence on division, he spoke as follows:

"We did not come together to separate and disperse when the time came through edicts, imperial decrees, constitutions, laws, circulars; we did not become a nation through coercion... When will we understand the games of the imperial monster, the global murder network, that tries to divide us first and then swallow us, that projects to divide us into 36 first and then evaporate us?.. Let it not be forgotten that the name of the nation is Turkish, and despite the Prime Minister, global plans, and separatist circles, it will remain Turkish. The name of the Turks does not come from Turkey, but the name of Turkey comes from the Turks. The purpose of playing with the name of the nation is to transform the state, to roll up sleeves for a new regime... This is why he boasts of being a Co-Chair of the Greater Middle East Project (BOP), with an authority not granted by the Turkish nation."

WHAT DID HE WANT FOR ALEVIS?

Let us also convey Bahçeli's views regarding our Alevi citizens.

In November 2008, while warning that "Turkey is being dragged into a very dangerous process of separation and polarization on the basis of faith and sect," he said, "It is a fact that a part of the magnificent human existence that makes up the great Turkish nation has adopted the Alevi Islamic faith, and that these brothers and sisters of ours have some problems, troubles, and expectations based on faith and culture. The MHP is sincerely ready to contribute to the initiation of a process of 'mutual understanding and being understood' on this issue for the solution of the problems of our Alevi brothers and sisters."

In May 2009, while explaining the MHP's views on the problems and expectations of Alevis, he emphasized that "he believes that removing these problems, which have been ignored for many years, from being an element of tension with an understanding that embraces our society, in order to prevent provocations aimed at creating a minority, will strengthen our national unity," and noted that the issues and demands on which Alevis are focused are "the status and position of Cemevis, their relationship and connection with the Presidency of Religious Affairs, and the inclusion of Alevi Islamic faith and culture in educational curricula."

Among the proposals Bahçeli made in this context was "the representation of Alevis in the staff of the Presidency of Religious Affairs."

Today, while most of those problems still continue, he has proposed an Alevi Vice President.

In the statement he made after three days of debate, he confirmed that he made this proposal "at a time when 'Terror-Free Turkey' is advancing step by step against ethnic and sectarian-based impositions that tire and wear out our Turkey, steal its energy, and cause social and economic costs," and stated that "associating this idea and proposal with Lebanon is distortion, misdirection, and opportunism." He then noted the following:

"The leaking of my words in the closed-to-the-press meeting to a certain so-called journalist, and that gossip brand and journalist who performs acrobatics on every rope carrying it to the agenda like a Moor who found goods, is meaningful in terms of timing. And it is among our notes."

As far as we can see, apart from DEM co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan, one of the Imralı spokespeople who explains that thanks to the terrorist leader, not only Kurds but also Alevis, Lazs, Circassians, and Bosniaks will be liberated, and AKP member Mehmet Metiner—whom MHP members once said "is dying to stand guard in front of the rags of a herd of murderers instead of the Turkish flag"—no one understood or rejoiced at Bahçeli's "Kurdish and Alevi Vice President" proposal.

Even if the proposal is correct and justified; then why was it not shared directly with the nation, or why was there so much discomfort about it being leaked and written about that it was "noted"?

Does this attitude alone not show that many things are being cooked up in secret from the nation, behind closed doors?

Two more questions:

Since 2005, are the outcries that "they want to divide Turkey into 30 ethnic pieces, turn it into Iraq, Yugoslavia, or Lebanon" correct, or are the current discourse and proposals correct?

Does pursuing identity politics today by saying "Kurdish and Alevi Vice President" not give the groups that Erdoğan and Imralı-PKK-DEM list as "Armenian, Laz, Circassian, Bosniak" the right to make these same identity-based demands in the future?

Journalist Fatih Altaylı, who is imprisoned in Silivri, said about Bahçeli's proposal, "For the first time, my sleep has been lost."

It seems that our sleep will be lost even more!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

July 23, 2025