Bahçeli proposed a status for Öcalan.

08.05.2026 23:58

MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, speaking in the party group, said, "Discussing Öcalan's status issue is important. If there is a status gap, it should be addressed. I am evaluating the establishment of a peace process and politicization coordination. Our wish is for the founding leadership of the PKK to serve under a definition."

At his party's TBMM Group Meeting, MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli evaluated current issues and proposed a status for Abdullah Öcalan.   

"IF THERE IS A STATUS GAP FOR ÖCALAN..."

Stating that "When it comes to Turkey's security and future, we cannot afford sudden reflexes, emotional reactions, social media noise, baseless opposition fanfare with political judgments, or uncertainties with unknown timelines," Bahçeli said, "If there is a status gap for Öcalan, it should be addressed in a way that serves the success of Turkey's Terror-Free Turkey goal, in favor of the Republic of Turkey. Whatever the name of the mechanism needed at this point, its essence must be clear. This mechanism should jointly consider social repair, political normalization, democratic participation, brotherhood law, public order, national security, and a peaceful future."  

HE MADE A PROPOSAL 

Continuing his remarks with a proposal for Öcalan, Bahçeli stated, "To end these debates, I suggest the name be 'Peace Process and Politicization Coordination.' But of course, other alternatives can be produced. Our hope is that the founding leader of the PKK serves under a definition. Because the essence of the matter is the complete elimination of terror, the silencing of weapons, the definitive removal of terror from our agenda, the purification of politics from terrorist tutelage, and the achievement of social integration."  

Highlights from Bahçeli's statements; 

"Dear members of parliament, esteemed comrades, honorable ladies and gentlemen, valued representatives of the press, I greet you with affection at the beginning of my speech. I pray to Almighty Allah that you have a week full of blessings and peace, with all your prayers accepted. I extend my best wishes to our esteemed citizens following our meeting today from domestic and international television screens, radio channels, and social media platforms, and to all our brothers and sisters striving for a spotless life based on the straight path in our cultural and heartlands. I am pleased to be under the same roof with you once again on the occasion of our Turkish Grand National Assembly group meeting, and I greet each of you with love, the warmth of brotherhood, and respect.

"TURKEY WILL NOT BE AN EXTENSION OF ANY POWER"

Turkey does not want wars to spread, crises to deepen, societies to be displaced, cities to be destroyed, and our region to turn into a permanent area of instability. It keeps diplomatic channels open. It evaluates mediation opportunities. It supports grounds where parties can talk. It plays a constructive role in reducing tension. However, standing for peace does not mean passivity. Valuing diplomacy does not mean integrating into others' accounts. Mediation cannot be interpreted as becoming a member of any global or regional project. Turkey conducts its own foreign policy within the framework of its own national interests, security priorities, and strategic line. We will not be a regional extension of any power. We will not allow any country's security concerns to turn into a position against Turkey. We will not consent to any alliance or diplomatic initiative eroding Turkey's legitimate rights. Turkey sits at the table with its own mind and does not engage in image politics by ignoring its own security, law, and interests.

"PEACE POLITICS REQUIRES A STRONG HOME FRONT"

Peace politics cannot be conducted solely with goodwill. It requires power, preparation, deterrence, and a strong home front. Those without power on the ground have weak words at the table. Those with a fragile economy have limited diplomatic maneuverability. Those with a weak home front have reduced maneuverability in foreign policy. Turkey's language of peace must be considered together with strong state capacity. Turkey's stance for peace does not mean it will remain silent to faits accompli developing against it in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Aegean, and Cyprus. In line with our foreign policy shaped by the ideal of peace at home, peace in the world, Turkey has never been a country seeking tension. However, a determined Turkey will face any step that ignores its rights, security zone, maritime jurisdiction areas, the right to existence of Turkish Cypriots, and the balance law in the Aegean.

"MACRON'S NAPOLEONIC AMBITION..."

The security and energy center contacts that France, Greece, the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus, and Israel are trying to establish in the Eastern Mediterranean should be closely monitored. Every state conducts its own foreign policy. It forms its own alliances. But if these alliances aim to encircle Turkey, pressure Turkish Cypriots, disrupt the existing balance in the Aegean, or create a de facto situation in the Eastern Mediterranean despite Turkey, we cannot be expected to remain indifferent. France looking at the region with historical complexes, habits from the colonial era, and narrow conceptions does not produce stability. Mr. Macron's Napoleonic ambition, exceeding his political scale, does not benefit the centuries-old deep-rooted relations between the Turkish and French peoples, who are friends and often allies. If France becomes an apparatus of narrow anti-Turkish calculations in the Eastern Mediterranean, regional peace, European security, and France's reputation will suffer.

