Parliament witnesses war of words between Erdoğan, Bahçeli

The MHP leader angered Erdoğan when he warned AK Party deputies not to approach their MHP rivals in Parliament. “I advise them to watch their step. We will not be deterred by threats. We will dispel any threat no matter where it comes from. I am calling on everyone in Parliament.

They will see what happens if they come within a meter of the MHP seats in Parliament,” Bahçeli remarked during his party’s parliamentary gathering on Tuesday.

Bahçeli was referring to a fistfight between AK Party and MHP deputies last week which erupted after MHP deputy Osman Durmuş referred to Erdoğan as a “prophet.”

According to the MHP leader, the parliamentary brawl was not some sort of “lack of control” but a “settling of accounts” between the deputies.

“The name of this brawl is the Ninth Crusade. And the AK Party deputies are like the exhausted remnants of this crusade,” he noted. This is why the prime minister is so angry, he continued, claiming that the reason behind his anger was decreasing public support for his party. “We will neither be deterred by pressure for the sake of our nation nor take a backward step on our path,” he added.

The MHP’s Durmuş drew the indignation of AK Party deputies on Feb. 2 when he made fun of news reports that the Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine (GATA) had refused to allow the prime minister’s wife, Emine Erdoğan, to enter the hospital to visit a patient in 2007 because she wears a headscarf. He angered AK Party deputies when he said: “How dare you not allow the wife of a prime minister who is accepted as a prophet to enter GATA? Who do you think you are?” The incident led to a skirmish between AK Party and MHP deputies.

In 2007, Emine Erdoğan was hoping to pay a bedside visit to thespian Nejat Uygur, who was hospitalized at GATA at the time. She was told, however, that she would not be allowed to enter the hospital wearing a headscarf.

A controversial headscarf ban is in place in Turkey’s public sphere and applies to university students as well as those working in the public sector. Women wearing headscarves are not allowed to enter military facilities, including hospitals and recreation areas belonging to the armed forces.

Bahçeli also said his deputies had been patient in the face of provocations from AK Party members during the parliamentary brawl. “I am calling on the AK Party, which attempted to attack our party and the national will, to act prudently and know their limits. And I congratulate the deputies from my party for the common sense they displayed against the provocations,” he added.

In response, Erdoğan accused the MHP leader during his party’s parliamentary group meeting yesterday of working to damage the prestige of the Turkish Parliament.

“He has a measuring stick at hand and warns the AK Party deputies not to come within a meter of the MHP seats. I do not know what his complaint would be called in the world of medicine, but he should be referred to a doctor,” he noted.

The AK Party chairman also recalled that this was not the first time Bahçeli had directed threats at individuals.

Bahçeli released a statement last week in which he warned a number of media bosses about their newspapers’ coverage of the altercation in Parliament. He said MHP followers would not “forget” those media bosses if they continued to publish articles against his party.

“Esteemed Bahçeli says I do not know what fascism is. He is right. I know far less about fascism than Bahçeli. … We are all aware of his threats, accusations and insults. He is both a theoretician and an operator in this issue. I would like my people to understand how he displays racist attitudes under the veil of nationalism. Some journalists say they do not respond to Bahçeli’s threats because they do not take him seriously. We cannot do that because he leads a party that has a parliamentary group. But if he continues his discourse, we will not take him seriously. We will not allow any loss of prestige for Turkish politics,” Erdoğan stated.

The prime minister also said the headscarf issue in Turkey was not something personal or individual.

“It is an issue for the whole country. It is an issue for the public. The debate [over it] in politics could be a personal battle, but we did not enter politics to satisfy our personal desires. We do not participate in politics for personal gain. We will never do so. Our case is the case of our public. We are not engaged in a fight of personalities. Our case is democracy,” he remarked.