“The Devil’s Advocate... Hired... Vile, Despicable... So-called MP... Potential Terrorist... Sold-out PKK Supporter”

MHP Deputy Chairman Semih Yalçın defined politics as follows in 2015 while reacting to the CHP and CHP member Sezgin Tanrıkulu:

“Politics is not about denying today what you said yesterday or abandoning yesterday's principles today. If such a conclusion is drawn, it means politics is the art of deceiving the public.”

Yes, the MHP leader has pulled off another surprise, reaching out to CHP Diyarbakır MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu after the DEM Party members. According to information provided by Tanrıkulu, they chatted about “the importance of everyone’s responsibility and contribution regarding the period we are going through”... They discussed “the ongoing process”... Furthermore, Bahçeli expressed that he has been following Tanrıkulu’s work and that these efforts are valuable.

“If Only the One Cursing My Religion Were a Muslim”

It is impossible not to be surprised once again. Because Sezgin Tanrıkulu was one of the names the MHP had criticized in the past with the harshest expressions.

For example, in 2012, when Tanrıkulu accused the MHP of “profiting from the funerals of martyrs,” Deputy Chairman Semih Yalçın said the following regarding Tanrıkulu’s joining the CHP and becoming a Deputy Chairman: “A man who acted as a lawyer for the baby-killer terrorist leader and defended bloodsuckers was transferred via a rental method, under the assumption that he had beads in his intestines. While the public watched this event with astonishment, the devil’s advocate not only became an MP but was also overly rewarded by being made a deputy chairman. He has now become the window dressing for the new expansionist mentality in the CHP and a part of the main opposition’s strategy to embrace separatists.”

He then responded to Tanrıkulu’s accusation as follows:

“He has worn the jersey for the first time in the league of those who miss the mark. The translation of this in the public vernacular is: If only the one cursing my religion were a Muslim! The last person to accuse the MHP of profiting from martyr’s blood is the lawyer for the baby-killer separatist leader responsible for the deaths of 30 thousand people. We remind the hired MP Tanrıkulu and those like him that the MHP is the voice of the nation, the conscience of the nation. To fail to calibrate one’s words and then have the audacity to say ‘We will hold you accountable for this’ is a lack of knowing one’s place. Far from holding the MHP accountable, Tanrıkulu is in a position where he cannot account for his own dirty political past... Hired MPs do not even have the right to utter the blessed names of martyrs. For those who have spoken on behalf of separatist murderers for years and defended their rights to now appear on another side is beyond shamelessness; it is audacity and impudence. Such things only suit the devil’s advocates.”

In 2015, Semih Yalçın, while arguing that the CHP should form a coalition with the AKP by explaining that “the CHP adopted more radical views than the AKP during the so-called resolution process, but never found the opportunity to implement them,” mentioned Sezgin Tanrıkulu again and said:

“For example, CHP Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu submitted a 70-article proposal to Parliament for the ‘opening process’ in December of last year. Tanrıkulu’s proposal included issues voiced by the Imralı villain, the Kandil gang, and the political wing of the PKK. The proposal also included the establishment of a ‘Social Consensus and Common Sense Committee’ under the roof of the TBMM. It is noteworthy that a language similar to that of the PKK is used in the justification of the proposal, which includes issues such as the lifting of language bans in politics and the readoption of old local and geographical names. The justification, which emphasizes ‘equal citizenship and democracy,’ also advocates for ‘education in the mother tongue.’ This proposal by Sezgin Tanrıkulu, and thus the CHP, not only overlaps with the demands of the PKK but also exceeds the concessions of the AKP... The conclusion to be drawn from this is: Even if the AKP and the CHP are not identical twins, they resemble each other like fraternal twins.”

When Sezgin Tanrıkulu claimed in 2022 that SİHAs (armed drones) had hit civilians, he faced a reaction from the MHP. MHP Secretary General İsmet Büyükataman, stating that participating in smear campaigns against Turkey had become routine for the CHP cadres under Kılıçdaroğlu’s management, said, “Sezgin Tanrıkulu has stooped so low as to target our state’s fight against terrorism through our defense industry’s pride, the SİHAs, by saying that SİHAs hit civilians.”

Bahçeli: “Their Allegiance is to the Kandil Caves”

These are the expressions MHP leader Bahçeli used regarding Tanrıkulu on September 19, 2023:

“A potential terrorist who is among the collaborative mass of the PKK/YPG, and furthermore a CHP MP, has slandered the TSK (Turkish Armed Forces)... The mouth of this vile and despicable so-called MP who attacks the TSK is the mouth of the enemy; his allegiance is to the Kandil caves. The soldier who throws our citizens from a helicopter and burns villages is not a Turkish soldier. No such incident has occurred. This language is the language of terror, the rote memorization of the separatist organization, a declaration of hostility and treason. The fact that the CHP management refrains from giving the necessary punishment to this sold-out PKK supporter within its own party, and their simple and far-from-deterrent attitude, is evidence of an unspoken unity of mouth and mind... To slander and attack the TSK, the pride of the Turkish nation, is the work of the stateless who have lost their honor and the flagless who have cheapened their identity. Neither the stateless nor the flagless have a place in the TBMM. It is a scandal and a sin for a criminal who acts as a spokesperson for the PKK to be paid from the treasury; it is forbidden (haram) for the recipient as well. By fully implementing the rules of law and democracy, this rotten person’s parliamentary membership should be revoked, and the path to the court should be opened wide. Purifying the TBMM from separatists who stretch the limits of tolerance and break the stone of patience is a debt of loyalty to history, the nation, the martyrs, and the veterans.”

And now, after these words, we have reached the point where Sezgin Tanrıkulu’s work is “found valuable”!..

He Was the Favorite of the Terrorist Leader

Let us try to interpret the MHP-Tanrıkulu rapprochement by saying, “That’s politics!..”

The terrorist leader in Imralı had said that the CHP must absolutely participate in the first opening-disintegration process.

It is unlikely that a rift is being opened in the CHP through Tanrıkulu in the new process; because it is understood from the CHP’s rhetoric of “transparency, ensuring social consensus, avoiding approaches that would hurt the families of martyrs and veterans, conducting the process under the leadership of the TBMM, and establishing a commission with the equal participation of political parties in parliament” that they were ready for the course of events long ago.

Another note from the first opening-disintegration process:

One of the names the terrorist leader mentioned most frequently from the CHP in his meetings with the Imralı delegation was Sezgin Tanrıkulu.

For example, he requested that Sezgin Tanrıkulu from the CHP be invited to the conference he described as the “conference for the political solution of the Kurdish issue,” and likewise, while speaking of the “advisory committee” he planned to form, he said:

“After the peace process opens, I will also want an advisory committee. I will meet with different segments. You also hold your meetings within this framework, provided it is not reflected in the press, and mature them. Sezgin can also be met with. The Truth Commission, the Wise People Commission were their suggestions. I am discussing these two commissions. Tell him that. If you leave the state to the AKP, you will be left out. The CHP can contribute; we see it as important.”

As is known; now, among the demands listed by the DEM members as “There is no condition, there is a necessity” are: “the establishment of a secretariat for the terrorist leader, the formation of a team he will write to and discuss with in order for the process to progress and be advanced, and ensuring his meetings with journalists, academics, and political circles.”

If these are accepted, the first name to go from the CHP to Imralı will probably be Sezgin Tanrıkulu, right?

What can we say; may the terrorist leader increase your conversations!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

March 9, 2025