Tag Archives: Erdogan

Turkey warns Greek Cypriots, oil companies against offshore energy grab

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech at the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, July 10, 2017.

By Ece Toksabay and David Dolan

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey warned Greek Cypriots on Friday not to make a grab for energy reserves around the divided island and President Tayyip Erdogan told oil companies to be careful they did not lose a “friend” by joining in.

Talks to reunite the ethnic Greek and Turkish sides of Cyprus collapsed in anger and recrimination in the early hours of Friday, ending a process many saw as the most promising in generations to heal decades of conflict.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, speaking at an energy conference in Istanbul, called on Greek Cypriots to refrain from taking “one-sided measures” after talks failed.

It was a clear reference to plans by the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government to exploit potential hydrocarbon deposits around the Mediterranean island.

The government has already issues a maritime advisory for a natural gas drill from July to October.

“We want to remind once again that the hydrocarbon resources around Cyprus belongs to both sides,” Yildirim said.

“The Greek Cypriot leadership must seek a constructive approach rather than setting an obstacle for peace. We advise that they refrain from unilateral measures in the east Mediterranean.”

Erdogan, speaking later at the same conference, went further, with a not-very-veiled threat to oil companies who may be tempted to participate in the Greek Cypriots’ plans.

“It is impossible to appreciate that some energy companies are acting with, and becoming part of some irresponsible measures taken by, Greek Cypriots,” Erdogan said. “I want to remind them that they could lose a friend like Turkey.”

 

NEW TENSIONS

Greek Cypriots say it is its sovereign right to explore for hydrocarbons, and it has signed maritime delimitation agreements with most of its neighbors.

Asked on Sunday if there was any pressure on Cyprus regarding the drilling schedule, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said: “Nothing (pressure) is being applied, nor will there be a postponement.”

A number of energy companies have already beaten a path to the island.

Italy’s ENI, ExxonMobil, France’s Total and Korea’s KOGAS have won offshore exploration licenses

A drilling ship contracted by Total, the West Capella, is already heading for Cyprus.

“What we expect from anyone who takes sides in the developments in Cyprus is that they should refrain from steps that might pave the way for new tensions in the region,” Erdogan said.

Asked by Reuters at the petroleum conference whether the company was worried that drilling could alienate Turkey, Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s president of exploration and production, said the company had “no concerns”.

The issue has risen to the fore again because of the failure of the latest round of reunification talks, which were started in part to try to solve the energy issue.

A week of United Nations-mediated talks in the Swiss Alps culminated in a “yelling and drama” session, leaving the conflict unresolved.

Cyprus’s Greek and Turkish Cypriots have lived estranged since a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek- inspired coup.

Turkey has 30,000 troops stationed in northern Cyprus and their status in any post-settlement peace deal proved to be the undoing of a process one diplomat lamented came “so, so close” to succeeding.

Cyprus talks have collapsed before, most spectacularly in 2004, when Greek Cypriots rejected a U.N. reunification blueprint in a referendum while Turkish Cypriots backed it. It took several years for the United Nations to re-engage.

 

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Written by Jeremy Gaunt and David Dolan; Additional reporting by Michele Kambas in Athens; Editing by Larry King)

 

Turkish opposition head says will step up struggle as march nears end

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu walks during the 23rd day of a protest, dubbed "justice march", against the detention of the party's lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, near Tuzla in Istanbul province, Turkey July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

By Gulsen Solaker

TUZLA, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey’s main opposition leader said on Friday his three-week “justice march” from Ankara to Istanbul had helped Turks “cast off a shirt of fear” under emergency rule, and vowed to stiffen his party’s challenge to the government once the protest ends.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has attracted tens of thousands of people to his march since setting off on the 450 km (280 mile) journey to protest a government crackdown since last year’s failed coup.

“Thousands of public servants, teachers, journalists were jailed or sacked and nobody could speak up. However, this march was done to take off this shirt of fear, for justice and I am pleased because we reached our goal,” Kilicdaroglu told Reuters during a lunch break on the outer edges of Istanbul.

“We will fight for (justice) inside and outside parliament,” said the 68-year-old politician, wearing a white shirt and a baseball cap with the word ‘Justice’ printed on it.

