This is how Bahçeli became “democratized”!..

MHP Leader Devlet Bahçeli, who initiated the new process regarding the PKK, gave his first message regarding that historic disgrace of a call from the terrorist leader—packaged with very skillful expressions—on the occasion of celebrating the month of Ramadan, and heralded that we are “on the threshold of a blessed era”!..

Bahçeli’s second surprise was announced by DEM Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan. Bakırhan claimed that Bahçeli, who called him to congratulate him just 1 minute after the terrorist leader’s call was announced on live broadcast, said, “Be at ease, we will democratize this country together. We will do whatever is necessary for democracy. I am standing where I am. I am ready to do whatever is necessary for democracy.”

You, who until yesterday would work desperately for the closure of parties that are political extensions of the PKK, and would even want the Constitutional Court closed because it did not do what you wanted. Today, you turn around and promise the PKK’s party to “democratize the country together” and say, “Be at ease”!..

It was like a bad joke... But when the pro-government media also reported these words of Bakırhan, it was understood that it was not a joke.

BAHÇELİ EVEN NAMED IT: ''DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS''

Bahçeli, who made his third surprise the day before yesterday, said the following in summary in a long statement regarding both the terrorist leader’s call and the so-called ceasefire of the PKK, which is full of impositions that praise separatist terror to the skies and flesh out the packaged demands of Imralı:

- “Finally, in the new century, the dawn of a Turkey without terror has been reached, and thus the sunrise of national peace and tranquility is near. The statement read to the public by the DEM delegation on February 27, 2025, and penned in Imralı, is valuable and important from beginning to end... The PKK terrorist organization, which aims to establish a Greater Kurdistan, has been called upon by its founding leader after 47 years to dissolve its organizational structure.”

- “The statements made from Qandil are supportive and complementary to this call, and indeed they are gratifying. The fact that the ringleaders of the PKK terrorist organization in Qandil are rallying around Imralı and embracing the February 27 call is organizational consistency at this stage we have reached, and it is to everyone’s benefit... The call has been made to all components of the separatist organization; compliance and success will add strength to Turkey’s power in the new century, and will both make the thousand-year brotherhood agile and harden it on the other hand.”

- “The MHP is grateful on behalf of the noble Turkish nation to anyone who makes a sincere contribution to the goal of a Turkey without terror and who shoulders the democratization process without preconditions.”

Let us continue by emphasizing that Bahçeli has finally named the process that has been carried out anonymously for months.

FORTUNATELY, HE DID NOT SAY ''THOSE WHO FEED ON BLOOD AND TERROR''

While praising the terrorist leader and the PKK in this way, Bahçeli reacted to those who criticized the process as follows:

“The efforts of some ill-intentioned people nested in the media to smear the February 27 call and to sabotage the steps toward peace and tranquility are an insidious plot. Those who strive to dilute the longing for a Turkey without terror and to muddy the environment of cautious optimism are subcontracted, anti-national mentalities that carry water to the mill of separatism and profit from the continuation of the bloody attacks of terror. It is not possible to speak of the innocence and reasonableness of those who bring the questions of ‘What was given? What was taken?’ to the agenda and wrinkle their faces, and those who disturb the positive climate. The source of exploitation for those who are afraid because the PKK will dissolve itself will dry up, and Turkey will embark on a magnificent awakening on the route of the new century... Without falling into the absurd traps of heroism of circles that are intellectually, emotionally, mentally, and conscientiously withered and rotten to the point of not knowing that the state will not negotiate, the Turkish and Turkey Century will be established and secured through cooperation and unity of power. The Turkish nation is writing a new history. And there will never be a place for opponents of the homeland and the nation on these pages of history.”

We haven’t forgotten that the AKP accused the MHP with similar expressions when it criticized the past opening-up processes, have we?

Let us suffice with reminding you of the answer Bahçeli gave to one of those accusations: “While the blood shed by the terrorist was forgotten, we were accused as those who feed on blood,” he had said!..

DID BAHÇELİ GET WHAT HE WANTED?

While even the AKP approaches with caution, let us look at whether these developments praised by Bahçeli are a “success” in bullet points.

When Bahçeli called for the terrorist leader in Imralı to come to Parliament and speak on October 22, what did he want, and what did he promise in return?

