Government ally Bahçeli insists HDP should be closed

Photo: AA/File

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Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli, an ally of the government, has reiterated that the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) should be closed because of "terrorism."

Bahçeli also called for the closure of the HDP last week but the deputy chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Numan Kurtulmuş, said that the country "didn't see the positive results of closing a party before."

Faik Öztrak, a spokesperson for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), also stated that they are against the closure of political parties.

Predecessors of both the AKP and the HDP had been closed by the Constitutional Court multiple times since the 1970s.

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Kurtulmuş and Öztrak should explain whether the state should cover the expenses of "bullets, bombs, mines and Kalashnikovs," Bahçeli said on Twitter yesterday (December 16) asserting that the HDP was handing out the Treasury aids and people's taxes to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Referring to Kurtulmuş's remarks, he said, "Beyond closing a party, the matter is punishing treason."

The HDP should be closed forever and parties that "take ethnic divisionism and terrorism as a reference" shouldn't be allowed to be established, he added.

The ruling party has linked the HDP to the PKK as most of the HDP mayors in the Kurdish-majority cities have been dismissed because of "terrorism-related" investigations against them and dozens of politicians from the party are currently behind bars.

Bahçeli also criticized that the HDP didn't sign a joint statement by all parties with a parliamentary group against the recent US sanctions on Turkey.

The HDP is "an extension of the enemy" and "betraying the Turkish nation," according to Bahçeli.

"There are no options anymore: It's either terrorism or cleaning, either divisionism or peace. Every political party should make their decision," he further said. "There is no neutral zone between terrorism and national unity and fraternity." (EKN/VK)