Head of Nationalist MHP, Devlet Bahçeli, answered the questions of journalists at the CNN Turk news channel. Bahceli said that although the Prime Minister denied the claims that he was in contact with Kurdish PKK, MHP knew that the state was in contact with the PKK headquarters in Kandil and they were continuing their negotiations. Bahceli also criticized the new constitutional amendments. He emphasized that everybody wanted the constitution to change but was unhappy about the constitutional amendments. He said that the government was not sincere about changing the constitution because it decided to vote it in a referendum instead of negotiating and creating a text that would be agreed upon by all parties.
Bahçeli said that the Prime Minister exploited many issues for the constitutional amendments to pass such as the issue of right wing nationalists known as ülkücüler who were killed during the September 12, 1980 military coup. Bahçeli said that some newspapers like Zaman, Vakit and Bugün argued that these nationalists would vote for the constitution and emphasized that this was false information. He also stated that a "yes" vote for the constitution would encourage the Kurdish PKK.
Source: cnnturk (Turkey), August 24, 2010
