CHP says ‘democratic movement for justice and peace’ rising in Turkey as Justice Congress ends

ANKARA

The four-day Justice Congress has created a collective democratic force in favor of justice and peace, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said, reading the congress’ five-article final declaration in the western province of Çanakkale. 

“This congress has given a collective democratic dimension to the justice march, which has replaced fear with courage and despair with hope. Participants have felt that they are not in despair or alone against the one-man regime,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on Aug. 29, reading out loud the final declaration of the Congress. 

“A movement of democracy, justice and peace is about to be born. This movement will act based on shared points, not differences. The shared points are democracy, justice and peace,” he added. 

The five-article declaration underlined the problem areas of justice in Turkey under eight main topics and proposed solutions on the issues of justice in law, the state, elections, daily life, beliefs, education, economics and the media. 

“An impartial and independent judiciary should be established. Trust in the judiciary should be established and imprisoned lawmakers should immediately be released,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, presenting the first topic as “justice in the state.”

“A democratic state with a system of checks and balances, based on the principle of separation of powers, should be established. It should be cleared from the law of coup d’etats,” he added. 

Saying justice in elections is not present and declaring recent elections as “illegitimate,” Kılıçdaroğlu said “a just and legitimate election system that is open to civilian supervision should be established.” As part of this, the current party system and 10 percent election threshold should be changed, he added. 

The CHP head also touched on inequality in Turkey. 

“A social state should be established and the equality of distribution of wealth should be provided,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

On the subject of media freedom, he said “the real, financial and immaterial pressures on the media should be lifted, imprisoned journalists should be released, and the media should be protected by the constitution as the fourth estate, based on the principle of distribution of powers.”