Breaking News: Statement on by-elections from Devlet Bahçeli

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli made statements regarding the agenda at his party's weekly group meeting in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM).

Our Chairman Mr. Devlet BAHÇELİ is Speaking at the Group Meeting https://t.co/gx7fK4M0dh

— MHP (@MHP_Bilgi) April 14, 2026

US-IRAN NEGOTIATIONS

The highlights of Bahçeli's speech are as follows:

There is a multi-layered network of reckoning woven between the security of energy resources and border security, international law, and racist and sectarian mentalities. The fact that the war, which began with the joint US and Israeli airstrikes against Iran on February 28, 2026, appears to have been tied to a two-week ceasefire on April 7 does not mean the crisis is over. This ceasefire is more of a temporary pause that allows the parties to review their positions at a point where they have failed to achieve their strategic and fundamental goals, rather than a comprehensive consensus.

"WEAPONS HAVE FALLEN SILENT TEMPORARILY, THE ACCOUNT HAS NOT BEEN SETTLED"

The ground for a permanent solution is quite weak. The end of the war and the establishment of peace are far from being an accessible goal. For this reason, we must read the picture presented as a ceasefire today not with naive optimism, but with state seriousness. Because the ceasefire itself has turned into a tool of a power struggle. Trump's statement that they accepted a two-week ceasefire on the condition of opening the Strait of Hormuz and that they received a 10-point proposal from Iran, and in return, Iran's declaration that its war goals had been achieved, show that the crisis has been moved to the negotiating table. It is understood that the temporary silence of weapons indicates an intermediate phase where accounts are not closed, but rather readjusted both on the field and at the table. The direct US-Iran negotiations held in Istanbul on April 12 ended without any agreement being reached.

"A WORLD PEACE COUNCIL MUST BE ESTABLISHED"

The inconclusive talks in Islamabad have further strengthened the possibility of the conflicts in the region evolving into a global catastrophe. Just as unchecked and unbridled power competition and the ambition for armament are causing bombs to explode in the Middle East today, they will pave the way for greater destruction in the heart of Europe, at the nodes of Asia, and in the fragile basins of Africa tomorrow. Humanity, shaken by the global pandemic in 2020, has been tossed incessantly by the Ukraine-Russia war, the disrupted trade security in the Red Sea and the Black Sea, the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, the destruction in Lebanon, and the crises that have erupted in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia. In a world where India and Pakistan are facing off on the Kashmir line, and where the Pakistan-Afghanistan tension is upending the lives of tens of thousands of people in Pakistan today, it is a dangerous delusion to think that the fire will remain limited to a single region. In such a period when the possibility of a World War is being voiced more loudly, the immediate implementation of a World Peace Council mechanism with the participation of the USA, the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, Turkey, and the European Union, under the leadership of United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Antony Kuvvertes, is a historical necessity on behalf of humanity.

The manifestation of a new global will that is based on justice, balance, and equity, rather than ambivalent understandings that carry the word of peace but actually fuel war, is now inevitable. Turkey is ready to take responsibility with the burden imposed by its history and the mission assigned by its geography. Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's motto, "Peace at home, peace in the world," will determine the route of every step we take and the direction of all the paths we walk, just as it did yesterday.

My dear fellow party members, another remarkable situation is that while there is a temporary braking on the Iranian front, the Lebanese front is being kept open. The loss of life in the airstrikes carried out by the Israeli army on Lebanon shows that Zionist calculations have no intention of leaving Lebanese soil. The screams in Gaza are finding an echo in Lebanon today. Israel's attacks violating Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be stopped immediately. Ensuring stability in the region and establishing the sovereignty of the brotherly Lebanese people over their lands is a humanitarian and conscientious necessity.

"ISRAEL IS THE REAL AND ONLY RESPONSIBLE PARTY FOR THIS WAR"

It is observed that Israel's attacks targeting regional countries such as Syria, Iran, and Lebanon are increasing, and imperialist activities carried out under the guidance and support of the United States are intensifying over a wide geography. The understanding that tries to reconstruct security in favor of Zionism and imperialism by destabilizing neighboring countries in our region only produces chaos. Israel is the real and only responsible party for this war. The inability to operate a pressure mechanism on Israel is the fundamental problem of the international system. How the aggression of the United States' spoiled child is tolerated, and even encouraged from time to time, reveals the double standards of the global world.

Our first qibla, the apple of our eye, the heart of blessed memories and sacred relics, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is the threshold of the miracle of Isra and Mi'raj, and a legacy of our Prophet to his ummah. Every domination and every siege directed at this holy sanctuary is an attack directly aimed at the honor of the ummah. The closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque to worship by Israel for 41 days and its reopening only in recent days shows us that this struggle is being waged not only over airspaces, borders, and bases, but also over our sacred values, our beliefs, the places where our faith and spiritual climate belong, and the memory field of our faith. The freedom of worship of our Palestinian Muslim brothers has been severely restricted, and a new one has been added to the ongoing humanitarian tragedy and the endless human rights violations.

"THE WEST'S SILENCE IS A CALCULATED MORAL BLINDNESS, AN ORGANIZED POLITICAL HYPOCRISY"

On the other hand, the regulation adopted in the Israeli Parliament that paves the way for the death penalty for Palestinian political prisoners reveals the lawless and immoral side of Zionism. The oppression that is being tried to be legitimized through the law is another reflection of the revenge that Zionism is trying to take from Islam and the domination it is trying to establish over our Palestinian brothers. Will international law be able to withstand such a heavy attack? Where has equality remained? For whom does the prohibition of discrimination exist? The gap between the West's human rights rhetoric and the reality of the Middle East has become impossible to hide. Those who attempt to set order for the world in the name of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights either sink into a deep silence when it comes to Palestine or gloss over blatant illegalities with vague and shy sentences. This silence of the West is a calculated moral blindness and an organized political hypocrisy.

While all this is happening, the strategic veins of the region are also under separate pressure. While energy transit from the Strait of Hormuz and the security of sea routes have been opened to debate, water security in the Middle East has also gained importance. Even in the pre-war period, the Middle East was one of the geographies experiencing the highest water scarcity on a global scale. Climate change, drought, increased demand, and conflicts have turned water resources into a new front of competition."