MHP's Bahçeli Defies PM And Visits Tunceli, But Cuts Trip Short

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli canceled a planned visit to a local cemevi and a city tour in the predominantly Alevi province of Tunceli amid protests, cutting short a trip that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had said he could not make.

Bahçeli hastily decided to visit Tunceli after Davutoğlu challenged him to go to Tunceli and say what he says in Ankara there, if he dares.

“Today, we are here to solidify our brotherhood. I am in Tunceli to break down walls of discord erected between us,” Bahçeli said in an address to supporters in front of the Tunceli Governor's Office earlier in the day. “Davutoğlu personally challenged me. He tested my courage. He was so senseless that he told me to go to Tunceli and speak there if I dare. Here I am in Tunceli,” he said.

Security was tight in Tunceli due to Bahçeli's visit. Police reinforcements were dispatched to Tunceli from 10 provinces and all government personnel leaves were canceled. Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse a group of demonstrators who attempted to march to the governor's office building to protest Bahçeli's visit. Protesters also clashed with the police in Tunceli city center.

The controversy between Davutoğlu and Bahçeli has its roots in a debate over the killing of thousands of people in the late 1930s by security forces trying to quell a riot. Davutoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have insisted that the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) should apologize for the killings since it was in power at that time.

The CHP has remained ambivalent, and a senior official publicly apologized on behalf of the party, but CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu declined to reiterate it, saying instead that matters of history should not be exploited for political goals.

Bahçeli, on the other hand, slammed the government calls for an apology over the killings in Tunceli, then Dersim, and defended attacks on Dersim that resulted in thousands of deaths, including of civilians saying the state did whatever it had to do to establish peace and order.

Bahçeli repeated his stance in Tunceli, saying what happened in 1937-38 in Tunceli was a “rebellion” and those who were involved in the incidents were “separatist terrorists.” Any legitimate state is required to eliminate security threats directed against it, he said.

He rejected outright any apology for the state's crackdown, saying no one who took up arms to grab a piece of Turkey's land will ever be excused and that any such apology will be an “insult.”

Bahçeli also urged Davutoğlu to resign, now that he is in Tunceli. “How is this person going to be able to act as the prime minister? Is he going to be a man of virtue and resign?” he asked.

Davutoğlu rejects resignation call

Prime Minister Davutoğlu dismissed Bahçeli's call for his resignation, saying it is not in Bahçeli's right to urge the prime minister to resign.

He also said he welcomed Bahçeli visiting Tunceli but added that he wished the MHP leader had gone there on his own, without being challenged to do so.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)