Mahatma Gandhi’s 24-day “Salt March” in 1930 mobilized hundreds of thousands of Indians in opposition to British colonial rule, laying the groundwork for their country’s eventual independence. Today, Turkey’s main opposition leader, Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is leading a “Justice March” from the capital Ankara to Istanbul to protest the policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Since Kilicdaroglu, who is called “Gandhi Kemal” for his striking resemblance to the father of modern India, started his march on June 15, thousands of Turks have joined the CHP leader.
Kilicdaroglu embarked on the march after a court slapped CHP parliament member Enis Berberoglu with a 25-year prison sentence. Berberoglu, the former editor-in-chief of Turkey’s highest circulation daily newspaper Hurriyet, is accused of passing on to Cumhuriyet newspaper images of Syria-bound trucks allegedly carrying weapons and ammunition to Syrian opposition groups in January 2014.
