Justice March Completed, Kılıçdaroğlu Announces Declaration

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The Justice March launched by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the head of the Republican People's Party (CHP), from Ankara to İstanbul was completed yesterday (July 9) with a public meeting in Maltepe district in İstanbul.

Delivering a speech at the end of the march, which took 432 km and 25 days, Kılıçdaroğlu announced a 10-article declaration and listed his "solution offers for Turkey to maintain justice again":

1. We condemn this July 15 coup attempt once more. Our people going out to the street and resist the FETÖ coup attempt has become our country's constitutional and democratic achievement. We call this the July 15 of people/street. However, uncovering the "political leg" of this coup attempt has been deliberately prevented by the government. Political leg of the Fethullahist Terror Organization must be uncovered and the true coup plotters must be accounted for.

2. The government staged a coup on July 20 by taking advantage of the July 15 coup attempt. State of Emergency (OHAL) was declared on July 20 and Turkish National Assembly's powers have been seized. We call this the July 15 of the palace. Turning into a civilian coup, State of Emergency practices gathered power of legislation, jurisdiction and execution in one hand. The State of Emergency must be immediately ended and must be re-established in accordance with universal norms of legal system.

3. Handing jurisdiction to political authority is betrayal. Therefore, independence and neutrality which is indispensable for safety of property and life must be ensured. Right to fair trial must be exercised wholly. The practices like "collective crime" contravening human rights must be given up.

4. Today, victims' rights to trial and their social rights have been seized through OHAL implementations. OHAL victims have been left to "civilian death". These unlawful practices must be ended.

5. After the July 20 civilian coup attempt, the academics and other civil servants who have no link with the July 15 coup attempt or the organization behind it but have been deprived of their rights for just opposing the government must be reinstated to their jobs.

6. One cannot talk about democracy in a country in which over 150 journalists are behind bars. Journalists who were arrested only for practicing their professions should be released immediately and all pressure on media should be put an end to. All obstacles before freedom of thought and expression should be removed.

7. The constitutional amendments undertaken under circumstances of State of Emergency and by "using every means available to the State" and in an environment in which no debate is possible, are illegitimate. A constitution which responds to the expectations of a single person instead of aiming for meeting the demands of the society has been put into force by the decision of the Supreme Election Board. This is an "unsealed" election. Turkey cannot be governed by an illegitimate Constitution and it shouldn't be.

8. All sorts of tutelage on the democratic parliamentary system should be removed. The human rights based, democratic, secular state of law which is the guarantee of freedom of conscience and religion should be strengthened, appointment and promotion should be based on competence and qualifications. Eroding the principle secularism in the education system should be abandoned and educational politics reproducing social injustice should be changed.

9. The unjust system prevailing not only in law, but in all aspects of social life continues. A joint will to overcome all sorts of social injustice which we have been experiencing in a wide range should be developed against for instance injustice, poverty, lack of humane living costs, lack of organization, discrimination, prevailing violence and terror. All antidemocratic practices disturbing our social peace should be abandoned on the basis of an equal citizenship. Discrimination against women which is one of the most calamitous aspects of social injustice, should be averted, women's areas of freedom should be protected and women's rights should be practices on every aspect of life.

10. The aggressive foreign policies which have been practiced recently have created a vicious circle ingraining the social injustices in our country. Justice should not only prevail in domestic politics and social life but also also in international relations. We should return to a foreign policy which approaches all peoples and identities in Turkey in a fair, peaceful way respecting rules of international law. Turkey should turn its face towards human rights, rule of law and a family of nations which care about justice. (BK/TK/DG)