"TURKEY WILL NOT ABANDON THE RIGHT OF TURKISH CYPRIOTS TO THE MERCY OF OTHERS"

I emphasize this point with importance. Greece acting with maximalist demands does not produce law. The Greek Cypriot Administration's habit of speaking on behalf of the entire island does not produce legitimacy. Israel's effort to turn its own security concerns into a regional hostility towards Turkey does not produce lasting peace. Those trying to steer the region according to narrow calculations open new risk doors not only for themselves but for the entire region. The Cyprus issue should also be evaluated in this framework. Cyprus cannot be considered merely a negotiation topic or a diplomacy file. Cyprus is Turkey's security depth, its maritime jurisdiction areas in the Eastern Mediterranean, the right to existence of Turkish Cypriots, and the strategic memory of the Turkish nation. Land sales, foreign ownership, real estate concentration in strategic areas, and attempts to create an economic population in Cyprus cannot be seen as ordinary commercial transactions. Land cannot be considered only as a title deed. Sometimes it is a document of sovereignty rights, sometimes a security guarantee, and sometimes the right of future generations. The demographic balance, property structure, economic independence, and security sensitivities of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus should be seen as a national issue. Turkey will not abandon the rights of Turkish Cypriots to the mercy of others. All our kin and blood brothers, especially the administrators of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, must act with the consciousness and responsibility required by historical memory in this regard. Those still stalling with European Union romance on the island should turn their eyes to the eastern shores of the Eastern Mediterranean and read with lessons what is happening in Palestine and Lebanon.

"WE SET OUT ON THE PATH TO A TERROR-FREE TURKEY"

Dear comrades, it is not enough for Turkey to face the upcoming period only through security measures, diplomatic contacts, or economic programs. As the world reshapes, what Turkey needs is a comprehensive national mobilization understanding that connects all areas to the same goal. The mobilization we cannot delay is clear: economic, cultural, and technological mobilization. Economic mobilization means expanding production, strengthening the investment environment, widening export markets, increasing agricultural efficiency, raising value-added in industry, reinforcing energy security, and opening entrepreneurs to the world. Cultural mobilization means more effectively carrying Turkey's historical accumulation, language, art, educational institutions, publishing, TV series, cinema architecture, urban memory, and humanitarian diplomacy capacity to the world. Technological mobilization means spreading the confidence gained in the defense industry to software, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, health technologies, agricultural technologies, energy technologies, space studies, transportation systems, and the digital economy.

The goal of a terror-free Turkey holds a special place here. In a Turkey where terrorism is eliminated, security is permanently ensured, and cities and rural areas attain a climate of peace, one of the biggest obstacles to the development drive will be removed. As Turkish nationalists devoted to the homeland, we have committed ourselves to this blessed path for peace, with God's permission. Turkish nationalism is not about empty slogans shouted in crowds, hollow speeches polished on podiums, or blind bigotry trapped in molds, but a manifestation of a powerful consciousness that pierces the darkness. This consciousness is the understanding of those who do not see borders as lines, land as territory, or the nation as a population. It is the foresight of those who can grasp three thousand years of history in the waving of the crescent-starred red flag, and the essence of independence in the call to prayer heard from minarets. It is the willingness to take and give life if necessary for a stone, a handful of soil, a mountain whose peak cannot be seen, a plain, vineyard, garden, pasture, or water whose location is unknown. Turkish nationalism is counting every single person, every single household. It is comprehending the Turkish nation as a whole. It is taking to heart individually the farmer plowing the field, the worker sweating in the factory, the tradesman seeking his livelihood at his counter, the teacher educating our children in the classroom, the doctor healing our people in the hospital, the civil servant carrying the burden of our state, and every citizen supporting their family with their labor. Turkish nationalism knows the homeland as a trust to be cultivated with sweat, and the nation as a sacred responsibility to be served for peace and prosperity. You will think about the country until dawn. It is the sentiment of my comrades who turn praise into a lesson, and unite in worry, hope, choice, and attitude. It is not the happiness of those who take refuge in past memories and live there, but of those who are candidates to build the Turkey of the future. It is not the vision of those who look at the glorious pages of our history and ancestral legacy, leaving praise in words, but of those who transform it into action. It is the understanding of those who courageously address today's problems, put their hands under the stone, and even consider it a duty to enter under that stone with their bodies if necessary.

