CHP initiates country-wide rallies to spread ‘Democracy Manifesto’

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

CHP's spokesperson Haluk Koç holds a press conference on May 8. This decision to hold rallies came in accordance with CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s declaration of the need to get directly in touch with the public. bypassing the media’s intermediation. AA photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has decided to convene “Freedom and Democracy” rallies all across the country to promote its “Democracy Manifesto,” in an effort to get directly in touch with the people. A series of rallies will take place, the first of which is to be held in Aydın on May 18, which will be followed by rallies in İstanbul, Mersin and Ordu. 

Alongside the rallies, groups of 20 deputies will be dispersed across the east and southeast regions of Turkey, to communicate directly with the people and explicate the current state of democracy and their position regarding it, as Haluk Koç, the spokesperson of the CHP stated on May 8. Ercan Karakaş, Fikri Sağlar and Alaaddin Yüksel are leading figures who are expected to focus on engaging with Diyarbakır, a Kurdish-dominated province of crucial political importance.

This decision to hold rallies came in accordance with CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s declaration of the need to get directly in touch with the public, bypassing the media’s intermediation. Kılıçdaroğlu recently responded defiantly to the government’s influence over the media by saying, “You cannot silence the CHP by buying the media,” on May 7.