* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)
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Devlet Bahçeli, the Chair of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is in the People's Alliance with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has targeted Future Party Chair Ahmet Davutoğlu, also a former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister from the AKP, and three columnists for the Karar newspaper, Taha Akyol, Yıldıray Oğur and Elif Çakır.
The remarks of the MHP leader came shortly after Future Party Vice Chair Selçuk Özdağ and Yeniçağ newspaper's Ankara representative Orhan Uğuroğlu were assaulted in front of their homes in the capital city of Ankara on the same day, which has then raised suspicions as to whether the attacks had anything to do with the MHP or the circles close to it.
CLICK - Future Party Vice Chair Özdağ attacked in Ankara
Bahçeli has addressed Davutoğlu's calls to President and AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to condemn the attack on Future Party Vice Chair Özdağ. Bahçeli has said, "It is both thought-provoking and a confirmation of their inferiority that the grave accusations and allegations against the nationalist-idealist movement have become more widespread."
CLICK - 2 journalists attacked within 24 hours
He has threatened journalists
It has been hardly three days since Orhan Uğuroğlu, the Ankara Representative to Yeniçağ Newspaper, was assaulted on the same day with Future Party Vice Chair Selçuk Özdağ that MHP leader Bahçeli has made targeting remarks about the Karar columnists.
Addressing Ahmet Davutoğlu as "Serok", which means "leader, chief" in Kurdish and usually used for Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Bahçeli has said:
"The change of presidents in the United States (US) on January 20 on the one side and the efforts to help Serok Ahmet distinguish himself on the other as well as the the incitements of fake journalists in their columns on Karar newspaper and, in addition to all these, the attacks on the related politicians and journalists are dubious items on the agenda.
"Wherever there are the fans of marginal organizations in the disguise of journalists, wherever a fan of terror and separatism is seen, they have all come together, casting aspersions on the MHP. No worries or concerns... We will be strong enough to face all of them, we will ruin their plots with belief."
Referring further to Future Party Chair Ahmet Davutoğlu, Bahçeli has said, "Whenever Serok Ahmet is on the front burner, there is a problem in Turkey," adding that "having a row with the MHP is something beyond the limits and comprehension" of Ahmet Davutoğlu.
"Which dubious circles he begs is now obvious," he has added.
'They had better not underestimate MHP'
Referring to the journalists of Karar newspaper, which is close to Davutoğlu, Bahçeli has moved on to say, "The contract columnists of Karar Newspaper, for instance Elif Çakır, for instance Yıldıray Oğur, for instance Taha Akyol and other so-called columnists without a column... They had better not underestimate the MHP, they had better not cast aspersion on the MHP. Because they have already fallen on their own sword, they have already been caught red handed with their faces not blushing."
CLICK - '5 journalists assaulted in the first 15 days of 2021'
"Especially Taha Akyol knows the MHP; I recommend that he should urgently talk about us to the ones who write upon aforementioned orders, along with Serok Ahmet," Bahçeli has said further. (DŞ/SD)
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