He wanted him to “shout out that terror has completely ended and the organization has been dissolved,” and proposed that “if he shows this fortitude and determination, he should be allowed to benefit from the ‘right to hope’.”

So, did the terrorist leader shout out that the organization has been dissolved?

No, he said, “Convene your congress and make a decision; all groups must lay down their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself.”... Along with this, he set the condition of “recognition of democratic politics and the legal dimension” for this to happen.

Let’s assume we misunderstood.

What should be said about this assessment by Zekeriye Yapıcıoğlu, the Chairman of HÜDA-PAR, who is a partner of the People’s Alliance and has declared war on the Republic?

“It was a statement as expected. The hesitation was this; was he going to announce that he dissolved the PKK or was he going to make a call to the PKK to dissolve itself? He did the latter. This means that the dissolution process will be a bit more prolonged. Still, it was important that he made such a call. I hope the PKK complies with this call.”

Or what is the meaning of these statements yesterday by DEM Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan, whom Bahçeli congratulated and said they would “democratize” the country together?

“The call was expected, yes, the call was made. After the call, the organization gave a favorable and positive response. Now, legal and political regulations must also be implemented as soon as possible. It should not be postponed. No excuses should be placed in front of it. A historic role falls to the Parliament in this regard... One of the addressees of this call is the Parliament. The Parliament is a very important ground for taking steps and for legal and constitutional regulations. I hope the Parliament will also make progress on this issue in the coming days and make the regulations appropriate for this call.”

''DEMOCRATIZATION'' PACKAGING AND ''FLIP-FLOPPING''

We pointed out that Bahçeli named the new process the “democratization process.”

What a coincidence; the name of the opening-up process in the 2009-2015 period was also the “democratic opening,” the “national unity and brotherhood” project. And Erdoğan had announced that this was a “state project.”

Now let us remember what Bahçeli said in the past about “democratization” rhetoric. He said;

- “For the MHP to make concessions that will facilitate division and fragmentation, solely with the rote memorization of freedom and democratization regarding people and geography, is equivalent to saying amen to a prayer that will not be answered.”

- “Regretting the solution process is not enough, there must be a price for this. Putting this process of hatred and blood on ice is not enough, it must never be mentioned again... At this point where Turkey is being dragged to the edge of a blind abyss, every discourse that will pander to the pulse, that will encourage ethnic separatism with slogans like modernization and democratization, is collaborationism.”

- “These days have been reached by encouraging separatist desires, instilling hope, and presenting blank checks and lists of concessions... What does it mean to bury weapons and bombs? What does it mean to give the coordinates of buried weapons? And what does it mean to do politics in parliament afterwards? Who gave this prompt to the President, who made him commit this mistake? There are enough terrorists with Qandil quotas in the TBMM... We have experienced the picture of a country where separatist aspirations, provocations, and dreams are imposed as a criterion for democratization in all its aspects.”

- “The terror scourge, which was grown by calling it a solution, incited by calling it democratization, and finally reached these days, has now begun to take on a deeper state.”

- “The source and essence of the problem is not individual rights, fundamental freedoms, and longings and demands for democratization. What is intended to be done is not individual cultural rights, but political minority rights that a minority to be created will use collectively... As a result of this, the terrorist organization and ethnic separatists will be put in the same category as our brothers in the region, and a result will emerge as if the PKK is their spokesperson and representative.”

- “The security and separatism problem brought before Turkey today is not, in its essence, a problem of democratic rights demands, individual freedom, pluralistic democracy, and political participation. This problem is an armed terror problem that aims at ethnic division... Clichés like multiculturalism, mosaic literature, constitutional patriotism, as if they were requirements of democratization and modernization, are the masks of these treacherous ambitions, the packaging of the separatism trade... If it is possible to stage this political scenario, the PKK’s political demands and action plan will be turned into a democratic alliance platform in this process. This is the goal of the CHP, this is the goal of the İP, this is the goal of the HDP, this is the goal of those whose political life is spent in flip-flopping.”

On the night of May 28, 2023, when Erdoğan was elected, Bahçeli, after stating that everything would change in the coming days, had wished, “I hope Turkey does not change.”

It is unknown how much they have changed Turkey, but it is clear that Bahçeli has also changed quite a bit regarding “democratization”!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

March 3, 2025