President Tayyip Erdogan accuses the protesters of “acting together with terrorist groups”, referring to Kurdish militants and followers of a U.S.-based cleric who Ankara says was behind last year’s coup.

The government has defended the crackdown, saying it was a measured response to the threats which Turkey faced from the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, and turmoil across its borders with Syria and Iraq.

On Friday the number of protesters accompanying Kilicdaroglu reached some 50,000. A large rally is expected on Sunday in Istanbul, supported by parliament’s third largest party, the pro-Kurdish HDP.

“The battle in parliament will most likely be tougher in the coming days because they want to limit our right to speak by changing the internal bylaws and it is impossible for us to tolerate this,” Kilicdaroglu said.

“Therefore this battle will get tougher, and it may even spill over to the streets.”

(Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Turkey takes control of nearly 1,000 companies since failed coup: deputy PM

Supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wave national flags during a trial of soldiers accused of attempting to assassinate Erdogan on the night of the failed July 15 coup, in Mugla, Turkey, March 8, 2017. REUTERS/Kenan Gurbuz

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish authorities have seized or appointed an administrator to 965 companies with total annual sales of some 21.9 billion lira ($6 billion) in the year since an attempted coup in July 2016, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said on Friday.

Under the emergency rule imposed after the coup, Turkish authorities took control of companies suspected of having links to followers of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed by Ankara for the failed military takeover.

The 965 companies under state management control, based in 43 provinces across Turkey, have assets totaling some 41 billion lira ($11.3 billion) and employ 46,357 people, Canikli said in a written statement.

Turkey took control of a bank, industrial companies and media firms as part of the crackdown on companies accused of links to Gulen. He has denied involvement in the putsch.

Apart from the business crackdown, Turkey has jailed more than 50,000 people pending trial and suspended or dismissed some 150,000, including soldiers, police officers, teachers and civil servants, over alleged links with terrorist groups.

The purge has alarmed Turkey’s Western allies and human rights groups, who say President Tayyip Eroding is using the coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent, a charge he denies.

Ten people including Amnesty International’s Turkey director and other rights activists were detained this week on suspicion of membership of a terrorist organization, Amnesty said on Thursday, in what it called a “grotesque abuse of power”.

The government has said the security measures are necessary because of the gravity of the threats facing Turkey, which is also battling Kurdish and Islamist militants. More than 240 people were killed in last year’s coup attempt.

(Reporting by Ebru Tuncay; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Gareth Jones)

EU parliament asks for Turkish accession talks to be suspended

FILE PHOTO: A European Union (L) and Turkish flag fly outside a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File Photo

STRASBOURG (Reuters) – The European Parliament on Thursday asked for Turkey’s European Union accession talks to be suspended if Ankara implements a constitutional overhaul, backed by a referendum in April, which expands the powers of President Tayyip Erdogan.

The parliament has limited influence on the issue and Turkey said on Thursday it rejected proposals that it drop its EU membership bid in favor of cooperation in other areas.

EU leaders have been critical of Erdogan and his behavior toward opponents, both before and after an abortive coup against him a year ago. But they do not want to undermine an agreement struck last year whereby Turkey effectively stopped migrants reaching Greece, easing a crisis that had threatened EU unity.

The resolution passed by the parliament on Thursday “calls on the Commission and the member states, in accordance with the Negotiating Framework, to formally suspend the accession negotiations with Turkey without delay if the constitutional reform package is implemented unchanged.”

Erdogan’s proposed constitution would greatly expand his powers, which he says is necessary to ensure stability in Turkey.

Opposition parties and human rights groups say the reforms threaten judicial independence and push Turkey toward one-man rule. The EU has also expressed concern.

The Venice Commission, a panel of legal experts from the Council of Europe, a rights body to which Turkey belongs, warned in March ahead of Turkey’s referendum that the proposed constitutional shakeup represented a “dangerous step backwards” for democracy. Ankara rejected the criticism.

