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MHP leader draws ire with media boss threats
Bahçeli released a statement on Thursday, pointing to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as the reason behind the parliamentary tension. On Tuesday, a heated exchange of words grew into a fistfight between deputies over a discussion of the Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine’s (GATA) refusal to allow Emine Erdoğan, the prime minister’s wife, to enter the facility to visit an ailing thespian in 2007.
AK Party deputies were angered when MHP deputy Osman Durmuş called Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a “prophet,” which resulted in a fistfight between deputies.
The tension in Parliament was widely covered in the Turkish press. Bahçeli claimed in his statement that the AK Party and its deputies caused the tension. He lashed out at media bosses whose newspapers put the blame of the fistfight on his party.
“Ahmet Çalık, Akın İpek, Turgay Ciner and Ferit Şahenk, whose resources and fortunes are shady and who have rented out the power of their press organs to the ruling party for commercial interests, have turned their press organs into a focused smear campaign against our party and its members,” read the statement, which added that the followers of Bahçeli’s party would not “forget” those media bosses if they continued to publish articles against the MHP. “If these media bosses continue their inaccurate publications which are problematic in terms of morale, our beloved nation will never forgive the publications and the nationalist and idealist [ülkücü] group will never forgive them,” he warned.
The statement was seen as an “open threat” by journalists and observers, who called on the MHP leader to extend an apology for his remarks. Erhan Başyurt, the editor-in-chief of the Bugün daily, said Bahçeli’s statement was more like the statement of an ideological organization rather than that of a political party.
“Bahçeli released a statement which was far from politically courteous. He stood by and even defended the ironic remarks of Durmuş. No conscience can stand the burden of his regrettable statement. … We are expecting him to dress the wound this statement has opened [in our hearts],” he noted.
In August, Bahçeli targeted journalists who attended a workshop with intellectuals on the Kurdish issue in relation to the government’s democratic initiative. The workshop was hosted by Interior Minister Beşir Atalay at the Police Academy in Ankara. The MHP leader characterized the participants as “bad men.”
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