Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Vice Chairman Mustafa Kalaycı said an ongoing state of emergency should be extended as long as the threat posed by the Gülen movement has not been overcome and an offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq is continuing, during a TV appearance on Tuesday.
Turkey declared a state of emergency after a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, giving expanded authority to law enforcement in terrorism cases.
During the recent campaign for snap elections on June 24, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had declared a lifting of the state of emergency a priority after the elections but later said it would be extended yet again.
On Monday Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said there is a clear will among society to end of the state of emergency, but he added that the timing has not yet been decided.
The MHP will have 49 seats in parliament in the next legislative year, while the Justice and Development Party (AKP) will have 295. The number of seats in parliament was increased from 550 to 600 in a referendum held last year, meaning that the AKP will be in need of the MHP’s assistance to enact legislation.