Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on Saturday delivered a sweeping endorsement of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, using a historically loaded metaphor to underscore unity within the ruling alliance at a time when political circles in Ankara have been rife with speculation about internal tensions and succession.
Speaking at a ceremony in Hatay attended by Erdoğan, marking the 455,000th post-earthquake housing lottery draw and key handover, as well as the mass opening of completed investments, Bahçeli said:“Thank God, the Turkish nation never runs out of a Süleyman or a Sinan. Our era’s Süleyman is our President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and our era’s Sinan is our Minister of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change, Murat Kurum.”
The reference, drawn from a poem – On the Pulpit of Süleymaniye (the Blue Mosque) – by national poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy, likened Erdoğan to Ottoman Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent — a symbol of supreme authority and imperial power — while casting Kurum as the master architect executing state policy.
Reconstruction and criticism of opponents
Bahçeli used the occasion to defend the government’s post-disaster response following the Feb. 6, 2023, Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes, which killed more than 50,000 people and devastated large swathes of southern Turkey. He accused unnamed actors of attempting to profit politically from the disaster and of trying to weaken the state and government.
“Against a small and insidious minority that resorted to every kind of verbal maneuver and trick, the collective conscience did not remain silent,” Bahçeli said. He added that what he called “distortions and slanders” had been refuted by reconstruction efforts visible across the quake-hit region, citing Hatay, Malatya, Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa and other provinces.
Bahçeli said the foundations of the first homes were laid 45 days after the earthquakes, and that massive construction sites were rapidly established in the worst-affected areas. In Hatay alone, he said, nearly 98,000 homes had been delivered so far, with plans to exceed 150,000.
Citing nationwide figures, Bahçeli said a total of 455,357 independent units — including 367,995 homes, 65,672 village houses and 21,690 workplaces — had been completed or would be completed imminently. Those who continued to criticize the pace or scope of reconstruction, he said, were “trying to cover the sun with mud,” a Turkish idiom suggesting futile denial of reality.
Alliance unity and “Terror-Free Turkey”
Bahçeli also reiterated support for the government’s security agenda, describing the goal of a “Terror-Free Turkey” as a central pillar of the ruling bloc’s “Century of Turkey” vision. He said progress toward a “terror-free region” would bring lasting peace and stability not only to Turkey but to its wider neighborhood.
He urged unity against what he described as regional and global efforts to destabilize the country, calling on citizens to stand together regardless of ethnic, regional or sectarian differences.
Succession and rift speculation
Bahçeli’s remarks come amid recurring speculation in Turkish media and political commentary about possible strains between Erdoğan’s AK Party and the MHP, whose alliance has been critical to Erdoğan’s parliamentary majority and electoral victories.
More recently, some journalists and commentators have amplified succession-related rumors, including claims — not independently verified — that nationalist circles are uneasy about talk of a future political role for Erdoğan’s son, Bilal Erdoğan. One widely circulated anecdote alleges that Bahçeli reacted angrily in private to such discussions, though no mainstream outlet has confirmed the account or attributed it to an on-the-record source.
In Hatay, Bahçeli made no direct reference to succession or any future leadership beyond Erdoğan. Still, some analysts may read the speech as tacit accommodation of succession talk: by elevating Erdoğan as the era’s indispensable “Süleyman” and tying reconstruction and national security to his personal legitimacy, Bahçeli reinforced a leadership-centric narrative that could, in time, be used to smooth the path for a chosen successor — including Erdoğan’s son Bilal — even without naming him.
