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Türkiye's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli on Tuesday urged Turkish youth not to be drawn into the kind of unrest that began in France and spread across Europe, as French authorities expanded curfews and arrested a suspect over the burning of a historic town hall.
"Our youth should neither be tempted by actions aimed at producing chaos and turmoil that began in France and spread to almost all of Europe, nor by dark scenarios seeking to alienate them from their true selves, and should not fall for provocations," Bahceli said at his party’s parliamentary group meeting.
Bahceli, a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, used the speech to warn against unrest spilling over from Europe while setting out hard-line positions on Cyprus and casting the Terror-Free Türkiye process as a regional project.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said new curfews would be imposed Tuesday "where the situation requires it," adding the measures had helped bring calm overnight.
Paris barred people from streets around Place de la Republique and Les Halles from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., while Bordeaux, Nice and Lyon also imposed restrictions and Marseille planned a curfew for minors through Friday.
Police arrested a 40-year-old man believed linked to the ultra-left over the fire that destroyed the 1883 town hall in Limoges, and anti-terror police were called in. "If they take up the case, it means it is a terrorist act," Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
Authorities detained 2,513 people and jailed 67, while 997 police officers and gendarmes were injured, Darmanin and the Interior Ministry said.
One demonstrator died after a reported cardiac arrest near the Paris march.
"What’s happening in France has to do with immigration, not schools, not anything," U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters. "It’s immigration, and I told President Emmanuel Macron, close up your borders."
Yellow Vests lawyer David Libeskind said the curfews "will have no impact on the movement, since demonstrations take place in the morning or afternoon," as organizers plan 212 actions for "Act II" on Saturday.
Bahceli reacted to Greek Cypriot media claims, which he said had not been denied, that closed-off Maras would be handed to U.N. administration and Famagusta Port run under European Commission supervision, saying they "present a grave picture" for Turkish Cypriots' sovereign rights.
"The United Cyprus Federation is a pipe dream and a disaster for Turkish sovereignty," Bahceli said.
"At a time when the Greek Cypriot administration has assumed the mission of being Israel’s outpost in Cyprus, I invite our brothers living in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to be vigilant, and I say: Cyprus has been Turkish for centuries and will remain Turkish forever," he added.
Bahceli said steps in Syria and Iraq to disband armed groups were encouraging.
"Concrete steps toward ending the SDF/YPG’s military presence and integrating it into Syrian state institutions have opened the door to a new era in terms of the country’s territorial integrity and political unity," he said.
"These developments in our neighboring countries show that our ‘Terror-Free Türkiye’ goal, on which significant distance has been covered, is also gaining a regional dimension," Bahceli said, adding that implementing an Iranian call in September for PJAK to lay down arms would be a new step for regional peace.
He also urged the international community to take a firm stance to end Israeli attacks and called for multilateral diplomacy over Houthi attacks on civilians in Saudi Arabia.
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