MHP Chair Bahçeli calls on İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu to resign

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli spoke at the MHP Parliamentary Group Meeting today (February 1).

He talked about various issues, ranging from the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, jailed journalist Sedef Kabaş, Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, jailed former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş and arrested businessperson Osman Kavala.

Bahçeli once again targeted and otherized the people that he talked about, calling Selahattin Demirtaş a "terrorist".

Referring to the escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia, Devlet Bahçeli said, "Respect for Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity is imperative," adding that "Kiev's future should not be abandoned to the mercy of regional and global power groups."

According to MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli, "Turkey, as a third party country which is in friendly and constructive relations with both countries, can ensure normalization in relations between Russia and Ukraine and the establishment of peace and reconciliation" in the region.

Bahçeli supported President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's offer to intermediate between Russia and Ukraine, saying, "We, as the MHP, stand behind this process."

Snowfall in İstanbul and Ekrem İmamoğlu

Bahçeli moved on to talk about the problems faced by İstanbul amid snowfall. According to Bahçeli, the Chair of the MHP, which is in the People's Alliance with the AKP, the problem was not that it snowed, but that measures were not taken and there was a chain of omissions.

Like several AKP politicians, including President and AKP Chair Erdoğan, Bahçeli criticized main opposition CHP's İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu over the dinner that he had with the UK Ambassador on the day when it snowed heavily in the city. He further defended the disclosure of the city surveillance camera footage showing the dinner.

"They are supposedly being followed, watched, bugged... Get over it. Forget about these hollow excuses. Say what you were doing and what secret aims you were seeking after at a fish restaurant while there was a blizzard," the MHP Chair criticized the İstanbul Mayor further.

Bahçeli expressed his "wish" that the İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor "wants to be excused from his duty and makes way for İstanbul without any delay before he causes any more damage" to the city.

Arrest of Sedef Kabaş and Sezen Aksu

MHP's Devlet Bahçeli also talked about journalist Sedef Kabaş, who has been arrested for "insulting the President" over her remarks during a program on TELE 1 and musician Sezen Aksu, who was targeted and threatened over the lyrics of a song from five years ago.

Referring to the recent debates about a 10-year-old child given the microphone by Erdoğan to insult CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu at a rally, Develt Bahçeli defined it as "hypocrisy" that "the ones who stay silent in the face of a so-called journalist throwing the severest insults to the President lash out at the words uttered by a child in excitement in Trabzon."

Bahçeli threatened Kılıçdaroğlu

Concluding his remarks, Bahçeli also targeted Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş and threatened Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu:

"Defending Soros' Osman Kavala and singing terrorist Demirtaş praises is not a matter of justice, democracy or liberty, but it means being a wilful accomplice to the crime and treason that have been commited.

"Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu, don't forget this: We will defy the ones who attempt to put a spoke in our wheel; we will rise up as sharp knives ready to be taken out in the face of these." (HA/SD)