(Reporting by Julia Fioretti in Brussels; editing by Andrew Roche)

Turkey’s opposition leader launches court challenge as he marches to Istanbul

Supporters of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu walk with a giant Turkish flag on the 19th day of a protest, dubbed "justice march", against the detention of the party's lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, near Izmit, Turkey, July 3, 2017. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s main opposition leader launched a European court appeal on Tuesday over an April vote that granted President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers, stepping up his challenge to the government as he led a 425 km (265 mile) protest march.

Erdogan accuses the protesters, marching from Ankara to Istanbul, of “acting together with terrorist groups”, referring to Kurdish militants and followers of a U.S.-based cleric who Ankara says was behind last year’s coup.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), hit back on Tuesday, defending his “justice march” and accusing the government of creating a one-party state in the wake of the failed putsch on July 15.

On the 20th day of his march, triggered by the jailing of a CHP deputy on spying charges, Kilicdaroglu signed an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against the election board’s decision to accept unstamped ballots in the April 16 referendum.

“Turkey has rapidly turned into a (one-)party state. Pretty much all state institutions have become branches of a political party,” he told reporters. “This is causing profound harm to our democratic, parliamentary system.”

Kilicdaroglu, 68, wearing a white shirt and a baseball cap with the word ‘justice’ printed on it, then set out on the latest leg of the march from the city of Izmit, around 100 km (60 miles) along the coast to the east of central Istanbul.

The protest has gained momentum as it passes through northwest Turkey’s countryside and representatives of the pro-Kurdish HDP, parliament’s third largest party, joined the march on Monday near the jail of its former co-leader Figen Yuksekdag.

There are deep divisions among opposition parties but Yuksekdag, stripped of her parliamentary status in February, issued a statement from her cell on Monday calling for them to put those differences aside.

“We must set up the shattered scales of justice again and fight for this together,” she wrote, saying justice had hit “rock bottom” with the jailing of 11 HDP lawmakers and around 100 mayors.

The party rejects charges of ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, designated a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, which launched an insurgency in 1984 in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

“TERROR GROUP” ACCUSATIONS

As the protesters advance, Erdogan has stepped up his attacks on the march, saying the CHP was longer acting as a political opposition.

“We can see that they have reached the point of acting together with terror groups and those powers which provoke them against our country,” he said in a speech to officials from his ruling AK Party on Saturday.

“The path which you are taking is the one of Qandil, the one of Pennsylvania,” he said, referring to the northern Iraqi mountains where the PKK is based and the U.S. state where Erdogan’s ally-turned-foe Fethullah Gulen lives.

Kilicdaroglu launched his march in Ankara on June 15 after Enis Berberoglu was jailed for 25 years for espionage, becoming the first lawmaker from the party imprisoned in a government crackdown in the wake of the attempted coup.

Since the purge began, more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial, 150,000 have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs. Ankara has also shut down 130 media outlets and some 160 journalists are in prison, according to union data.

In April a referendum was held on constitutional changes that sharply widened Erdogan’s presidential authority and the proposals won 51.4 percent approval in a vote, which has triggered opposition challenges including the latest CHP move.

Opposition parties have said the poll was deeply flawed and European election observers said the decision to allow unstamped ballot papers to be counted had removed a main safeguard against voting fraud.

(Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan and Richard Balmforth)

Germany urges Erdogan not to address Turks during G20 Hamburg visit

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reviews a guard of honour during the launch of a new Turkish Navy ship in Tuzla, near Istanbul, Turkey, July 3, 2017.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to respect its request that he not address Turks living in Germany when he attends this week’s Hamburg summit of the world’s 20 largest economies.

Ties between Berlin and Ankara have soured over the past year due to disagreements on a range of political and security issues, including Turkey’s jailing of a German-Turkish journalist and its refusal to let German lawmakers visit German troops at a Turkish air base.

Erdogan was also infuriated by what he called “Nazi era tactics” when some local German authorities, citing security concerns, barred Turkish politicians from campaigning in Germany ahead of a referendum on expanding the president’s powers.

Last week Germany rejected a request from Ankara that Erdogan be allowed to address members of the 3 million-strong ethnic Turkish community living in Germany during the G20 summit.

