Devlet Bahçeli's 'One Kurd, one Alevi' formula stirs up AKP: 2 figures clash!

MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli is alleged to have put forward a notable proposal regarding the Presidential Government System at a closed-door meeting with MHP deputies. According to a report by journalist İsmail Saymaz, Bahçeli suggested a formula based on societal representation, saying "There should be two vice presidents — one Kurd, one Alevi."

MHP STAYS SILENT, AKP IN TURMOIL

Neither MHP nor Bahçeli issued any denial or statement regarding his remarks. However, the debate grew on the ruling party's side. Former AKP MP Şamil Tayyar sharply criticised Bahçeli's proposal in a statement on his social media account, saying the approach would "Lebanonise" Turkey.

"This statement is a highly problematic and dangerous proposal that will reopen Turkey's fault lines.

A structure like the Lebanese model — where the President is Christian, the Prime Minister is Sunni, and the Speaker of Parliament is Shia — would divide Turkey.

Distributing offices based on faith and ethnicity is not a democratic stance.

It is unjust to Turks, Kurds, and Alevis alike. What matters is merit and an understanding of pluralist democracy."

MEHMET METİNER FIRES BACK WITH SCATHING RESPONSE

While Tayyar's post ignited a new dispute among AKP figures, former AKP MP Mehmet Metiner launched a fierce attack on Tayyar's post without naming him directly.

Metiner described the post as "impertinence" and made the following remarks:

"If Dr. Devlet Bahçeli, the wise leader of Turkey and the symbolic figure of Turkish nationalism, says something, everyone should think a thousand times before speaking. For someone to pick a fight with Mr. Bahçeli on the subject of ethnicity and nationalism — whether out of performative sensitivity or by stealing the spotlight — is truly beyond impertinence.

Without knowing whether Mr. Bahçeli actually said 'There should be two vice presidents. One should be a Kurd, one an Alevi' — and more importantly, even if he did, it is not difficult to imagine for what purpose and in what context he said it — immediately dragging these words into the terrain of ethnic and sectarian compartmentalism and making them the target of criticism as 'extremely harmful and dangerous' is a stance that can in no way be reconciled with good faith."

"IF THE WISE LEADER SAID THIS, THERE IS SURELY A BEFORE AND AFTER TO HIS WORDS"

"For some to immediately take cover behind approaches along the lines of 'Everyone bound by the bond of citizenship is a Turk' and pick a fight, and for others to present this as an imperialist project of division and go down the path of accusation — this is in fact an expression of the discomfort that those well-known circles or individuals feel toward the wise leader, owing to the current process. If the wise leader said this, there is surely a before and after to his words. We know that Bahçeli's understanding of Turkishness is a doctrinal and cultural understanding ennobled by Islam.

The wise leader's understanding of citizenship and nationhood does not rest on an understanding that regards everyone as racially or ethnically Turkish. If he has emphasised Kurdish and Alevi representation, this does not mean he endorses either an ethnic or a sectarian compartmentalist understanding.

It goes without saying that this representation signifies an emphasis on a unifying new representativeness that aims to carry forward — with a great sense of unity — the historical experience and architecture that Islam's creed has monumentalised in the word 'Turk,' which stands at the forefront of the conception of citizenship and nationhood."

"THEY SHOULD RECONSIDER THESE MORBID VIEWS OF THEIRS"

"Those whose skin crawls the moment the words Kurd and Alevi are uttered, and who immediately think of ethnic and sectarian separatism the moment Kurdish and Alevi representation is mentioned, are the ones who should truly reconsider these morbid views of theirs.

Most importantly, if they are sincere in their claims of Islamic belonging, they should learn to think in accordance with their creed. Everyone knows that there is no room anywhere in Mr. Bahçeli's mind for conceptions that would lead to division.

But it is a truth that any person of reason and conscience can accept that an emphasis on representation necessary for a great unity does not carry the meaning of a compartmentalist project along Kurdish and Alevi lines — and that, at the very least, this would never be expressed in such terms by Bahçeli. Turkey's sociology and Lebanon's sociology are two entirely different realities that cannot even be legitimately compared."