Bahçeli slams opposition for accusing MHP of killing former official

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has lashed out at opposition politicians who have accused the MHP of allegedly being involved in the killing of a former head of the Grey Wolves body of the nationalist party, Sinan Ateş.

"They wanted to cast the shadow of the murder on the MHP. An organized attack was launched against the MHP immediately after the killing," Bahçeli told in his weekly address to his parliamentary group on Jan. 10.

It was the first and most comprehensive statement by Bahçeli after Sinan Ateş was assassinated in the Turkish capital on Dec. 30. Ateş, a respected member of the nationalist politics and an academic, was the head of the Grey Wolves body of the MHP until 2020. The police have detained around two dozen persons except for the hitman. The police have not yet announced the motive of the killing.

Bahçeli described all these attempts to put the blame for the killing of Ateş on the MHP as a political design with the purpose of creating an internal rift within the MHP. "We will file criminal complaints against those who are trying to defame our institutional party. The best way is to wait patiently for the results of the court case on the killing [of Ateş]," he stated.

Harshly criticizing the chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, over his remarks about the murder, Bahçeli said: "Kılıçdaroğlu has asked why I was silent about the murder. Our silence comes from our nobility. I was just watching your worthless accusations and noting them. Otherwise, I am not silent."

Accusing Kılıçdaroğlu and his party of walking hand in hand with the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the PKK terror organization, the MHP leader said: "We won't be caught in their traps. We are not...