Devlet Bahçeli, chair of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the main actor in the People’s Alliance led by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), hit out at a former ally over a Constitution debate.

At a news conference on Thursday in the capital, Ankara, Bahçeli said they would "ignore those with suspicious behavior toward the first four articles of the Constitution."

The Free Cause Party (HÜDA-PAR), which joined the People’s Alliance to endorse President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2023 general elections, sparked controversy with its call for "discussing amendments" of said articles, which define the country’s flag, capital and method of governance, which is a republic.

"Whoever debates it is not worth mentioning for us," Bahçeli said in stern remarks, his first since the HÜDA-PAR chair brought up the issue earlier this month. Bahçeli, however, underlined that the MHP still supported the AK Party’s efforts for a new, comprehensive constitution that would be the "backbone of a civilian, democratic state."

The AK Party campaigns to replace the oft-patched Constitution it inherited from a military junta of the 1980s and seeks contributions from other parties for a new draft. The MHP is a stronghold of nationalists who faced torture, executions and political bans by the military junta. The HÜDA-PAR followed a more conservative line and was accused by its critics of efforts to introduce "Shariah" in Türkiye. However, the party says it seeks to reinstate Islamic values in daily life.

Türkiye has been a secular republic since the early 20th century, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.