There is a Moses for every pharaoh, main opposition CHP head tells Erdoğan

ANKARA / ISTANBUL

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Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has blasted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks on the party’s “justice march” from Ankara to Istanbul, saying “there is a Moses for every pharaoh” after Erdoğan suggested legal action against the march.

“They want to threaten us with the judiciary, calling on judges and prosecutors. We know very well what coup plotters have done in this country. We know what they all did in the 1970s, 80s, and in 2017 ... Now they criticize so much but they cannot say: ‘We have justice in our country. Why are you walking?’ Because they know very well that there is no justice,” Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters in the Kahramankazan district of Ankara, setting out on the fourth day of his march on June 18.

“I previously asked a question to the July 20 coup plotter [Erdoğan]. I asked: ‘What does the concept of honor remind you of? What significance does that concept have for you?’ The question I asked was very easy and ordinary, but somehow he cannot answer this question. Tell us and we can learn. But he has not given any answer. I want to remind him of the fact that there is a Moses for every pharaoh. He should never forget that,” he said. 

Speaking at a general session of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) on June 17, Erdoğan had said the CHP risked being an “element of oppression” and pointed to the possibility of future legal proceedings.

CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu started his march from Ankara to Istanbul on June 15 in protest at the arrest of CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu, who was sentenced 25 years in prison for “leaking state secrets” in the case into weapons-loaded Syria-bound trucks of the National Intelligence Agency (MİT).

Kılıçdaroğlu is set to walk over 24 days from the capital to Istanbul, a distance of around 450 km, to arrive at the city’s Maltepe Prison where Berberoğlu is currently in jail. The CHP chair walks during the days and stops at locations on the way.

Along with thousands of supporters, Kılıçdaroğlu was escorted by family members, CHP lawmakers and CHP members on the first day of the march. 

At around 10.30 a.m. on June 18, however, supporter Hasan Tatlı suffered a heart attack during a break following 70 minutes of walking. The 69-year-old was rushed to hospital, where he was taken into intensive care, Doğan News Agency reported. 

The incident occurred in the Kahramankazan district of Ankara province. During Tatlı’s transfer via an ambulance to the district hospital he was accompanied by CHP deputies Necati Yilmaz, Murat Emir and Ali Şeker. Following his initial treatment at the Kahramankazan Hamdi Eriş Hospital, the 69-year-old was transferred to another hospital in Ankara city center. 

“[Tatlı] has been transferred to a bigger hospital in Ankara. His health is in a critical situation … We hope he will get better,” Emir told reporters in front of the hospital in Kahramankazan.