In unusually strong language that underlined the poor state of relations, a German foreign ministry spokesman said even appearances by Erdogan at a Turkish consulate or via a video feed would “would be an affront to the clearly expressed will of the government and a violation of German sovereignty”.

“Appearances of this nature have to be requested well in advance,” Martin Schaefer told a news conference when asked about “rumors” that Erdogan might still address Germany’s Turks despite Berlin’s request.

He said Germany could not ban Erdogan from speaking at a Turkish consulate, but had options for influencing such actions.

Last week German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he did not want to see Turkish domestic conflicts played out among the Turkish community in Germany – a reference to deep political divisions within Turkey.

 

(Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Gareth Jones)

 

Turkey’s Erdogan says Arab demands on Qatar unlawful

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan greets his supporters as he leaves a mosque after the Eid al-Fitr prayers in Istanbul, Turkey, June 25, 2017. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

By Mehmet Caliskan

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday dismissed calls for Turkey to close a military base in Qatar and said a wider list of demands issued by four Arab states was an unlawful intervention against the Gulf state’s sovereignty.

In his strongest statement of support for Qatar in the nearly three-week-old crisis centered on the Gulf state, Erdogan said the call to withdraw Turkish forces was disrespectful and that Doha – which described the demands as unreasonable – was taking the right approach.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain imposed a boycott on June 5 on Qatar and issued 13 demands including closing Al Jazeera television, curbing relations with Iran, shutting the Turkish base and paying reparations.

Doha said it was reviewing the list, but said it was not reasonable or actionable.

“We approve and appreciate the attitude of Qatar against the list of 13 demands,” Erdogan, speaking outside a mosque in Istanbul, said. “…This approach of 13 demands is against international law because you cannot attack or intervene in the sovereignty of a country.”

Bahrain’s foreign minister said on Sunday that outside interference would not solve the problem.

“It is in the interest of these powers to respect the existing regional order which is capable of solving any issue that may arise,” Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said in a message on Twitter, without naming Turkey.

The 13 demands are apparently aimed at dismantling Qatar’s interventionist foreign policy which has incensed conservative Arab peers over its alleged support for Islamists they regard as threats to their dynastic rule.

Qatar along with Turkey, whose ruling AK Party has its roots in Islamist politics, backed a Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt before it was overthrown in 2013. The Arab states have demanded Qatar cut any links to the Brotherhood and other groups they deem to be terrorist, ideological or sectarian.

“NO PULLOUT”

Turkey, the most powerful regional country to stand by Qatar, has sent 100 cargo planes with supplies since its neighbors cut air and sea links. It has also rushed through legislation to send more troops to its base in Doha.

Two contingents of Turkish troops with columns of armored vehicles have arrived since the crisis erupted on June 5, and Defence Minister Fikri Isik said on Friday that further reinforcements would be beneficial.

“The strengthening of the Turkish base would be a positive step in terms of the Gulf’s security,” he said. “Re-evaluating the base agreement with Qatar is not on our agenda.”

Hurriyet newspaper said last week a joint exercise by Turkish and Qatari forces was expected following the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday which started on Sunday, and the number of Turkish soldiers sent to the Gulf state could eventually reach 1,000. An air force contingent was also envisaged, it said.

Erdogan said Turkey had also offered to establish a military base in Saudi Arabia, but never received a clear answer.

“If Saudi Arabia wants us to have base there, a step towards this also can be taken,” he told reporters. “I made this offer to the king himself and they said they will consider this.”

“They did not come back to us since that day and even though they still didn’t come back to us on this, asking Turkey to pull back its troops (from Qatar) is disrespectful against Turkey.”

Speaking outside the Istanbul mosque after prayers marking the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, Erdogan said he would continue his planned program despite feeling briefly unwell.

“I had a little condition about my blood pressure, related to my diabetes,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed el Sherif in Cairo and Sami Aboudi in Dubai,; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Robert Birsel, Jane Merriman and Susan Thomas)

Turkish journalist denies sending subliminal message on eve of coup

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during a fast-breaking iftar dinner at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, June 20, 2017. Yasin Bulbul/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS

By Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) – A prominent Turkish journalist denied on Wednesday that he sent out subliminal messages to coup plotters who tried to overthrow President Tayyip Erdogan last year, saying he had been put on trial for a crime which did not exist.

