site.btaMPs Supporting MRF Honorary Chairperson Dogan Not to Participate in Parliamentary Group's Tuesday Meeting

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) MPs who support MRF Honorary Chairperson Ahmed Dogan unanimously decided not to attend the meeting of the MRF parliamentary group scheduled for Tuesday, the parliamentary group said in a press release on Tuesday. According to their position, the the parliamentary group's current leadership was not elected in accordance with the MRF Charter, therefore it does not have the necessary legitimacy and for that reason the MPs who sent an open letter to Dogan should not participate in the meetings of the parliamentary group until Dogan addresses the issue.

One of the motives for the MPs' position is that Dogan's guidelines that the MRF should have distinct party co-chairs and co-floor leaders. Another motive stresses that the decision to obtain a mandate to form a government is not the competence of the parliamentary group, but of the party's collective political bodies.

The statement further reads that Monday's meeting of party’s regional leaders was an "illegitimate gathering". It also states that the strong international support received from liberal organizations, expressed in official letters sent to Dogan, gives them confidence that the "No Going Back" direction is the right one and it will be defended until the normal functioning of the party bodies is restored.

Earlier on Tuesday, Liberal International President Hakima el Haite, Roman Jakic, coordinator of the Liberal Southeast Europe Network (LIBSEEN) and Sir Graham Watson, a longtime leader of European liberals, sent letters addressed to the MRF Honorary Chairman and members of the party's operational leadership, stressing their unwavering support for Ahmed Dogan and calling for the situation within the ranks of the MRF to be addressed.