ISTANBUL — The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party said Friday he believes he has become the voice of thousands of people victimized by the government’s large-scale crackdown on civil servants, journalists and critics following last year’s failed coup attempt. Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is leading a 426-kilometre (250-mile) “March for Justice” from the capital of Ankara to Istanbul to protest President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policies. “There are many victims in this society, and we have become their spokesman,” he told The Associated Press on Friday. “If only there was no need for this march and there was democracy, media freedoms, if civic society groups could freely express their opinions,” the opposition leader added. The march ends Sunday with a rally planned near the prison where the Republican People’s Party legislator is being held.

Source: National Post July 07, 2017 14:37 UTC