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Alparslan Türkeş founded the party after criticizing the Republican People's Party (CHP) for moving too far away from the nationalist principles of their founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, claiming that he would not have founded the MHP had the CHP not deviated from Atatürk's ideology.[31] The MHP won enough seats in the 1973 and 1977 general election to take part in the "NationalistFront" governments during the 1970s. The party was banned following the 1980 coup, but reestablished with its original name in 1993. After Türkeş's death and the election of Devlet Bahçeli as his successor, the party won 18% of the vote and 129 seats in the 1999 general election, its best ever result. Bahçeli subsequently became Deputy Prime Minister after entering a coalition with the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP), though his calls for an early election resulted in the government's collapse in 2002. In the 2002 general election, the MHP fell below the 10% election threshold and lost all of its parliamentary representation after the newly formed Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a plurality.
In 1965, nationalist politician and ex-Colonel Alparslan Türkeş, who had trained in the United States for NATO, founded the Turkish GladioSpecial Warfare Department, gained control of the conservative rural Republican Villagers Nation Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyetçi Köylü Millet Partisi, CKMP). During an Extraordinary Great Congress held at Adana in Turkey on 1969, Türkeş changed the name of the party to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and with the support of Dündar Taşer, a party logo depicting the three crescent was elected.[33]
The MHP embraced Turkish nationalism, and under the leadership of Türkeş, militias connected to the party were responsible for assassinating numerous left-wing intellectuals and academics, including some Kurds, during the 1970s.[34] The leader of the party's youth wing, known as the Grey Wolves after Turkic mythology, claimed that they had an intelligence organization that was superior to the state's own.[35]
On the other hand, MHP had links to the Aydınlar Ocağı (AO; "Hearth of Intellectuals"), a right-wingthink tank launched in 1970 by established university professors, which served as a connecting link between secular-conservative, nationalist and Islamic rightists, promoting the ideology of Turkish-Islamic synthesis. AO's ideas, which have been compared to those of the FrenchNouvelle Droite, had a determining influence on MHP's programmes and served to lend the far-right party a more legitimate, respectable appearance.[36]
When the Turkish army seized power on 12 September 1980, in a violent coup d'état led by General Kenan Evren, the party was banned, along with all other active political parties at the time, and many of its leading members were imprisoned. Many party members joined the neoliberalAnavatan Partisi[citation needed] or various Islamist parties. Party member, Agah Oktay Güner, noted that the party's ideology was in power while its members were in prison.
Re-establishment
The party was reformed in 1983 under the name "Conservative Party" (Turkish: Muhafazakar Parti). After 1985, however, the name was changed to the "Nationalist Task Party" (Turkish: Milliyetçi Çalışma Partisi) then back again to its former name in 1992.[38][better source needed] In 1993, Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu and five other deputies separated and founded the Great Union Party, which is an Islamist party.[38]
Devlet Bahçeli
After Türkeş's death, Devlet Bahçeli was elected his successor. The party won 18% of the vote and 129 seats in the election that followed, in 1999, its best ever result. Bahçeli subsequently became Deputy Prime Minister after entering a coalition with the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP), though his calls for an early election resulted in the government's collapse in 2002. In the subsequent 2002 general election, the MHP fell below the 10% election threshold and lost all of its parliamentary representation after the newly formed Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a plurality.
The MHP represents the Nine-Light doctrine, based on Turkish nationalism shaped by Islam.[42] The MHP is widely described as a neo-fascist party[46] Since the 1990s it has, under the leadership of Devlet Bahçeli, gradually moderated its programme, turning from ethnic to cultural nationalism and conservatism and stressing the unitary nature of the Turkish state.[49] Notably, it has moved from strict secularism to a more pro-Islamic stance, and has – at least in public statements – accepted the rules of parliamentary democracy. Some scholars[who?] doubt the sincerity and credibility of this turn and suspect the party of still pursuing a neo-fascist agenda behind a more moderate and pro-democratic façade. Nevertheless, MHP's mainstream overture has strongly increased its appeal to voters and it has grown to the country's third-strongest party,[50] continuously represented in the National Assembly since 2007 with voter shares well above the 10% threshold. The party has also been described as following the ideology of Islamokemalism[51] and espousing Turkish-Islamic synthesis.[52]
Opposition to the HDP
Flags of political parties before the Turkish municipal elections in Şile, Turkey. The most visible ones are MHP and AKP (Justice and Development Party) flags.
Due to their ideological differences, the MHP is strongly opposed to any form of dialogue with the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which Devlet Bahçeli has often opposed by voting against in Parliament. A notable example was in the June–July 2015 parliamentary speaker elections, where the MHP declared that they would not support any candidate and cast blank votes after the HDP announced support for the Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Deniz Baykal. The MHP also ruled out any prospect of a coalition government that receives support from the HDP after the June 2015 general election resulted in a hung parliament, even rejecting CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's offer of Bahçeli becoming Prime Minister in such a coalition.[53] MHP deputy leader Celal Adan claimed that 'even using our party's name in the same sentence as the HDP will be counted as cruelty by us.'[54]
In early September 2015, the MHP and the HDP both voted against the new interim election government ministers from taking their oaths of office, causing speculation of whether the MHP was dropping their harsh stance against the HDP.[55] However, Semih Yalçın downplayed any notions of an alliance between the two parties, stating that "a broken clock will still show the correct time once a day, the HDP can sometimes take a correct decision in Parliament. Showing this as a 'MHP-HDP coalition' is a deliberate diversion."[56] In 2021 Bahçeli has demanded the closure of the HDP in several speeches, a move that is considered un-democratic and authoritarian.[59]
Economic policies
During the June 2015 Turkish general election, the MHP announced a new economic manifesto. The MHP promised to improve the situation of Turkey's working poor by lifting taxes on diesel and fertiliser, raising the net minimum wage to $518, giving a $37 transportation subsidy to every minimum wage worker, and giving those who cannot afford a house an additional $92 per month in rental aid. The MHP said these policies would allow a minimum wage earner living in a big city to earn as much an extra $646 annually.
