Turkish opposition leader's “Justice March” culminates in huge Istanbul rally

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main Turkish opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), concluded his three-week “Justice March” on July 9 with a massive rally in Istanbul. The opposition leader launched the 450km walk from the capital Ankara to protest against the imprisonment of one of his deputies on espionage charges.

کد خبر: ۷۱۰۹۷۷

تاریخ: ۱۹ تير ۱۳۹۶ - ۱۳:۳۲

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main Turkish opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), concluded his three-week "Justice March” on July 9 with a massive rally in Istanbul. The opposition leader launched the 450km walk from the capital Ankara to protest against the imprisonment of one of his deputies on espionage charges.

There was a huge turnout for what was a peaceful rally in Istanbul’s Maltepe district. It amounted to the largest anti-government protest for years. According to CHP officials, 1.6mn attended the rally, while the Istanbul governor’s office put the figure at 175,000.

"This is not the end, this is just a beginning, our first step. This march marks a new climate, a rebirth”, Kilicdaroglu told the crowd, which chanted "Rights! Law! Justice!” during his speech.

"We want justice not only for those who gathered here, we want justice for everyone. We have marched for journalists and lawmakers who are in prison, for academics who have been sacked, and for the civil servants who have been wrongfully dismissed from their job, we have marched for all the oppressed,” Kilicdaroglu said.

"We have marched against the coup, we have marched against the one-man rule, we have marched against the Gulenists, and the terrorist organisations such as Islamic State and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),” he added.

"We won’t stop until our demands are met. We’ll break down the walls of fear,” Kilidaroglu declared, challenging the government. "If the courts are not free, if the parliament is stripped of its powers, the only avenue left for us to seek justice is the streets,” the 69-year old opposition leader told his supporters.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Kilicdaroglu of violating the constitution by attempting to influence the judiciary. He has also said the opposition leader is supporting terrorist groups.

In his one-hour long speech at the rally, Kilicdaroglu demanded the lifting of the state of emergency that was declared after the failed coup attempt last year which allows the government and President Erdogan to rule by decree.

The opposition leader also called for the release of imprisoned journalists and the restoration of the court’s independence.

Nearly 50,000 people have been arrested and 120,000 have been dismissed while 965 companies with assets of around TRY 41bn ($11.3bn) have been seized over alleged links to the coup plotters. The government holds the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers responsible for the botched putsch.

It remains to be seen whether the Justice March and the massive Istanbul rally will reenergise the CHP which has been long criticised for its inefficient tactics when it comes to confront the powerful Erdogan and his ruling AKP.

A survey by Istanbul-based research company Istanbul Ekonomi Arastirma found that support for the Justice March among the public was 43% while 53.5% said they did not support it.

In the April 16 referendum on introducing an executive presidency with sweeping powers, the Yes camp officially received 51.41% of the votes with No garnering 48.59%.

In the November 2015 general election, the CHP took 25.3% of the vote versus the AKP’s 49.5%.

The survey by Istanbul Ekonomi Arastirma suggests that Kilicdaroglu is keeping the No camp intact. But the question is whether he can keep this momentum alive until the 2019 general election and oust Erdogan.

In his Istanbul speech, Kilicdaroglu did not spell out a clear plan of action. He did not say whether the CHP would organise other massive rallies together with non-parliamentary groups to put more pressure on a government which is unlikely to meet Kilicdaroglu’s demands.

The opposition leader did not indicate whether he would cooperate with the pro-Kurdish party HDP whose share of the vote in the November 2015 general election dropped to 10.8% from 13.2% in the June 2015 election. Several deputies of the Kurdish party, including co-chair Selahattin Demirtas, have been jailed on terror-related charges since last year’s coup attempt.

Meanwhile, the government is planning events between July 11 and 16 across Turkey to mark the first anniversary of the coup attempt in a show of its strength against the opposition.

The question is whether Kilicdaroglu will live up to the challenge of keeping the country’s opposition forces united until the next polls.

Nobody expects the government to resign in the face of the massive rally in Istanbul.

"There are signs that the pacifistic but huge action of the Justice March has started to change the ruling AKP’s stance. It may also have changed the CHP itself from a static to a dynamic organism, as well as the wider political culture in Turkey,” observed political commentator Murat Yetkin.

The day after the start of the march, PM Binali Yildirim slammed Kılıcdaroolu and denounced the march as "unlawful", saying that "the streets are not the place to look for justice.” On July 8, however, Yıldırım was conceding that "it is possible to look for justice on the streets,” Yetkin wrote in a July 10 article for Hurriyet Daily News.

"Erdogan last week blasted the march as being 'in line' with the July 15 coup attempt. As it was clear that the march was peaceful, Erdogan did not repeat this line of attack very much… The march has started to change Kilicdaroglu as well. He started his justice march as CHP chairman but ended it as its leader, and now seems to have the potential to become Turkey’s opposition leader,” he added.