Former MHP Deputy Türkeş Resigns, Is Listed As AK Party Candidate Deputy

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Ankara deputy Tuğrul Türkeş was on Friday listed as a candidate deputy for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), after he formally sent in his resignation from his party and the MHP parliamentary group after the party expelled him.

The MHP's disciplinary board on Sept. 5 made the decision to expel Türkeş, whose father, Alparslan Türkeş, was the MHP's founding chairman and a symbolic figure in the Turkish nationalist movement, after he joined the caretaker government led by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), against the wishes of the MHP leadership. Türkeş is now an acting deputy prime minister under the interim government, which is set to lead the country into snap elections in November.
After he was expelled, Türkeş refused to accept the decision of the party, and said he decided to resign from the party on his own.
He then sent his resignation letter to the MHP's headquarters, the Parliament Speaker's Office and the Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on Friday morning, which is the deadline for all political parties to deliver their candidate lists to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) for the Nov. 1 election.
Türkeş wrote in his resignation letter: "I have resigned from the MHP and membership [of its] parliamentary group because of the situation in Turkish politics and the conditions that emerged inside the MHP.”
The fact that Türkeş sent his resignation letter on the same day that the parties' candidate lists will be delivered to the YSK had sparked speculations on whether Türkeş would be nominated as a deputy candidate by the AK Party.
In response to Türkeş's resignation, MHP parliamentary group deputy chairman Oktay Vural claimed that Türkeş should be removed from his post of deputy prime minister, as he has resigned from the party. However, Former Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk, who is a law professor and former Cabinet minister, told the Hürriyet daily that Türkeş's resignation would not affect his post even if he is nominated by another party in the Nov. 1 election, as the interim Cabinet can include independent individuals.
Ankara Bar Association President Hakan Canduran also told Hürriyet that Türkeş's resignation would not affect his post as deputy prime minister.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)