Turkey opposition chief challenges Erdogan with ‘justice’ congress
ANAKKALE, Turkey: Turkey’s main opposition leader warned President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday that the whole country has a ‘thirst for justice’, opening an unprecedented fourday meeting protesting alleged violations under his rule.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), is hoping the ‘justice congress’ in the western Canakkale region will keep up the momentum of a month-long march highlighting judicial abuses in Turkey amid the crackdown that followed last year’s failed coup.
In a mass rally at the opposite eastern end of the country, meanwhile, Erdogan compared the defeat of the July 15, 2016, coup attempt to key events in Turkish history, including a 1071 triumph by Turkic tribes over the Byzantines in Anatolia.
Political jousting is already heating up in Turkey even two years before the next elections, with Kilicdaroglu accusing the Turkish strongman of behaving like a tyrant, and Erdogan not giving any quarter. “Eighty million have a thirst for justice,” Kilicdaroglu said, referring to Turkey’s population.
“It is my duty to seek justice. It is my duty to stand by the innocent and be against tyrants,” he told the gathering of about 10,000 people.
More than 50,000 people have been arrested under the state of emergency imposed after the coup attempt, and almost three times that number have been dismissed from their jobs, including teachers, judges, soldiers and police officers.