First statement from jailed co-chair of Turkey’s HDP on Justice March

Jailed co-chair of Turkey’s HDP, Selahattin Demirtaş, sent a message about the Justice March through HDP’s parliamentary group leader Ahmet Yıldırım.

As Özlem Akarsu from online news portal Gazete Duvar reported, MP Yıldırım said: “Mr. Demirtaş said that this is not about whether the marchers (of the Justice March) will walk to Edirne or not; having all opposition forces get together should be the aim.

He expressed that the current ‘need for justice’ in the country is way beyond his own detention and victimization. So, he gives importance to this march as he hopes for it to evolve into a move aiming to bring justice for everyone not just in rhetoric but also in practice. Mr. Demirtaş also sees this joint effort of societal forces to bring the country up to a straight path as a very important step and points out that it needs to become sustainable”.

The Justice March was launched by main opposition chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu last month. As he vowed to walk from Ankara to İstanbul in reaction to the detention of CHP MP Enis Berberoğlu, the march has turned into a massive movement of the opposition forces across the country.

Meanwhile, some CHP MPs also admitted to the delay in taking such grand step in the face of the severity of injustices and deteroiation of democracy in the country, while some other opposition groups – including some HDP MPs – held the view that the march should be continued up to Edirne – where Demirtaş is jailed – instead of being finalized in İstanbul’s Maltepe – where CHP MP is jailed.

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/demirtas-tan-adalet-yuruyusu-aciklamasi-167880.html