Breaking News... Bahçeli's 'Europe cannot do without Turkey' statement

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli spoke at his party's group meeting.

Our Chairman Mr. Devlet BAHÇELİ is Speaking at the Group Meeting https://t.co/gUGeBhSQco

— MHP (@MHP_Bilgi) April 28, 2026

Key highlights from Bahçeli's speech are as follows:

My esteemed deputies, ladies and gentlemen, valuable representatives of our press, at the very beginning of my words, I greet you all with my deepest feelings of brotherhood, respect, affection, and longing. I pray to Almighty God that you have a week full of goodness, abundance, health, fortitude, and peace. I convey my best wishes to our dear citizens who follow our meeting today through television screens, radio channels, and social media platforms from home and abroad, and to all our brothers and sisters who are struggling for an honorable life, a noble walk, and a patient existence in our heartlands and cultural geographies. On the occasion of our Grand National Assembly of Turkey group meeting, I express once again that I am happy to be under the same roof with you, my valuable fellow travelers, and I greet each of you from the heart.

"THE WORLD IS GOING THROUGH A TEST"

The world is going through a difficult test. Cracks are becoming evident in the pillars of the global system, the geopolitical ground is shifting, and economic tensions and political fault lines are hardening further. States are being forced into a test of will, nations into a test of fortitude, and societies into a test of patience. Even if maps remain in place, meanings are changing. Even if borders appear fixed, the nature of threats is changing. It is in such times that the meaning of being a nation deepens even further. It is in such times that holding onto each other more tightly becomes a historical necessity. It is in such times that every language that grows division, every attitude that increases laxity, and every intervention that erodes memory appears as a trap set for the future. That is why we cannot only talk about today in these days. We must also talk about the past. We must also talk about the future. We cannot be content with just listing events. We are also obliged to explain within which state wisdom those events gain meaning, in which national conscience they find a place, and of which historical march they are a part.

"MAY 3 IS A TORCH THAT NEVER EXTINGUISHES IN HEARTS"

May 3, the Day of Nationalists, which we will observe in the coming days, is a distinguished position in the history of the existence of Turkish nationalism, an exceptional milestone in the memory of the struggle, and a torch that never extinguishes in hearts. How deep the sense of belonging to the Turkish nation is, how alive the minds enlightened by the ideal are, and how durable the hearts that have risked death for the cause are, has been clearly seen in the suffering of May 3, the will of May 3, and the bravery of May 3. Those who stood up that day did not just raise an objection. At the same time, they etched into history what spirit, what morality, and what loyalty Turkish nationalism is based on.

"A NATION IS NOT A CROWD LIVING WITHIN THE SAME BORDERS"

The statement that the people of Turkey who founded the Republic of Turkey are called the Turkish nation is one of the definitions that best reveals Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's conception of the nation. A nation should not be understood merely as the sum of people living within the same borders. A nation is a human and political composition that has shouldered the same destiny, turned the will to stand side by side in the same homeland into a will before history, become accustomed to each other's pain over time, participated in each other's joy, and nourished its memory with shared recollections.

A nation is a great partnership of destiny that looks at the same sky, labors on the same soil, finds dignity under the same flag, walks shoulder to shoulder at a funeral, stands up with the same joy at a wedding, and turns to each other in sorrow and pride. It is the name of the community that feels that invisible line of affection found in the words of the late Neşet Ertaş, whose heart trembled on the string of a saz, saying "There is a path from heart to heart," and that turns the bond established from heart to heart into a cultural bridge, a line of conscience, and a ground of loyalty. A nation is a great synthesis that can make room for each other, multiply, and integrate with the feelings of friendship, sharing, and affection echoed in the late Barış Manço's call of "Come on friends, come on." Because the truth we call a nation is not only fortified by pain, but also matures with the morality of sharing joy. A nation is kneaded with mourning and completed with joy. It takes root with memory and rises with the ideal. Being a nation is a vow to walk together beyond the desire to live together. Above walking together is the power to make history together. This is where the essential spirit that makes May 3 meaningful, exceptional, and historical is hidden. May 3 is the blood-washed stones of a sacred path where an idealized will and a personality-gained morality of the cause become visible in history.

