ANKARA

The prominent leader of a Turkish political party called Tuesday for an investigation into the involvement of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in the recent protests in Kazakhstan.

"In our opinion, it is urgent and essential to investigate FETO's involvement in the illegal demonstrations in Kazakhstan," Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkiye's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told his party's parliamentary group.

Bahceli noted that Turkiye knows best about FETO and said the terror group is "used as a tool in the target countries."

"The problem is not only Kazakhstan's problem. It is the common and unpostponable problem of everyone who says 'I am a Turk,'" he said.

“We respect Kazakhstan's internal affairs, and it is undisputed.

"But if our (Kazakh) brothers are in trouble, standing by their side, rushing to their aid and being in solidarity with them is an infallible and indisputable fact of our national will and cultural reputation," he added.

After fuel prices in Kazakhstan doubled on Jan. 2, triggering protests, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency in the city of Almaty and oil-rich Mangystau region before expanding it nationwide.

He later requested help from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-led military alliance, which sent troops to quell the unrest.

- Lawmakers’ photo with PKK terrorist slammed

The MHP leader also criticized an opposition lawmaker who had posed for a photo with a PKK terrorist who was later killed in an airstrike by the Turkish military.

"Necessary legal proceedings against this separatist lawmaker, the disposition regarding the lifting of her immunity should be immediately carried out," Bahceli said.

"We do not want any terrorist in the Turkish parliament," he added.

Photos of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Semra Guzel with PKK terrorist Volkan Bora were widely circulated in the Turkish media on Sunday.

Bora was neutralized by the Turkish armed forces in Turkiye’s southeastern Adiyaman province in 2017.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the US and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

In a case before Turkiye’s highest court, state prosecutors are seeking the closure of the HDP and political bans for its members, saying the party is little more than a front for the terrorist PKK.