CHP, DEM Parti, EMEP and Yeni Yol Group came together in front of the Ministry of Interior today to protest the trustee appointments.

The protest was attended by DEM Party Deputy Group Chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, CHP Deputy Group Chair Murat Emir, Emek Party (EMEP) Gaziantep MP Sevda Karaca, and Yeni Yol Group President Bülent Kaya, among many other MPs.

“THIS IS THE ISSUE OF 85 MILLION CITIZENS”

DEM Party member Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit emphasized the importance of the struggle in her speech, stating:

“This issue is not only the issue of DEM Party or the Kurdish people. It is the issue of 85 million citizens living in this country. The trustee has been appointed over all of Turkey through Siirt. It has been appointed to each citizen. Therefore, we are face to face with a historic responsibility to come together, object together, and weave the struggle together. Recognizing this responsibility, today we are here as 7 political parties united. We stand together against trustee politics, pressure politics, the detention and arrest of journalists, the oppression against every citizen in this country, and the massacre in Bolu. From now on, it is our duty to lead and expand the joint struggle in every aspect. We will unite Turkey with democracy, no one should doubt that.”

“WE WILL NOT BOW TO THIS PRESSURE”

CHP’s Murat Emir said, “If you say ‘you can’t elect in Ovacık, Esenyurt, Siirt, and Mardin’, if you think the only legitimate ballot box is the one you were elected in, then you are authoritarian, you can never be a democrat.”

Emir also drew attention to pressures on journalists, artists, mayors, and political party leaders, continuing:

“If we want to speak, we speak. You can only choose what we point to, if you go beyond that, they say ‘we will take it down’ with the naked force that we have turned into a club, legalizing it as ‘justice’, they say we will remove from office or arrest when needed. We will not bow to this pressure.”