The Nationalist Movement Party is the deep-rooted and blessed headquarters of this great ideology in Turkish politics. The Nationalist Movement Party is the political carrier of Turkish nationalism, the strong voice of the national conscience, and the leading force of the national survival struggle. The Nationalist Movement Party is a self-sacrificing shield against Turkish nationalists being swept away in stormy weather, shaken on fragile political grounds, dragged on slippery roads, and left without ownership around so-called options. The Nationalist Movement Party, as yesterday, is today the insurance of Turkey. This insurance is the direction eyes turn to in times of crisis, the truth that intervenes in environments of calculation, and the virtue that clears waters in times of sedition. It stands defiantly firm against those who watch for division, who whisper fatigue into ears, whose eyes betray discouragement, who abandon positions when without office, who measure loyalty by rank, and who tie their cause to personal future. The Nationalist Movement Party says that a requirement of Turkish nationalism is to untie the knots before our future and quickly cross the bridges that appear on the horizon. As Turkish nationalists, we desire to pull out the daggers plunged into the bosom of our nation, to free the handcuffed hands of our state, and to make brotherhood dominant in every inch of the homeland. We consider it a responsibility to our past to heal wounds rather than open them, to unite rather than deepen divisions, and to repair rather than break at the thinnest point.

"A TERROR-FREE TURKEY IS NOT SURRENDER"

The current stage of this responsibility is the permanent elimination of all forms of terrorism from our lands. The Nationalist Movement Party will stand fully behind this historic responsibility, walking decisively on this path without offending the sacred memory of our martyrs or overshadowing the trust of our veterans. The name of this march is a Terror-Free Turkey. A terror-free Turkey is not surrender. A terror-free Turkey is not concession. A terror-free Turkey is not negotiation with a terrorist organization. A terror-free Turkey is not about weakening the state, loosening the national will, violating the red lines of our noble nation, probing sensitivities, or diluting security principles. If anyone attempts such conceptions, if they dare to place the Nationalist Movement Party at the center of treason, if they try to weigh the command center of Turkish nationalism on the same scale as terrorism, they have fallen into dungeons of heedlessness and lost their way in the dark corridors of lack of insight. No one can place the name of the Nationalist Movement Party alongside terrorism. No one can stain the acquired knowledge of this movement, kneaded with the blood of our idealist martyrs, the struggle of our elders from the stone madrasa, the prayers of our nation, and the loyalty of our comrades. Let it be known that a terror-free Turkey means the Turkish nation's deliverance from a historic calamity. It means our state transforming the energy spent on security into a development drive. It means our brotherhood becoming strong and solid again in every inch of Anatolia. A terror-free Turkey is not just today's but tomorrow's issue. A terror-free Turkey is not just an internal security issue but also a foreign policy issue.A terror-free Turkey is not just a public order objective, but one of the main pillars of the ideal of a great and powerful Turkey.

The tension involving the United States, Israel, and Iran, which dominates our agenda, is not merely a military or diplomatic conflict among three countries. This tension carries the potential for a major earthquake that could affect a wide range of areas, from Turkey's border security to energy costs, agricultural production to industrial inputs, logistics routes to foreign trade balances. Every tremor in the Strait of Hormuz not only changes the routes of oil tankers. Changing routes extend to diesel prices, fertilizer costs, farmers' planting decisions, industrialists' production calculations, exporters' competitiveness, and our citizens' kitchens. Every disruption in energy supply pressures agricultural production. Every increase in fertilizer strains food security. Every rise in logistics costs permeates every area, from price tags in the market to production planning in organized industrial zones. Therefore, foreign policy and domestic policy are not disconnected. A year and a half ago, we said the issue today is not Beirut but Ankara. We said the hidden agenda is the Turkish homeland. When we said that the missiles and assassinations ignited in the Middle East could turn toward the Anatolian geography in the next phase, we were not making an empty assessment. We were warning that the fire at the beginning of the street could come to our doorstep. We explained that without ensuring peace inside our home, we cannot even step outside our garden. We stated that while the pot is boiling outside, we cannot cook our meal inside. It is not difficult for eyes that listen, not just hear, and see, not just look, to grasp how vital a terror-free Turkey is. The crisis across the border and the peace within the border are parts of the same strategic equation. We see this equation. We evaluate Turkey's future not according to today's debates, but, I repeat, according to the comprehension of the Turkish and Turkey Century we heralded in 2023, the horizon of 2053, and the understanding of 2071.

