The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has completed the fifth day of a “March of Justice” that is expected to last for 25 days.
CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu initiated the march in Ankara in protest of the arrest of CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for leaking information for a report on National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks transporting weapons to jihadists in Syria.
CHP Vice Chairman Tekin Bingöl said they would stop every day at 18.00 for two minutes to “think of justice” and invited everybody to join their protest.
Kılıçdaroğlu had arrived at Ankara’s Güven Park, where the party began the march, on Thursday with a banner in his hand that read only one word: Justice.
On the first day of the protest, Kılıçdaroğlu walked a total of 18 kilometers.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who spoke to reporters at Güven Park, said: “We are faced with a dictatorial regime in Turkey. We say ‘Enough is enough.’ Justice has to come to this country. If there is a need to pay a price for this, first we will pay that price. We need to struggle together for the future of this country.”
“This march has nothing to do with a political party. Justice, justice, justice. We don’t want a dictatorial regime, we don’t want coup makers, we don’t want those who staged the July 20 ‘coup.’ We don’t want to live in a country where there is no justice,” said Kılıçdaroğlu.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15, which claimed the lives of more than 240 people and injured a thousand others. Immediately after the coup attempt, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) declared a state of emergency on June 20, which is still in effect.
Kılıçdaroğlu referred to the declaration of the state of emergency as another coup because the government has jailed thousands of people and purged thousands of others from state posts on coup charges.
In the meantime, the arrest of Berberoğlu, who would normally enjoy parliamentary immunity, was possible because the CHP and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had lent support to a proposal submitted by the ruling AKP on removing deputies’ immunity from prosecution last year.
The immunity of all deputies who face probes was lifted in May 2016. Currently, 11 pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies are in jail on charges of terrorist links.(Turkey Purge)