Nation Alliance parties 'trap' each other: MHP leader

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on Oct. 12 accused the components of the Nation Alliance of "cheating" each other, although they had declared a consensus on the "strengthened parliamentary system."

Bahçeli reminded that representatives of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the İYİ (Good) Party, the Felicity Party (SP), the Deva Party and the Future Party met at the parliament for the third time to discuss their aim to introduce the strengthened parliamentary system. The opposition parties had done so by hiding their cooperation with the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Bahçeli said, speaking at his party's parliamentary group meeting.

They "have announced that they have reached a so-called compromise by keeping the HDP under the table. Compromise happens on the right goals. Compromise finds mediocrity with an honest and clear understanding of politics. Which of them is honest, which is decent and which is pure?" Bahçeli asked.

The components of the Nation Alliance have been "paying visits to each other every other day, but they trap each other at the back door," Bahçeli stated.

Claiming that the CHP wanted autonomy and federation for some groups in Turkey, he argued that the abolition of the first four articles of the constitution was essential in the CHP's "secret agenda."

Bahçeli asked questions to CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu about their intentions for a possible change in the constitution: "Do you intend to remove Atatürk from the constitution? Do you plan to exclude the Turkish name that dominates the constitution? Do you intend to introduce the concepts of 'constitutional patriotism' instead of the concept of Turkish citizenship, 'country' instead of Turkey, 'republic' instead of the Turkish state,...