Main opposition CHP starts election campaign with Istanbul rally

ISTANBUL

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his wife, Selvi Kılıçdaroğlu, wave to party supporters during an election rally in Istanbul. DHA photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) officially launched its campaign for the June 7 general elections on April 11, holding its first rally in Istanbul.

Speaking at the rally, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said his party is ready to solve all the problems Turkey is facing.

“The people are tired, the people had enough,” Kılıçdaroğlu told thousands of CHP supporters who gathered in the Kartal district on the Anatolian side for the “We applaud as a nation” rally.

“The people want a peaceful Turkey, we, as the CHP, are ready for this,” he added. “Our programs are ready, our cadres are ready, our solutions are ready. We are coming to eradicate unemployment, poverty, injustice, inequality.”

Kılıçdaroğlu said the CHP will be behind all the country’s citizens.

“Do not be afraid, do not surrender, do not quail,” the main opposition leader said. “Because the CHP is on your side. There is the CHP that represents a mentality far from bullying, tyranny, oppression, discrimination. That is why we say ‘do not be afraid, do not quail, because there is CHP.’”

Kılıçdaroğlu then invited the crow to “applaud as a nation,” which is the party’s main election campaign slogan to protest “the known mentality that tyrannizes law, economy, freedom, peace, justice and the republic.”

The CHP plans to hold more than 50 election rallies across the country before the June 7 general elections. Kılıçdaroğlu will make the party’s election manifesto public at a meeting in Ankara on April 19.