Mehmet Altan, an economics professor and journalist, and his brother Ahmet were detained in September and charged with giving coded messages in a television talk show a day before the abortive July 15 military coup, according to state media.

The brothers both face potential life sentences if convicted in their trial, which opened this week.

They have denied the charges, saying it was ridiculous to interpret their comments in the program – during which Mehmet Altan talked about the long history of military involvement in Turkish politics – as incitement to overthrow the government.

“If Rousseau were alive today and had shared his views on TV, he would be taken into custody for giving subliminal messages,” Altan told the court, referring to enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

“There were no subliminal messages on that TV program… I have been detained for a non-existent message, over a non-existent crime,” he said according to a copy of his defense statement posted online.

The government blames followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for masterminding the coup, and has waged a crackdown on suspected Gulen supporters since then.

Some 150,000 police, soldiers, judges and civil servants have been sacked or suspended, drawing criticism from rights groups and Western allies who fear an attempt to silence dissent. Tens of thousands of people have been arrested.

Turkish officials reject the criticism, saying the extent of the crackdown is justified by the gravity of the threat to the Turkish state in the wake of the coup attempt, when soldiers commandeered tanks and fighter jets, bombing parliament and other key buildings in an attempt to seize power.

Gulen has denied any involvement in the failed coup, and Altan said he had no knowledge of it.

“Surely I wasn’t aware of the coup attempt. I know that I stand here today just because I did not applaud the slaughter of democracy by the government,” he told the court.

Rights groups have voiced concerns over the trial of the Altans, who are among 100 journalists detained in the last year.

“There is no possible causal link between the defendants’ news articles and the failed coup of July 2016,” said Gabrielle Guillemin from the British rights group Article 19, adding that the charges were part of a “politically motivated campaign of harassment against journalists and other dissenting voices”.

The TV show’s presenter, Nazli Ilicak, a journalist, columnist and former lawmaker, was also arrested. “I am not an enemy of Erdogan. I am just an opponent. Is it a crime to oppose?” Ilicak told the same court a day earlier.

More than 200 writers worldwide, including Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks and JM Coetzee, and other public figures have signed a petition protesting against the arrests of the Altans.

In his comments on the television program the day before the coup attempt, Mehmet Altan referred to “another structure” within the Turkish state which he said was closely watching developments.

“It is not certain when it will take its hand out of the bag and how it will take its hand out of the bag,” Altan had said.

(Editing by Dominic Evans and Richard Balmforth)

Turkish opposition leader accuses ‘dictator’ Erdogan of judicial interference

FILE PHOTO: Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu walks during a protest, dubbed "justice march", against the detention of his party's lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Osman Orsal/File Photo

By Gulsen Solaker

CAMLIDERE, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey’s main opposition leader accused President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday of meddling in the judiciary and called him a “dictator”, as he extended his cross-country protest march against the jailing of a parliamentary ally into a sixth day.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 68, head of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), set out last week from the capital Ankara on a 425-km (265-mile) march to Istanbul after fellow party member Enis Berberoglu was jailed for 25 years on spying charges.

Berberoglu was the first CHP lawmaker to be imprisoned in a government crackdown that followed the abortive military coup in July 2016. More than 50,000 people have been jailed and more than 150,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs.

“I will always be on the side of justice. If someone tells me my rights are a favor, I will speak of his dictatorship. I say you (Erdogan) are a dictator,” Kilicdaroglu said in a speech after stopping at a national park near Camlidere, a rural area about 100 km outside of Ankara.

His comments were an apparent response to criticism from Erdogan over the weekend in which the president said justice should be sought in parliament and the CHP was only being allowed to march as a favor from the government.

Erdogan has likened the protesters who came out in support of Kilicdaroglu in Ankara and Istanbul to those who carried out the attempted coup, and said, “You should not be surprised if you receive an invitation from the judiciary.”

Kilicdaroglu responded on Tuesday by accusing the president of attempting to influence the judiciary. “If I prove that your government sends notices to the courts and gives them orders, will you resign your post like an honorable man?” he said.

