Rise of the RIGHT across Europe SPREADS as TURKEY gets its anti-migrant hardliner
TURKISH hardline politician Devlet Bacheli and his National Movement Party (MHP) make up the majority of Recep Tayyip’s Erdogan’s government – but his anti-immigration stance could spell disaster for the country’s ambitions to gain full EU membership.
By JOE GAMP
Express.co.uk
Sat, Jun 30, 2018
Mr Bacheli, 70 – seen as one of Turkey’s most ultranationalist politicians – is ready to bring right wing, anti-migration stance to the country as a migrant crisis grips Europe.
His party were previously sidelined as an ageing relic of nationalist politics and faced near extinction – but on Friday the right-wing figure declared himself a key figure in President Erdogan’s reshuffled cabinet.
A hardline Turkish nationalist faction, the MHP allied with Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) just before the elections, endowing Erdogan with dual electoral victories.
According to the FT, Mr Bacheli – a former Deputy Prime Minister for the country’s AK party 16 years ago – hailed the MHP’s success, adding: ”We have overcome all the obstacles, defeated the game playing and frustrated the dark plots.
“The Turkish nation has made the MHP a key party in parliament and given it important responsibilities.”
In the past, Mr Erdogan frequently pushed for greater Kurdish rights and took a risk by launching a peace process with the Kurdistan Workers party (PPK).
But in 2015 a ceasefire collapsed after a nonconclusive general election, with MR Erdogan stating that the issue could only be solved through military action.
Mr Bacheli also takes a tough position on the disputed island of Cyprus and regularly calls for the return of the death penalty.
A ceasefire with the PKK collapsed in 2015 after an inconclusive general election, and Mr Erdogan declared the Kurdish issue could be solved only through military means — a tough stance that was followed by electoral success.
Mr Bacheli recently visited Mr Erdogan at the presidential palace to discuss co-operation with the president’s Islamist rooted party after it fell short to secure a majority on Sunday’s vote.
Nigar Goksel, director at Internation Crisis Group, said: “The success of the AKP-MHP partnership shows that the Islamist-nationalist fusion is alive and kicking in Turkish society.”
Turkey is the latest country in Europe to fuse right-wing, anti-migration policies into its political fabric.
The Rest…HERE
