Turkish party criticizes seeking new political parties

ANKARA

Turkey’s main opposition party leader blasted Tuesday the searching for establishing new political parties in the country, saying the main goal is not to meet political and social need, but "to conspire against the country".

In a written statement, Devlet Bahceli of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said "the complicated and dirty actions" of those who want to "sabotage" the politics have accelerated and has become widespread recently.

Seeking for new political parties does not aim to meet “a political and social need” but it is “a cheap order of inventors of conspiracy and fiction [plotting] on Turkey,” he said.

His statement came after former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced last week the establishment of a new political party, the Future Party.

Referring to developments in Libya and Syria, he warned against standing idle in the face of the crises in Libya and Syria, saying it would "create geopolitical risks" and "pose a threat to Anatolian geography."

Voicing his support to Ankara on sending troops to Libya, if needed, he said: “Sending troops to Libya, if needed, is a matter of survival and will garner support from MHP.”

On Nov. 7, Ankara and the Tripoli-based Libyan government reached two separate memorandums of understanding, one on military cooperation and the other on maritime boundaries of countries in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The maritime pact asserted Turkey's rights in the Eastern Mediterranean in the face of unilateral drilling by the Greek Cypriot administration, clarifying that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) also has rights to the resources in the area. It went into effect on Dec. 8.

Following the military cooperation deal, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said Ankara might consider sending troops to Libya if the Libyan government made a request.

* Writing by Nilay Kar Onum