'Justice for all' in Turkey must include Kurds
The Turkish opposition's Justice March reveals that the president's exhausting hate rhetoric is wearing thin in Turkey and for much of the world.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party, wrapped up his 25-day, 270-mile Justice March from Ankara to Istanbul last week and was greeted at a rally attended by more than a million people. Does the enormous support for the anti-authoritarian campaign indicate a turning tide in Turkish politics?
The 25-day period was chosen deliberately to symbolize the prosecutors’ demand for a 25-year prison term for Enis Berberoglu, one of Kilicdaroglu's fellow members of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Throughout the march, the most controversial issue was the reaction of members of two other opposition parties. One is the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), ultranationalists who have long operated in unison with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Several prominent Gray Wolves — as party members are known by the public — have distanced themselves from the MHP and have been operating as part of the opposition.
The other opposition group is the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), whose co-chairs and several members are currently in jail.