The MHP stated that their economic policies would create 700,000 jobs, increase the national income per person to $13.3K, and increase exports to $238 billion while keeping annual growth at 5.2 percent between 2016 and 2019, although this did not occur, as the GDP per capita and standard of living plummeted in Turkey from 12,614 USD in 2014 to 9,126 in 2019.[63]
Controversies
In July 2015, amidst a wave of protests against the Xinjiang conflict, MHP-affiliated Ülkücü attacked South Korean tourists on Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square.[64] In an interview with Turkish columnist Ahmet Hakan, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli played the attacks down,[65] stating that "These are young kids. They may have been provoked. Plus, how are you going to differentiate between Korean and Chinese? They both have slanted eyes. Does it really matter?"[66] Bahceli's remarks, including a banner reading "We crave Chinese blood" at the Ülkücü Istanbul headquarters, caused an uproar in both Turkish and international media.[66]
^Sánchez Amor, N. (25 May 2022). "Document A9-0149/2022: REPORT on the 2021 Commission Report on Turkey". Bruxelles: European Parliament. Archived from the original on 27 August 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2022. The European Parliament [...] is concerned by the attempts by the Turkish Government to influence members of the Turkish diaspora in the EU, such as through the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) and the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), which could interfere with democratic processes in some Member States; remains worried that the racist right-wing extremist movement Ülkü Ocakları, also known as the Grey Wolves, which is closely linked to the ruling coalition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), is spreading not only in Turkey but also in EU Member States; calls for the EU and its Member States to examine the possibility of banning their associations in EU countries; calls on the Member States to closely monitor the racist activities of this organisation and to fight back to curtail its influence;
^Arman, Murat Necip (2007). "The Sources Of Banality In Transforming Turkish Nationalism". CEU Political Science Journal (2): 133–151.
^Eissenstat, Howard. (November 2002). Anatolianism: The History of a Failed Metaphor of Turkish Nationalism. Middle East Studies Association Conference. Washington, D.C.
^Tachau, Frank. (1963). "The Search for National Identity among the Turks". Die Welt des Islams. New Series. 8 (3): 165–176.
^ abCook, Steven A. (2012). "Recent History: The Rise of the Justice and Development Party". U.S.-Turkey Relations: A New Partnership to. Council on Foreign Relations: 52.
^ abArıkan, E. Burak (1999). The Programme of the Nationalist Action Party: An Iron Hand in a Velvet Glove?. Frank Cass. p. 122. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ abcJacoby, Tim (2012). Fascism, Civility and the Crisis of the Turkish State. Routledge. p. 112. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^Carkoglu, Ali (2004). Turkey and the European Union: Domestic Politics, Economic Integration and International Dynamics. Routledge. p. 127.
^Farnen, Russell F., ed. (2004). Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Identity: Cross National and Comparative Perspectives. Transaction Secularism Publishers. p. 252. ISBN9781412829366. ..the nationalist-fascist Turkish National Movement Party (MHP).
^Abadan-Unat, Nermin (2011). Turks in Europe: From Guest Worker to Transnational Citizen. New York: Berghahn Books. p. 19. ISBN9781845454258. ...the fascist Nationalist Movement Party...
^Değer, M. Emin (1978). CIA, Kontrgerilla ve Türkiye (in Turkish). Ankara: Kendi Yayını. p. 119. MHP lideri Türkeş, Ülkü Ocaklarını meşru müdafaa yaptığını söyler. Ülkü Ocakları Genel Başkanı da, 'bizim istihbarat örgütümüz devletin örgütünden güçlüdür' demektedir. Quoted in "Susurluk'ta bütün yollar, devlete uğrayarak CIA'ya çıkar". Kurtuluş Yolu (in Turkish). 4 (39). 19 September 2008. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2008.
^ abArıkan, E. Burak (1999). The Programme of the Nationalist Action Party: An Iron Hand in a Velvet Glove?. Frank Cass. pp. 122–125. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^[36][14][43] linked to extremist and violent militias,[44] as well as organized crime groups.[45]
^Göçek, Fatma Müge (2011). "The Transformation of Turkey: Redefining State and Society from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Era". I.B. Tauris: 56. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^Tocci, Nathalie (2012). "Turkey and the European Union". The Routledge Handbook of Modern Turkey. Routledge: 241.
Arıkan, E. Burak (1999). The Programme of the Nationalist Action Party: An Iron Hand in a Velvet Glove?. Frank Cass. pp. 120–134. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
Arıkan, Ekin Burak (2012). Turkish extreme right in office: whither democracy and democratization?. Routledge. pp. 225–238. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
Başkan, Filiz (January 2006). "Globalization and Nationalism: The Nationalist Action Party of Turkey". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 12 (1): 83–105. doi:10.1080/13537110500503877. S2CID145620087.
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