Devlet Bahçeli, the head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and ally to the government, has called for harsher methods to quell terrorism in Türkiye should the recent political outreach to the PKK terrorist group fail.
“There is no going back on the purpose of eliminating terrorism from not just our lives but the national memory. If this aim is resisted, much tougher, more rapid and more extreme measures than old strategies must be implemented,” Bahçeli said Monday in a statement for Republic Day.
Bahçeli stoked up a fresh debate in Türkiye on the “end of terrorism” last week when he pitched the possible release of PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan, who could “come to Parliament and make a speech” should he announce that the PKK would lay down arms.
The PKK, which has waged its bloody terror campaign since 1984, exploited the Kurdish community to create a so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Türkiye.
Turkish officials are opposed to the conflation of the Kurdish community and the PKK, arguing the definition implies Kurds are a problem for Türkiye and abets the PKK’s terrorist agenda.
Bahçeli on Monday hit out such claims, saying: “The Republic of Türkiye does not have a Kurdish problem nor will it ever have a Kurdish problem. The existing problem is the putschist terrorist organization and their treacherous roots will be eradicated.”
While Bahçeli’s cryptic call has had mixed responses, pundits have said this could be a sign of the possible beginning of a new process between the Turkish government and the PKK.
Öcalan himself welcomed the potential thaw but with “conditions” during a visit from Ömer Öcalan, his nephew and a member of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), his first family visit in years on the prison island Imrali off the coast of Istanbul.
"If the conditions are right, I have the theoretical and practical power to move this process from the level of conflict and violence to a political and legal level,” Öcalan was quoted as saying by his nephew.
The day before, however, the PKK launched a terror attack on the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in the capital of Ankara, killing five and injuring 22.
“It’s an absolute outcome that those who have not severed their tie with the terrorists that martyred five people at TAI, putschist terror groups or regional and global players that control terrorism meet on the common ground that is the enmity of democracy and humanity,” Bahçeli said.
He lashed out at the “provocative statements of a political group who has yet to comprehend the meaning of Turkish nation’s extended hand of tolerance,” calling them “not constructive but irresponsible and destructive.”
Bahçeli said the terrorist group must hurry to utilize what he called their “last chance.”
“Those who resist our call for national unity and fraternity, those stuck with the rhetoric of terrorism, are on the wrong path,” he said. “And they must see they are pushing the boundaries of patience.”