"ENDING TERRORISM HAS BECOME A RELIGIOUS OBLIGATION"

With a terror-free Turkey, we close our doors to the petty politicians of ethnic provocateurs, the proxy elements of imperialism, and the exploitations of sectarian brokers. We strive for a Turkey where Turk, Kurd, Alevi, Sunni, Arab, Assyrian, Easterner, and Westerner are united under the same flag, on the same homeland, under the same state roof, in a unity of destiny and direction—not based on blood analysis, bone structure, or skull size. A terror-free Turkey means neighbor trusting neighbor. A terror-free Turkey means a mother sending her child to school in peace. A terror-free Turkey means a shopkeeper opening his shutter without worry, a farmer going to his field without fear, a teacher entering the classroom with head held high, an investor safely reaching every corner of Anatolia. A terror-free Turkey means the knitting of our internal resistance as a nation, arm in arm, hand in hand, and as one body, like a steel wall. Ending terrorism, which has targeted our lives at our borders, repeatedly attacked our civilians, raided our police stations, plundered our villages, kidnapped our children, left our mothers in tears, our children orphans, and our sisters widows, has become a religious obligation. Overcoming the scourge of terrorism, which has ambushed our development will, shrunk our bread, and laid mines in front of investments and exports, is a matter of honor. The plague of terrorism, which has chained our commercial life in Esendere, Üzümlü, and our customs gates, should not stab tourism in Aydın, Muğla, and Antalya. We must now convert the enormous resources that have had to be allocated to the fight against terrorism for years into schools for our children, hospitals and care services for our elderly, irrigation canals for our farmers, agricultural support, rural development, technology centers for our youth, university investments, youth projects, employment and social welfare for our women, credit for our tradesmen, investment for our industrialists, infrastructure for our cities, roads for our villages, rivers for our hamlets, and abundance for our fields. Fear in the mountains should not settle at our tables. Ditches dug along the borders should not overshadow our development moves. While our economy is tested with the security costs brought by terrorism, our children's livelihood should not be allocated to defense expenditures. Removing terrorism from our nation's agenda permanently and transforming the resources consumed by security necessities into a development mobilization will materialize with a terror-free Turkey. A terror-free Turkey will be the name of the transition from security to development, from pain to hope, from fear to peace, from loss to production. And Southeastern Anatolia should not be merely the special area of our Ministry of Interior, the expertise domain of our Ministry of National Defense, or the subject of security reports of our National Intelligence Organization. With a terror-free Turkey, it should become centers of agriculture, livestock, renewable energy, border trade, logistics corridors, cultural tourism, entrepreneurship, industry, and technology investments. We envision Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia equipped with irrigation dams, ponds, modern irrigation systems, agricultural supports, livestock credits, and organized industrial zones. Where terrorism ends, traces of abundance begin. Where terrorism falls silent, children's joy is heard. Where terrorism withdraws, factory chimneys smoke. Where terrorism's shadow is cleansed, the path to employment opens. Where terrorism is eliminated, plains come to life. With a terror-free Turkey, when Diyarbakır is mentioned, not the cries of mothers keeping vigil for their children, but the center of cultural tourism and gastronomy will come to mind. Şırnak will be remembered not for martyr news, but for border trade and logistics capacity. Van will stand out as a trade gateway to the Turkic world and a tourism center. Hakkâri will find a place in minds as a center of livestock, not tears. From Batman to Bingöl, Tunceli to Iğdır, Ağrı to Bitlis, all traces of terrorism will be erased. We say a terror-free Turkey for a future where our trade arteries are opened, rural production is revived, and industrialization accelerates. We say a terror-free Turkey for a Turkish youth who studies in the city they were born, lives in the city they studied, finds a job and starts a family in the city they live, does not tend to migrate, and seeks their future in their birthplace. We say a terror-free Turkey for tomorrows where life and labor find equal returns in all our cities, and our demographic fabric achieves a balanced foundation.

"NECESSARY LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITIES WILL GAIN PACE IN OUR VENERABLE ASSEMBLY"

One of the most important aspects of this process is that the issue has been addressed under the roof of our venerable Assembly. It is highly meaningful that the goal of a terror-free Turkey is progressing in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey—the manifestation of national will, the headquarters of our War of Independence, the embodiment of sovereignty belonging unconditionally to the nation—through commission work, contributions from different political parties, reports, deliberations, and ultimately, preparations for legal regulations.