Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli described his party as a center-right force at a well-attended party congress, where slogans projected the MHP as a dominant player in the upcoming general elections.
Bahceli sharpened his rhetoric against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), accusing the government of undermining the secular, unitary foundations established when the republic was formed in 1923. He warned that current threats to those values carry foreign backing, a notably harsher line than he had previously taken toward the AKP.
His language on the state being surrendered closely echoed that of main opposition Republican People's Party leader Deniz Baykal. On foreign policy, Bahceli argued that the European Union seeks to divide Türkiye and called on Ankara to pursue alternatives to EU membership.
Conspicuously, Bahceli directed no criticism at left-wing parties despite the MHP's traditional ideological distance from them. He invited all patriots to join the MHP, a signal analysts read as a deliberate bid to absorb voters from other center-right parties, several of whose prominent figures have already joined the MHP.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in November 2006, in its own words.