Prime Minister and Justice and Development (AK) Party Deputy Chairman Binali Yıldırım continued criticism of Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who has been marching from Ankara to Istanbul in protest of the sentencing of former CHP Deputy Enis Berberoğlu to 25 years in prison, saying the march is a campaign supported by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and other separatists.
Speaking to his party members at a Ramadan Holiday event in Ankara, Yıldırım said: "Our path is the path of the people, the path of service, it is not that of FETÖ or of separatists. We do not walk on the way that FETÖ and separatists cheer for. We march with the people, we march together with the people."
Kılıçdaroğlu decided to hold the march on June 15, following the ruling by Istanbul's 14th Supreme Penal Court to sentence CHP Istanbul Deputy Berberoğlu to 25 years in prison after being convicted of leaking secret documents to the press with the alleged purpose of political and military espionage in the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks case. The 68-year-old CHP leader is expected to complete his march at Maltepe Prison in Istanbul where Berberoğlu is serving out his sentence.
Yıldırım also said that with the April 16 referendum, Turkey has materialized the biggest governance reform in its history. Yıldırım added that the eras of military coups and tutelage has been now been "buried".
In addition to Yıldırım, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli also criticized Kılıçdaroğlu's justice march, saying a solution should be sought through Parliament and legal processes.
"No one has the right to push Turkey into chaos, polarization and darkness and do a political show," Bahçeli said on Monday in Ankara during a Ramadan Holiday celebration with his party. Bahçeli said that the CHP should "pull itself together."
Berberoğlu was among the deputies that lost their parliamentary immunity last year when a government-sponsored bill stripped the protection from 138 lawmakers with pending charges. The CHP did not block the bill in Parliament, which was then passed with 376 out of 550 votes.
In January 2014, trucks belonging to MİT carrying aid to northern Syria where Turkmens had been exposed to heavy airstrikes and attacks from the Syrian regime were stopped and intercepted by security forces upon the order of former Adana Public Prosecutor Özcan Şişman and Brigadier General Hamza Celepoğlu.
The supplies in the trucks were seized and MİT staffers were handcuffed before being detained.
It was later revealed that the raid was a FETÖ plot to embarrass and discredit the government through its followers who had infiltrated the military and judiciary.