Rights groups and government critics, including members of Kilicdaroglu’s CHP, say Turkey has been sliding toward authoritarianism since the coup bid. The government says its crackdown is necessary given vast security threats it is facing.

“I have been participating in the march since the beginning,” said one woman, 59, who declined to give her name. “We want justice for our children. This is the only reason we are marching.”

The slight, bespectacled Kilicdaroglu has so far clocked up a little more than 100 km, trudging along a highway westwards from Ankara and at times carrying a sign that says “Justice”.

CHP officials said he was eating only soup in the morning and over the course of the day the same food given to the roughly 1,000 other supporters marching with him.

He alternates between two pairs of trainers and at night massages his feet with salt to soothe the swelling. He sleeps overnight in a caravan specially prepared for him.

Kilicdaroglu, who aims to march to the jail where Berberoglu is being held, on Tuesday condemned the government’s purges, naming academics he said had been stripped of their posts for no reason and asking why journalists were being jailed.

Some 160 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey, according to the journalists union, and authorities have shut down 130 media outlets since the failed coup.

“Shoulder-to-shoulder against fascism,” and “justice, justice” chanted the crowd of around 1,000 on a hillside who listened to his speech. Some carried a banner that said: “You’ll never walk alone”.

The march is expected to last around 25 days, with participants walking some 16-20 km daily.

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Daren Butler)

Turkish PM urges opposition head to call off 20-day protest march

Supporters of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) join party's leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu during the second day of a protest, dubbed a "justice march", against the detention of the CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, in the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

By Daren Butler and Tuvan Gumrukcu

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s prime minister urged the head of the main opposition party on Friday to end a 425 kilometer (265 mile) march from Ankara to Istanbul in protest over the jailing of one of his lawmakers, saying justice “cannot be sought on the streets”.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 68, head of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), set out on the march on Thursday after Enis Berberoglu was jailed for 25 years on spying charges. He was seen off by thousands of supporters and has garnered much attention in a country where government dominates the media.

Kilicdaroglu trudged along a highway outside Ankara on Friday dressed in dark slacks and blue shirt. Sunburned and wearing a cap, he carried a sign that said “Justice”.

Rights groups and government critics, including members of Kilicdaroglu’s CHP, say Turkey is sliding toward authoritarianism, citing a crackdown that followed last year’s failed coup that has seen more than 50,000 people jailed and 150,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs.

“I advise Kilicdaroglu to desist from this act,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters. “Justice cannot be sought on the streets, Turkey is a state of law… Even if we don’t like a court’s ruling, we have to respect it.”

Berberoglu was accused of giving the Cumhuriyet newspaper a video it used as the basis of a May 2015 report that alleged trucks owned by the state intelligence service (MIT)were stopped and found to contain arms and ammunition headed for Syria.

Berberoglu is the first CHP lawmaker to be jailed in the government crackdown, which has seen eleven members of parliament from the pro-Kurdish opposition party jailed.

Kilicdaroglu has called the arrest “lawless” and motivated by the presidential palace, a reference to President Tayyip Erdogan. His march, planned to end at the Istanbul prison where Berberoglu is being held, is expected to take more than 20 days.

‘DEMOCRACY’

“We have been, and will be, calling and defending justice, justice, justice, and democracy, democracy, democracy,” he told reporters during his march. “No matter what they say.”

Turkey’s justice minister said Kilicdaroglu was trying to foment opposition to the judicial system.

“It is not possible to break the balance of the scales of justice by walking on roads,” Bekir Bozdag said.

Erdogan acknowledged the trucks belonged to the MIT but said they carried aid to ethnic Turkmens battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State, and not weapons for rebels.

Erdogan accused Cumhuriyet’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul of undermining Turkey’s reputation and vowed Dundar would “pay a heavy price”.

Last year, Dundar and Gul were sentenced to at least five years jail in a related case. The prosecutor is now seeking another 10 years for the two over the report on the trucks. Dundar is being tried in absentia after leaving Turkey. Gul remains in the country and free while his case is in process.

(Writing by David Dolan; editing by Ralph Boulton)