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Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu spoke at the weekly group meeting of his party today (November 20).
Kılıçdaroğlu denounced the detention of 13 people including academics and civil society representatives last week as part of the investigation launched against rights advocate and businessperson Osman Kavala, who has been arrested for over a year without an indictment:
"They are trying to take a revenge on Gezi incidents. The Gezi incidents are the voices of democracy and freedom of this country."
CLICK - Operation Against Civil Society and Academics
Emphasizing that the mechanism of justice in Turkey has not been properly functioning, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said,
"If the ones who dispense justice commit injustice, it means the justice has decayed. It gradually decays the society from the inside.
"None of these people has a place to escape; they have not committed any crimes, why should they escape? What is the point in raiding the houses of these people early in the morning and take them away? Then, they will come and say, 'There is democracy in our country.'
"Osman Kavala has been arrested for 13 months, he is in solitary confinement. There has been no indictment filed against him, there is no crime; they raid the houses, thinking, 'We can, maybe, find evidence.' They are trying to take a revenge on Gezi incidents.
"They cannot take a revenge on Gezi"
"Gezi incidents are the voices of democracy and freedom of this country. They cannot take a revenge on Gezi. The youngsters of this country brought a dictator to his knees in Gezi. What crime are you looking for?
"Why cannot you find a justification for (the arrest of) Osman Kavala? (Former CHP MP) Eren Erdem is behind bars as well. Lawyer Selçuk Kozağaçlı is also unjustly behind bars. We are defending justice. If they have committed any crimes that we do not know, they should be tried under the roof of justice. If you put innocent people in jail and say 'Where will we find evidence now?', then, it means there is no justice.
"In such a country, fear prevails, people cannot produce anything, journalists cannot write freely, the brains of the country go abroad, investors do not make any investments. Turkey is now in the position of a country that cannot properly make production." (HK/SD)
* Photograph: Muhammed Enes Yıldırım - Anadolu Agency
