Devlet Bahceli, leader of Turkey's far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), took to Twitter today to shoot down conjecture that his informal alliance with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in its death throes. Bahceli declared that his alliance with Erdogan, which was “a standard-bearer of tranquility for our honorable people and yet unborn Turkish children,” would continue “no matter the cost.” Those who claimed the opposite were liars seeking to sow discord, he said.

Bahceli also pooh-poohed the notion that Erdogan was looking for new allies in the run-up to possible early elections before 2023 when they are due to be held. Erdogan has been meeting with the leaders of several smaller parties, including the Islamist Felicity Party and the ultranationalist Grand Unity Party, over the past days. Bahceli insisted the visits served to broaden and bolster the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) existing alliance with the MHP. “There is no question of the MHP being upset by these visits. We support them in full,” he said.

Bahceli’s 18-tweet-long diatribe follows growing speculation that the MHP is readying itself for a rupture with Erdogan and possible snap elections. This was triggered by the nationalist leader’s recent calls for prosecutors to ban Turkey’s largest pro-Kurdish party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), over its supposed links to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants fighting a 36-year-old insurgency in southeast Turkey.

“No tolerance should be shown to any party organization that takes as its reference to ethnic separatism and terrorism. The fight with poisonous vermin is a wonderful service to national dignity,” Bahceli said in a series of tweets last month.