The fiery and undiplomatic language used by the President and the senior members of the government have often caused awkwardness and tension in Turkey\u2019s foreign relations.<\/p>\n
Recently, it is the vitriolic and irredentist rhetoric of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) that is starting to become an alarming trend.<\/p>\n
Even though the MHP had suffered a serious blow in the last general election, losing nearly half of its seats in the Parliament, dropping down to the fourth place, its leader, Devlet Bahceli has ended up, arguably, the key player in Turkish politics.<\/p>\n
By deciding to throw his full support behind Mr. Erdogan, Mr. Bahceli has not only facilitated the replacement of the country’s parliamentary system with an executive presidency, he also has gained considerable influence on the formulation of national security and foreign policy.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s somewhat erratic foreign affairs and military moves in Iraq and Syria have much to do with the growing influence of Mr. Bahceli\u2019s hard-line nationalist views regarding ethnic minorities, particularly the Kurds.<\/p>\n
President Erdogan and his Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu have ruffled many feathers lately by issuing unveiled threats to the the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government over their controversial independence referendum that took place on Sept. 25.<\/p>\n
Despite strong objections from almost all their allies and neighbours, 92.7 percent of the Iraqi Kurds said \u201cyes\u201d to independence.<\/p>\n
Having declared the result of the referendum \u201cillegitimate\u201d and developments in Iraq and Syria \u201cdirectly linked to internal matters\u201d, Turkey has threatened to take further steps.<\/p>\n
Yet, so far, the pipeline from Iraq to Turkey is still flowing normally and the border crossing has not been closed.<\/p>\n
Having been warned about possible loss of support among Turkey\u2019s Kurdish population, for his Justice and Development Party, President Erdogan seems to have softened his tone.<\/p>\n
It is his ally, Mr Bahceli, who is upping the ante, by whipping up nationalist sentiment among his supporters and raising tensions with Turkey\u2019s Kurds.<\/p>\n
Mr. Bahceli, who had earlier described<\/a> the independence referendum \u201ca cause for war\u201d, \u00a0did not take the hint from Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that the government would not wish to escalate things further.<\/p>\n Addressing his party\u2019s parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Devlet Bahceli \u00a0declared the territorial integrity of Iraq as \u201cindispensable\u201d for Turkey, adding<\/a> that \u00a0\u201cHistorically, Kirkuk was Turkish, it remains Turkish even now and will become one of the most glorious Turkish cities in the future<\/em>.”<\/p>\n He did not stop there, either.<\/p>\n