Turkey: opposition opens a long march for justice

yThousands of people began in Ankara, on appeal from the main opposition group, a long march to Istanbul, a distance of 400 km, in protest at the incarceration of a member of the party .

Enis Berberoglu, of the People’s Republican Party (CHP), was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison for providing the opposition daily Cumhuriyet with confidential information.

This is the first time that a member of the CHP, a party founded by modern Turkey’s father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, has been imprisoned since the lifting of parliamentary immunity last year.

The CHP immediately objected to this decision, several members calling it “political”. The party leader, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, decided in protest to travel on foot the 400 km stretch that separates Ankara from Istanbul where the deputy is imprisoned. “If there is a price to pay, I will pay it first,” Kiliçdaroglu said. “I’m going to Istanbul. And we will continue our march until there is justice in Turkey. “He also called on all those who want to defend justice to support his approach.

Several thousand people walked with him from downtown Ankara, waving signs bearing the word “Justice”, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. “Do not stay silent. If you are silent, your turn will come, “they chanted, as well as” side by side against fascism. “

A gathering was also organized in Istanbul, where several hundred people gathered, chanting “we will win through the resistance,” said another journalist of the AFP.

Enis Berberoglu is accused of providing the opposition daily Cumhuriyet with a video claiming the interception of trucks belonging to the Turkish secret service (MIT) and carrying arms in Syria in January 2014 at the Syrian border.

The case had caused scandal and provoked the fury of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who promised Cumhuriyet editor of the time, Can Dündar, that he would “pay the price”.

Berberoglu, who was appearing on Wednesday, was imprisoned immediately after the verdict was announced by the court. The lawyer of the deputy has appealed this decision as early as Thursday morning, reported the private agency Dogan.