'Biden should not repeat Trump's failures on Turkey'

By Emin Avundukluoglu and Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) – New US President Joe Biden should not repeat his predecessor's failures on Turkey, a major Turkish party leader said on Tuesday.

"Our sincere wish is that the new US president should not repeat the failures on Turkey of [former President Donald] Trump, who lost his mind," Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told his party's parliamentary group.

Bahceli called on Biden to back "the alliance and the constructive and well-intentioned relationships between the two countries."

On Trump’s supporters storming of the US Capitol building on Jan. 6, Bahceli called the incident "the picture of the end of an era and reminder of the milestone of a new era."

"Whatever the strategic, diplomatic, and political purpose of the new US administration, nothing will be the same," he added.

On January 20, Biden was officially sworn in as US president and Kamala Harris as vice president.

Trump has been widely accused of instigating the Capitol riot, which left five people dead.

- School in Nagorno-Karabakh

On his plan to build a school in recently liberated Azerbaijani lands in Karabakh, Bahceli said his initiative has been approved by the Turkish and Azerbaijani leadership.

"With the mutual agreement and approval of our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, our project to build a school in Shusha was approved. I sincerely thank the esteemed presidents for their wisdom and express my gratitude," he added.

On Jan.16, Bahceli announced plans for the education and culture foundation of the MHP-affiliated Grey Wolves, officially known as Idealist Hearths, to build a school in Shusha, Karabakh, which was liberated last November from the nearly 30 years of occupation by Armenian forces.

He said that school will be named after Uzeyir Hajibeyli – a Shusha-born composer responsible for the music of Azerbaijan’s national anthem.

Last September, clashes erupted between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan when the Armenian army launched attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violated several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

During the 44-day conflict, which ended in a truce on Nov. 10, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages in Karabakh from a nearly three-decade occupation.