Devlet Bahceli, an ally to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the leader of the government’s de facto partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said in a press release that the use of the name Dersim was “void.”
“This decision is under our feet. The necessary response has to be given. There is no such province as Dersim in Turkey, and there will never ever be,” Bahceli said.
Fatih Portakal, a top TV news presenter who has invited Macoglu multiple times on his show on one of the few left not pro-government televisions, the American-owned FOX TV’s Turkish franchise, was quick to denounce Macoglu’s initiative in reversing the name to Dersim.
“Is that it? What is the difference between Dersim and Tunceli? Another unnecessary issue to debate. Was that appropriate, Fatih Macoglu, amid all these problems? What a waste!!!” Portakal wrote on Twitter.
Turkish far-right’s fury
At the same time, thousands of Turkish social media users from across the country began using a hashtag “DersimDegilTunceli” which means “not Dersim but Tunceli,” condemning the 50,000 city’s council, sharing Ataturk’s pictures, Turkish flags, and pictures from the 1930’s campaign, or calling on the government to replace the elected mayor with a bureaucrat.
Yavuz Agiralioglu, a deputy for the opposition far-right nationalist IYI Party, said there was “no way we can tolerate such whims and defiance to the state.”
He threatened on Twitter that “the sympathy for [Macoglu’s municipal successes] can turn into rage.”