Bahceli criticizes govt plans to ease prison isolation of terrorist leader

Addressing his parliamentary group meeting yesterday, opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli criticized the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government for moving to end the solitary prison confinement of convicted PKK terrorist head Abdullah Ocalan. Claiming that pressure from supporters of the terrorist PKK and from the European Union wouldn't end until Ocalan is released, Bahceli urged the government to resist this pressure. Responding to Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan's pledge to step down as AKP leader if his party falls short in next March's local elections, the MHP leader said that the premier is afraid of public anger over the government failure to take action against the global economic crisis.