"IT HAS BECOME ONE HEART NOT TO LET THE TURKISH IDENTITY BE CRUSHED"

In the troubled and dark climate of 1944, the insidious shadow of war had fallen upon the world. Nations of every color and variety were being scattered at crossroads, and every state was looking for the resistance to protect its own direction. In those days, as the end of the Second World War was approaching, Turkey was under heavy threat in the middle of multi-faceted pressures, ideological tensions, crises of direction, and political pains. In such a period, the process, which began with letters clearly warning the prime minister of the era by showing that the danger of communism was at our door, was carried to the courtrooms on May 3. A will that did not fit into the courtrooms and did not bow down to Soviet imperialism against those who dared to judge Turkish nationalism found a place in the bosom of our nation. The Turkish youth who filled the Ankara Courthouse became one heart so as not to let the Turkish identity be crushed by socialism and not to let Islam be trampled by communism. The protests, which began under the leadership of a national spirit, fell like a nightmare upon those who wanted to extinguish the hearts beating for the homeland. The love for the homeland and the nation of our late leader Alparslan Türkeş, Hüseyin Nihal Atsız, Zeki Velidi Togan, Orhan Şahik Gökyay, Nejdet Sancar, Reha Oğuz Türkkan, Fethi Tevetoğlu, Cemal Oğuz Öcal, and many other Turkish nationalists was put on trial.

This investigation process, in which human dignity was deeply wounded, human rights were not even mentioned, the principle of the rule of law was ignored, and the principles of criminal procedure were violated, has been etched into our history as a black tragedy. Turkish youth with free consciences, pure minds, and clean foreheads were locked in narrow and suffocating cells called "tabutluk" (coffins). Turkish nationalists were wanted to be brought into line with torture through hunger, thirst, and loneliness. Turkish nationalists were wanted to be brought to their knees within four walls where water did not flow and diseases were rampant. But we know that there was domination in those coffins, but no surrender. There was a threat, but no hesitation. There was provocation, but no concession. There was a price, but no turning back. There was giving one's head, but no bowing one's head. The late Hüseyin Nihal Atsız was shouting with a call that transcended ages: "If the earth is torn, if the sky is the sky, if the four sides burn and turn to ash, we still walk on foot towards the lofty wish. We are the bronze-hearted Turks who do not shy away from lightning, blizzards, or hurricanes, and who play with death." This outcry is the character of Turkish nationalists, kneaded with suffering and tested by trials. It is the story of brave people who do not care about oppression and do not convict their ideas. It is the voice of the swarthy ones who break through iron bars and do not fit into coffins. It is the epic of the men of the cause who flourish as they are pruned and sharpen as they are whetted. Because Turkish nationalism is not a cause of temporary whims, but of those dedicated to the ideal. Turkish nationalism is not the legacy of narrow cadres tasked with saving the day, but of people who are candidates to build centuries. It is the sole banner of those who lean on their history, live by their traditions, and find their upbringing in their roots.

"MAY 3 IS THE HISTORICAL DECLARATION OF THE WILL OF PERSONALITY AND BELONGING"

For this reason, May 3 has a meaning beyond being an honorable memory of Turkish nationalism. May 3 is the primary symbol of what fires the will that carries the Nationalist Movement Party to this day has been tested with, what chains it has been surrounded by, and what plots it has been wanted to be diverted from its path with. May 3 is the transformation of national consciousness into a will that does not accept concessions. May 3 is the manifestation of Turkish nationalism not just as a current of thought, but as a morality, a personality, and a discipline of struggle. May 3 is the dignified stance of those who did not shrink in the face of the darkness of the era, who did not bow in the face of threats, and who did not remain silent in the face of pressure. May 3 is the crystallized state of the Turkish nation's will to claim its own identity, its own history, its own future, and its own spiritual and national existence. May 3 is the day when Turkish nationalism rose on the shoulders of Turkish youth. May 3 is the character yeast of Turkish nationalism. May 3 is the historical declaration of the will of personality and belonging.

"MHP IS THE LAST REFUGE OF THOSE WHOSE YEAST HAS NOT SPOILED"

The Nationalist Movement Party is the bastion of those who melt their own existence in the existence of the state and the nation. The Nationalist Movement Party is the last refuge of those whose yeast has not spoiled, whose salt has not rotted, whose line has not bent, and who have not deviated from the target. This cause is not the cause of those who remember, but of those who carry it.

News Source: 12punto