UPDATE - Turkey's Bahceli backs Erdogan ahead of Trump meeting

UPDATES WITH MORE QUOTES FROM MHP LEADER

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader has voiced his full support for the Turkish president ahead of his meeting with the U.S. president at the White House that comes days after the Pentagon announced it would supply heavy arms to the PKK/PYD terror group.

In remarks made during MHP’s parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Devlet Bahceli said Recep Tayyip Erdogan's meeting with Donald Trump was of critical and historical importance.

The opposition party leader said “the power of the Turkish Republic and the Turkish nation is behind the president."

The Pentagon announced on May 9 that Trump himself had approved the arming of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded by the PKK/PYD, on the pretext that the terror group would drive Daesh from Raqqah, the last Syrian city held by the terror group.

Turkey considers the PYD as Syrian extension of the PKK terror group.

The PKK has fought a 33-year long war against Turkey and is also listed as a terror organization by the U.S. and EU. The terror group resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015. Since then, it has been responsible for the deaths of some 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians, including a number of women and children.

Despite the PKK’s designation as a terror group, the U.S. has continued to bank on the PKK/PYD as its ally in Syria, especially in the fight against Daesh.

The MHP leader strongly criticized the U.S for its support to PKK/PYD terror group and warned that bilateral ties between the two countries could be harmed severely.

Bahceli said “nobody can consider Turkey as incapable” or degrade the country by considering it on par with terrorist organizations.

Turkey has repeatedly called on the U.S. to end its ties to the PKK/PYD and offered to help take Raqqah.

Trump will host Erdogan at the White House on Tuesday, which is expected to be followed by a news conference.

The extradition of Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) leader, Fetullah Gulen, and the fight against terrorist groups, including Daesh and the PKK/PYD are expected to top the agenda of the meeting.

- Anti-Ataturk remarks condemned

Bahceli also slammed historians for allegedly insulting the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

"Those who think they can discredit Ataturk in Turkish people's hearts, they have lost their wisdom and humanity," he said.

Turkish historian Suleyman Yesilyurt has been accused of insulting Ataturk during a recent television program. A court in Istanbul remanded Yesilyurt in custody on Friday. He faces charges of “defamation of Ataturk’s memory” and “inciting people to hatred and hostility.”

Turkey’s top broadcast regulator also fined the private television channel for allegedly insulting Ataturk during one of its programs.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council’s decision came after a show called Derin Tarih (deep history in English) was aired on the Turkish channel, TVnet, on Saturday.

According to the council, the television show tarnished the reputation of Ataturk by commenting on his private life and by taking the names and showing photographs of women he was allegedly romantically involved with.