Turkey’s Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the People’s Democracy Party (HDP) are at the two opposite ends of the political spectrum in this country. The former represents Turkish ultranationalism, while the latter stands for Kurdish nationalism. They blame each other for threatening the territorial integrity and the unity of this nation. Yet, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s divisive sharp tongue — even as a presidential candidate — has created the most unusual bedfellows; these two opposing camps have united in their perception that an Erdogan presidency poses a potential risk to the country by sparking the fire of either a civil war or disintegration.
Speaking at a rally in support of presidential candidate Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli warned Erdogan’s followers that if the worst scenario becomes a reality, they will also have to accept responsibility for not changing the country's direction at the ballot box at a much-needed time. “If the president of this country triggers polarization, confrontation, forming cliques, if the president of this country continues this strategy of tension triggering an ethnic based division and sectarian segregation, and therefore aims to divide the country as a whole, we will have to bear the result of this,” Bahceli said on Aug. 5 in the Black Sea city of Karabuk. “This responsibility will weigh on the shoulders of all those voting for the AKP [the ruling Justice and Development Party].” Bahceli also stressed that until Erdogan clears himself from the country’s biggest ever corruption and bribery scandal, people should not vote him into the country's highest office. “Anger in the country is growing. May God forbid it, but if this tension turns into fighting neither the AKP nor other politicians will survive it."
