Turkey: Court rulings confuse push for MHP congress

ANKARA

Members of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) were in disarray Friday, divided over whether a new court ruling would allow an extraordinary congress to be held on Sunday.

Late Friday, Ankara's 15th Enforcement Directorate decided to overrule a decision by Ankara’s 2nd Enforcement Court apparently greenlighting the congress, which could see a push to replace the party leadership. The directorate also said that injunctions by civil courts in Tosya and Gemerek against holding the congress remain in force.

The director of the 15th Enforcement Directorate issued a statement saying that the appeal by dissident MHP deputies had been rejected and that his decision is line with the Gemerek Civil Court injunction.

Amid the conflicting court rulings, party leader Devlet Bahceli said, "The MHP is expected to be drowned along with Turkey while it is struggling in a siege which has regional and global branches. I want to cut it short tonight and say it clearly: we will not have a general congress on May 15."

He added: "None of my brothers and sisters shall become the pawn of a trans-oceanic-centered-game [implying US-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, leader of the Gulenist terror organization or PDY/FETO] and fall for the trap of a so-called congress. Attempting to paint the MHP as being in chaos, blocking the MHP is a sin which is heavy to carry."

Bahceli also accused the dissident members of committing a crime by violating court rulings.

Gulen’s "parallel state" is designated by the government as a group of Turkish bureaucrats and senior officials embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and the police, who allegedly seek to undermine the current Turkish government.

Speaking to reporters, MHP lawyer Yucel Bulut said that even without a final ruling by the Court of Cassation, where the MHP Central Committee appealed a decision by Ankara’s 12th Civil Court to allow the congress, some members of the party are urging people to attend a congress on Sunday.

Bulut also cited the injunctions by civil courts in Tosya and Gemerek against holding a congress.

But former MHP Deputy Meral Aksener said via Twitter that the extraordinary congress will go ahead Sunday.

Another former MHP deputy, Sinan Ogan, called Friday’s ruling by Ankara’s 2nd Enforcement Court in the dissidents’ favor “a positive decision, reversing a mistaken direction” and blasted the Gemerek Civil Court as “unauthorized”.

Dissidents within the MHP have approached the courts to force an extraordinary congress in wake of the party's poor electoral showing in last November’s general election.

A total of 543 delegates had sent a petition to party headquarters demanding an extraordinary congress in the aftermath of the election, which saw the MHP losing its position as the third-largest group in the parliament, falling behind the Peoples’ Democratic Party.

The petition filed at an Ankara court in February also criticized the MHP leadership for not calling an extraordinary general convention. Devlet Bahceli, who has led the party since 1997, has refused the push for an extraordinary congress.

A special committee appointed by the Ankara Civil Court of Peace had given this upcoming Sunday, May 15, as the date for the MHP to hold an extraordinary congress. However, MHP Deputy Chair Oktay Ozturk said on April 29 that an Ankara court had decided to halt the party's extraordinary congress as a precautionary measure.

Party bylaws ban the election of a new leader at such extraordinary congresses. Party dissidents hope to change such bylaws at the proposed extraordinary congress, which could eventually pave the way for the election of a new party leader.