Anti-Erdogan protest attracts millions
ANKARA: Turkey’s Justice March reached its conclusion with a massive rally on Sunday in Istanbul, reportedly attended by 1.6 million people.
This non-partisan march, including representatives of various political parties and groups, was almost totally ignored by Turkey’s state media.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), led the march from the start, walking some 450 km over 25 days from the capital Ankara.
He announced a 10-point manifesto, including demands for democracy, the rule of law, justice for all, and checks and balances in governance.
“The people of this country deserve a pluralistic democracy. The state cannot be run by hatred, anger and prejudice,” Kilicdaroglu said in the manifesto.
A survey by Istanbul Economy Research showed 87 percent support for the march among CHP voters and 10 percent support among backers of the ruling AK Party, while 43 percent of Turks support the march overall.
Sengul Hablemitoglu, whose husband — a renowned academic — was assassinated in 2002 in an unsolved murder, attended the march to claim justice.
“Justice is the basis of human dignity. We shared a great experience with millions of people from every part of the country, from every age and segment of society,” she told Arab News.
Hablemitoglu said it would be naive to expect immediate results from the march, but it delivered a strong message to decision-makers that they cannot rule Turkey unjustly and arbitrarily.
Burak Bilgehan Ozpek, a political scientist from TOBB ETU University in Ankara who participated in the march, told Arab News: “The participants were mostly from the lower-middle and middle classes, ideologically very diverse, who feel victimized for different reasons.”
He said while the rally will not produce short-term results, the political scene has changed. “Kilicdaroglu has managed to consolidate the left and central left, while he highlighted that he’s more progressive than the AK Party on the Kurdish question with the messages he gave during his march,” Ozpek added.
On the other hand, the rally opened the path for new parties on the right, he said. “The politics of polarization and criminalization don’t produce positive results in Turkey. A reckoning awaits Turkey in the long run,” he added.
At the time of writing, the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had not yet commented on the march.