Istanbul, March 21 (HNA) – “I invite all of Turkey to the big rallies, squares and streets we will organise in 81 provinces and 973 districts in the evening after after 20.30” Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel said at Beylikdüzü Municipality on Friday.
Travelling to the district to support detained Beylikdüzü Mayor Murat Çalık, Özel, in response to the reactions from the government that ‘invitation to the streets is irresponsible’, said, ‘It is not us who fill these streets, these squares, it is your unlawfulness and injustices you have done’ and added:
‘I have only one warning. Any reaction is a right. Never, never, never, no matter how much you are provoked, no matter how many unlawful orders are sometimes given to the police, do not attack any of our police officers or some of the people who are with us, who are among us, but who have been infiltrated by the state or by a number of different structures or by malicious perception operators who have infiltrated into the state to make you look unfair. Not to attack the police, of course, if there is an unlawful order to enter the square, which is our right, we will walk. But it is not our job to maliciously attack, throw water at or manhandle a single police officer or police officer. But if there is an unlawful order to build a barrier in front of us, demolish it without harming the police.’
The CHP leader also tagged Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya and Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç and wrote: ‘Those responsible for this evil done to Turkey accused us of “irresponsibility”. What we say is clear: ‘The streets are ours, the squares are ours, in a democratic way, without violence, without breaking and pouring, without burning and destroying.’ You will respect the democratic reaction, which is the constitutional right of the people. Any order given against this is an unlawful order,’ he said.
Following the detention of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on Wednesday, massive protests started across Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of people were in the squares in Istanbul despite the ban. The ban in Istanbul was later extended to Ankara and Izmir.