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Bahçeli elected MHP head for 6th time; opponents kept out of congress hall
The biggest change to the MHP resulting from the congress, therefore, was to the party's program and bylaws. The MHP bylaws were changed to eradicate a regulation preventing an individual from being elected to party chairmanship more than five times.
Bahçeli was therefore eligible to run again, while businessman Ahmet Reyiz Yılmaz and Turkey Seedsmen Union head Hakkı Şafak Ses, both of whom had earlier announced their intention to run for the top MHP spot, were unable to enter the congress hall. Yılmaz said he withdrew his candidacy due to the developments in the congress hall, saying: “The image was created that not just our party and the congress hall, but all of Ankara was under siege. I am withdrawing my candidacy to avoid a single hair on the head of any of my friends from being harmed.”
As for MHP leader Bahçeli, he addressed the congress hall as the sole candidate for the party’s leadership, saying Turkey was headed down a very dangerous path toward a sharp turn. “There are no values left that have not been torn down, nothing sacred that has not been shaken, no hearts that have not broken,” he said.
In a reference to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) democratic initiative to solve the long-standing Kurdish problem, Bahçeli said: “The path you’re traveling on is not a path at all. It ends in destruction and collapse. Our Turkey has been brought to the state of a nation of profiteering, pillage and corruption. The political establishment has been dirtied, and everyone who wants to take revenge on Turkey has lined up behind the president. In the past seven years, Turkey has in all fields been renewed and handed over; there’s not a nail in the country that hasn’t been pulled out.”
Bahçeli alleged that the AK Party and the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were working hand in hand and that the democratic initiative was the product of this partnership.
On the other hand, when a large group from the MHP İstanbul provincial headquarters showed up to the congress, they were at first mistaken for a group in opposition to Bahçeli’s candidacy and greeted by water bottles thrown at them. The MHP’s executive council put an end to the misunderstanding by making an announcement.
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