'The AKP-MHP feud has officially begun'

Independent Turkey Party (BTP) Chairman Hüseyin Baş was a guest on the program "Mercek," hosted by Orhan Dede on Meltem TV. Evaluating current events during the program, the BTP leader stated that the conflict between the AKP and MHP lies at the root of the 50+1 debates.

Stating that the conflict between the AKP and MHP is at the heart of the discussion, Baş continued: “Erdoğan is not actually saying, ‘let’s make the person who gets the most votes the president’ because the 50+1 rule is making things very difficult for him in order to get elected. My opinion is that, as we have seen in the parliamentary sessions starting today, an AKP-MHP feud has officially begun. This alliance is what Erdoğan is pushing for, and it is also what Mr. Bahçeli is pushing for! That is how I read this situation. The crisis between the Constitutional Court and the Court of Cassation also stems from this. On one side, there are Bahçeli's bureaucrats, and on the other, Erdoğan's. Unfortunately, Turkey has currently turned into a battleground for certain power centers. This is what I observe, and this is my perspective on the 50+1 debate.”

“BAHÇELİ IS PUSHING ERDOĞAN INTO CERTAIN POSITIONS”

Stating that Bahçeli is pushing Erdoğan into certain positions, Hüseyin Baş said, “Mr. Erdoğan is developing certain reflexes in response to this. So, we should not look at this event definitively as ‘Erdoğan is abolishing the 50+1 rule to win the election.’ There is an environment in Turkey where a bureaucratic balance, which has been established over the last 6-7 years, especially after 2016, is clashing again. This is the most painful and saddest situation for Turkey. Over the last 20 years, with Mr. Erdoğan, we have witnessed one day a religious community settling into the bureaucracy, another day a political structure settling into the bureaucracy, and another day another community forming. There is a government that is constantly opening up spaces for some people in some way and placing them in certain positions. At the end of the day, it always ends up in a fight with them, and it is Turkey that suffers here, and this fight has officially begun as of today and will only intensify,” he said.

“AN AKP-MHP SPLIT WOULD COME WITH MAJOR CRACKS”

Stating that an AKP-MHP split would not be easy, the BTP Chairman said, “This separation will not happen easily; there is such an intertwined, complex structure between the AK Party and the MHP in the government. This is a structure that can only be separated with very serious cracks.”

When asked, “Will there be a new constitutional booklet incident?”, the BTP leader replied: “There is nothing openly exposed right now. I don't think this will be done in the short term, especially since there are local elections. Both political formations will have certain goals in the local elections. Therefore, even if not much is happening in front of the public, I know and am sure that a fight has started there. This fight could even turn into a conflict that brings forward some future plans regarding the possibility of a new chance for Turkey's change. Because we remember well what Mr. Bahçeli did while he was in a government partnership in the past. I think the same things could happen today.”

News Source: 12punto