Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVlEW~BERHEVOKAÇAPÊ~RNISTA STAMPA~DENTRO DE LA PRENSA~BASIN ÖZETi
turkish daily news - 16 décembre 1993
terrorism leads
Türke~ says MHP vote over 10%, offices
Fonner MHP members win administrative posts in DYP, ANAP,
crescent-star necklace 'in thing' in Turkish high society
MHP gesture 'wolf salute' spreads like wildfire throughout
country, even in military academies
Following TV debate between Türke~ and DEP' s Orhan Dogan,
public interest in Türke~ reported growing
By Hayri
Birler
Turkish Daily News'
ANKARA- A striking development has occurred
throughout Turkey in the past five to six months that'
has affected all se~ments of society. A political
movement, which, tnough dating back to 1944, did
not have any significant impact until recently, has
started ~rawing great public attention and enjoyed
growth on an unprecedented scale.
Public opinion polls indicate that the Nationalist
Movement Party. the political representative of the
movement whose voter support had never exceeded 4
percent, now enjoys 8 to 9 percent voter support.
Bizim Ocak (Our Hearth), a youth orgamzation that
shares the same political ideas as the MHP, now has.
over 800 frovincial offices throughout the country.
The "wol salute," a oesture favored by the MHP
youth - dubbed "ï'deaFists/ulkuculer" - by the public,
is reported to be spreading like wildfire through
schools. Reports that military students have started
"wolf-saluting" are not disclaimed by military officials.
The CUITentsympathy and interest has acquired
such proportions that' crescent and star" necklaces - .
Turkish symbols - have become the "in" thing
amon!! members of Turkish high society, which in the
'past refused to side with any extremist political creed
.whatever.
. This sudden display of interest in the movement is
bein~ witnessed in other parties of the right as well. A
numtler' of key positions both in the senior coalition
. partner True Path Party (DYP) and main opposition
Motherland Party (ANAP) are occupied by people
who served as MHP members prior to the coup of
Sept. 12, 1980.
"Our staff is so large that we help out.other parties,
too," jokes MHP Chanman Alparslan Türke~.
Commenting on the reflectIOn of such interest on
Turkish bureaucrac~, MHP Deputy Chairman Rlza
Müftüoglu says his party has fully penetrated bureaucracy.
"Formerly, when our party served as a coalition
. partner, we had to search for party members to
88
appoint to posts at ininistries. Now there are so many
of them that we now have to pick out those with better
qualifications among th~m. Those days are over."
. . Analysts agree that thiS sudden. unprecedented
mterest in the MHP and Türke~ stems from the. fact
that "terrorist activity by the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) leads to the j"mp's-growth."
Growing interest
following TV program
Increasing terrorist activity by the PKK in the
Southeast has been feeding anti-Kurdish sentiment in
other parts of the country. .
Especially in the Black Sea and Thrace regions,
campaigns have been started against Kurds to prevent
their employment and settlement there. Turkish
nationalism is on the rise. Such developments manif~sted
!hemselves most conspicuously followinß a
discussIOn on Nov. 11 between MHP leader TürKe~
and Orhan Dogan, a deputy of the pro-Kurdish
Democracy Party (DEP) on a public affairs program
broadcast on TV. ~.
Türke~ showed Dogan, who refused to denounce
the PKK as a terrorist organization, pictures of three-
. month-old babies murdered by the PKK. "How can a.
human bein& massacre these babies?" asked Türke~,
adding out lOud, "We are not going to allow this
nation to be divided."
The majority of those that watched Türkq th"it
night started backing him, the foremost proponent of
Turkish nationalism. Türkq' speech was applauded
even by those that did not back him. Such approval
has led people that are not MHP members to probe
into suc;h large-scale support for the MHP.
Prime Minister Tansu Çiller immediately ordered a
public opinion poll. It revealed that 68 percent of the
masses believed that Turks should rise up against
Kurds. In other words, two- thirds of the people
believed that the Kurdish question must be sorved by
means of harsh measures and that the persan they
believed. capable of doing so was MHP leader