Home > Current Affairs News > MHP responds to Fatih Erbakan's 'Bahçeli should meet with Öcalan' proposal: Irresponsible and low-level

MHP responds to Fatih Erbakan's 'Bahçeli should meet with Öcalan' proposal: Irresponsible and low-level

Yeniden Refah Party Chairman Erbakan stated, "If a meeting is to be held with Abdullah Öcalan, let Mr. Devlet Bahçeli do it himself. Since Öcalan cannot come to Parliament, then Mr. Bahçeli, who invited him to Parliament, should go to him in İmralı. Afterward, he can come and inform the commission himself." MHP has responded to Erbakan's remarks.

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MHP Central Executive Committee member and Tokat Deputy Yücel Bulut gave a harsh response to the remarks of Yeniden Refah Party Chairman Erbakan via his social media account. Bulut described Erbakan's statement as irresponsible and low-level while providing a lengthy explanation.

In his post, Yücel Bulut included the following statements:

"MEETING WITH ÖCALAN 

Mr. Fatih Erbakan!

I condemn your irresponsible and low-level tone targeting our Chairman, Mr. Devlet Bahçeli.

You, who have no 'political qualification' other than carrying the respectable surname of the late Necmettin Erbakan and who therefore 'RE-established' your father's party, should know that;

The late Erbakan sincerely wanted the resolution of the terror problem and the construction of a terror-free Turkey. 

He took serious risks on this issue during his Prime Ministry, but his short-lived tenure and the global efforts to exert dominance over him did not allow him to solve the terror problem, and he was removed from power by the February 28 coup attempt.

So much so that;

Even in his opening speech at the 4th Grand Congress of the Welfare Party (Refah Partisi) in 1993, he addressed the Kurdish issue and stated the following;

 “I ask you, even though we have lived as one body for centuries, what happened that this hostility emerged? 

Why is this blood being shed? Every form of solution can be discussed for the Kurdish issue. In fact, one of the reasons why the issue has become so intractable is that this subject has been kept outside of all discussion as if it were a taboo. 

For these reasons, the fight against terrorism should not be considered solely as a military operation. 

This issue must be handled as a multi-faceted and comprehensive whole that will eliminate its source and causes.”

In later years, he sent İsmail Nacar to HADEP Chairman Murat Bozlak, who was in prison, and asked HADEP to take responsibility regarding the "peaceful resolution of the issue."

Furthermore, as it has now been proven, the late Necmettin Erbakan was perhaps the first person to send a letter to Abdullah Öcalan, and it is known that he sent a total of 3 letters. 

Although the exact content of these letters is not fully known, it is understood that they contained demands regarding the ENDING OF TERRORISM and requests for a democratic solution. 

It is also known that letters written by Öcalan to him exist, and one of them was published in the media as an open letter.

It is also stated in many sources that he held meetings through intermediaries.

Your late father, as an indisputable patriot, carried out these indirect meetings with Öcalan not out of weakness, helplessness, or a sense of concession, but with the vision of a statesman who sees the horizon and with the longing and determination for a Turkey without terrorism.

He believed in the ideal of a country where terrorism ends and Turkey does not waste its resources and energy on internal conflicts, and in this pursuit, he acted not with his ego, but with the intellect of a statesman. 

Moreover, Fethullah Erbaş, a Welfare Party deputy at the time, went to PKK camps, was welcomed by Murat Karayılan, and conducted negotiations to secure the release of soldiers held by the PKK. 

Although this negotiation was a subject of criticism at the time, it saved the lives of eight of our soldiers and served as a means for them to reunite with their families. 

It is impossible that a deputy from your father's party going to PKK camps to hold talks and conducting radio communications with Öcalan, who was in Damascus at the time, could have occurred without the knowledge of the late Welfare Party Chairman Necmettin Erbakan.

However, you, as the person who founded the 'New' (Yeniden) Welfare Party, are now trying to build a space for political exploitation by turning the principled and ideological legacy established by the 'Old' Welfare Party into populist outbursts.

This mindset of yours, 

shows that you prefer momentary political opportunity over the nature of your father;

Instead of making the necessary sacrifices to build a peaceful future,

it shows that you prefer hypocrisy for the sake of a few social media likes and cheap engagement.

Your current stance, which treats the ideal of a Turkey without terrorism as if it were conducting negotiations with terrorism, as if denying your own past and for the sake of political populism, is  an irresponsible statement against our nation and an unfair and baseless accusation against our Leader, Mr. Devlet Bahçeli, and our staff.

Having paid heavy prices for the sake of the nation's unity and salvation, and rather than causing fratricide, 

I remember your father, who renounced all worldly positions, with mercy.