During the first weeks of the Gezi protests in June 2013, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan organized five major “Respect the National Will” rallies. I was watching one of them with a group of “ultranationalist” friends. They belong to the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP. Many of them had supported the Gezi protests. As we were watching Erdogan’s rally, all of a sudden Erdogan said, “I want to thank my brothers from the MHP.”
Cameras zoomed to a corner in the crowd, and MHP flags with three crescents on a red banner were raised. My friends ("gray wolves" as I joke with them; the term is used to symbolize militant Turkish ultranationalism) were in a state of shock to see MHP members in the crowd raise their flags and wave them for the cameras as Erdogan asked. In the next couple of weeks, we kept seeing MHP images, slogans and banners “supporting” Erdogan in the matter of the Gezi protests. Intriguingly MHP Chairman Devlet Bahceli echoed the comments of several other CHP members by saying, “No MHP members were at Erdogan’s rallies; these were staged events by the AKP (Justice and Development Party)." Erdogan’s reply to Bahceli was to say, “Would it be wrong if I called MHP members “my brothers”? Would it be wrong to call Saadet (Felicity) Party members my brothers?” (The Felicity Party is a small Islamist party that refused to be absorbed by the AKP).
In August 2013, I penned a piece for Al-Monitor explaining that Erdogan’s biggest fear is the "concerned" Islamists. Recent information released about recordings of Erdogan’s phone conversations with media bosses confirms my arguments. At this point, the MHP remains the only alternative political party on the right that “conservative” voters might shift to. All of Erdogan;s declarations indeed highlight his desperation to suppress opposition, and, oddly, the MHP’s voice in the public domain.
One of Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse columnists, Kadri Gursel, elaborates on various incidents where Erdogan called media moguls to stop the reporting of Bahceli’s speeches in parliament. In April 2013, Semih Idiz, another Al-Monitor columnist, rightly highlighted that the “MHP seems to be gathering more support at its anti-government rallies.” Despite the media’s tampering with poll results that don’t match their inclinations, it is highly possible that the MHP could increase its votes.
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