TİP leader completes Freedom March in Ankara with rally, demanding release of jailed MP Atalay

Duvar English

Erkan Baş, Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP) head, on Oct. 28 completed the Freedom March in the capital Ankara, which he had started from Hatay with the demand of jailed TİP deputy Can Atalay’s release.

During the march for 28 days, Baş walked bringing up many problems, from the Çorlu train massacre to mine massacres to the students who lost their lives in the dormitories.

In the capital Ankara on Oct. 28, Baş held a rally titled “Freedom to the republic,” one day before the centenary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey.

“We have been walking for exactly 28 days. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who joined us against injustice and oppression all over the country,” he said. 

Baş once again demanded the immediate release of Can Atalay, adding that the Constitutional Court confirmed their rightness.

“We initiated this march to end Can Atalay's captivity. Some said he wouldn’t be released, some said ‘you should accept this’. We said this at the beginning: ‘No, we will not get used to it, we will not accept it, we will not surrender.’ No matter what they do, we will go and get Can out of that dungeon. The court in Istanbul is waiting (orders) from the palace (gov’t) and our remark that ‘Can Atalay is a prisoner of the palace’ has been admitted once again,” Baş said. 

“We started by calling ‘freedom to Can’, we continue by saying ‘freedom to the republic.’ We promise that we will definitely liberate our country, which has turned into a big prison… We will establish a republic of peace and brotherhood. We will definitely establish the republic of labor, the republic of equality and freedom, the socialist republic as we call it, our revolutionary republic,” he added.

Turkey's Constitutional Court (AYM) on Oct. 25 ruled by a majority of votes that there was a violation of rights in the case of imprisoned TİP deputy Can Atalay in terms of "the right to vote and be elected and the right to personal security and liberty."

Atalay was elected as a Hatay deputy in the May 14 general elections yet, all the lower courts rejected his release from the prison on the grounds that parliamentary immunity does not cover the crime for which he was convicted. 

Atalay was among the seven defendants who were sentenced to 18 years in prison in the Gezi Park trial, who was convicted for “assisting to the attempted abolishment of the government."