CHP’s march inspired by courage spread by jailed HDP co-chair Demirtaş: HDP spokesperson

ADIYAMAN – Doğan News Agency

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The main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) march from the Turkish capital Ankara to Istanbul is the result of courage inspired by Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who has been jailed since Nov. 4, 2016 on terror charges, HDP spokesperson Osman Baydemir said on June 20.

“My co-chair, my friend, brother, chairman Selahattin Demirtaş from the first day since he was imprisoned, n from the day he started his fight for human rights, from the day he shouldered the honorable peace flag in the legal democratic politics, has always given society this message: Courage is infectious. If today people in Turkey are walking from Ankara to Istanbul, this is the result of the courage infected by Selahattin Demirtaş,” Baydemir said in the southeastern province of Adıyaman during an iftar fast-breaking meal.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu commenced a march from Ankara to Istanbul on June 15 in protest to the arrest of CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu who was sentenced 25 years in prison for “leaking state secrets” in the Syria-bound weapons case of the National Intelligence Agency (MİT).

Kılıçdaroğlu is set to march over 24 days from the capital to Istanbul, a distance of around 450 km, to the Maltepe prison where Berberoğlu is in jail. The CHP head is walking during the day and stopping at various locations along the way at night.

Baydemir also touched upon the current situation of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria on June 20. 

“The Raqqa [operation to retake the city from ISIL] will hopefully be one of the beginnings to the end. [The Turkish government] had been saying ‘Kobani is about to fall [to ISIL],’ but in the end Kobani did not fall. Only their masks fell, ,” Baydemir said.

“The door of equality, freedom, and brotherhood in the geography of Middle East will once again have the opportunity to be opened part way and will be opened part way once again,” he added.