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The Nationalist Movement Party (Can also be translated as 'Nationalist Action Party') (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (MHP)), is a far-right nationalist political party in Turkey. The use of the word Hareket (Movement) is similar to Bewegung and Movimento.
In the Nov. 3, 2002 legislative elections, the party won 8.3 % of the popular vote and no seats in the parliament.
The MHP has been dubbed as 'fascist' by many left-wing thinkers since the party has embraced Turkish nationalism imbued with a mythology which says that all Turks have come from a common ancestry. Under the leadership of Alparslan Türkeş during the 1970's, militias connected to the party were responsible for many murders of opposition left wing politicians, students and others. The following quote by the founder Alparslan Turkes, partly illustrates the ideology of the party:
Human rights experts in Turkey make the organization responsible for more than 4,000 murders, primarily of Kurds, Turkish leftists, and progressive journalists and union leaders. One of their deadliest acts was the organisation of anti-Alevi pogrom in Kahramanmaraş in 1978 that left 111 people dead. Today, the Turkish army and special forces actively recruit MHP members to fight in special commando units in Turkey's war against PKK.
When the Turkish army seized power in Sept. 12, 1980 by a coup lead by 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 prominent members joined neo-liberal Anavatan Partisi or various Islamist currents. The party later was refounded in 1983 as Milliyetçi Çalışma Partisi (Nationalist Task Party) and took its fomer name again in 1992. After Türkeş's death, under the leadership of Devlet Bahçeli, MHP tried to present itself as a moderate right-wing party. They also began to reach out to practicing Muslims in Turkey (previously they had held them in contempt reciprocated by political Muslims). It was on this issue that the breakaway Büyük Birlik Partisi (Great Union Party) was formed by splitting from the Nationalist Movement Party on a more 'religious' line, fusing ideas from both Turkish nationalism and Islamic doctrine.
Under Devlet Bahçeli the party promised to end the ban on females wearing the hijab at government institutions (most pertinent at universities and a very contentious issue in Turkish politics), the opening of Qur'an schools and its mandatory teaching and a number of other measures that would appeal to Muslims. Especially in 1998, when Abdullah Öcalan was in Italy, MHP supporters were often seen on television burning a Kurdish flag along with an Italian flag, demonstrating allegiance to Turkish nationalism.
At 1999 general elections, held after Öcalan's capture and at a time when nationalist sentiment was high, promising to have Öcalan hanged, they came the second party with about 18 % of the national vote, highest in their history. They were later forced into a coalition with the Demokratik Sol Parti (Democratic Left Party) DSP and the Anavatan Partisi (ANAP) by the army and also forced to drop all of their 'religious' manifesto. They also had a female candidate, Nesrin Ünal who wore a headscarf and claimed that if they won the elections she would proudly enter parliament with her scarf, however, she failed to wear it when elected a deputy for Antalya. The coalition government did not last long (until 2002) and an economic collapse resulted in many losing what faith they had in MHP. By the next elections the religious AK Parti won by a landslide and MHP failed to gain the necessary 10% to enter parliament.
See also
External links
- Official web site
- Turkish Fascists: The MHP
- The Practice of a Century -- Kemalism
- Austria's Freedom Party and the MHP: selective intolerance by P. D. Spyropoulos, Esq.