Opposition leader's march challenges Turkish politics

"I am walking every centimeter," said main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on June 25, responding to speculation that he is traveling some of the distance of his "justice march" in his party bus. He also called on everyone to join and witness the "sincerity" of his march from Ankara to Istanbul in protest at the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti).

Kılıçdaroğlu started his march on June 15 in reaction to a court ruling a day before, which sentenced CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu to 25 years in jail. Berberoğlu, a former journalist, is accused of giving documents to the press about an alleged military weapons transport from Turkey to rebels in Syria. Most of the documents were already in the public domain but they were subsequently banned by the government as a breach of national security-.

The CHP head is marching to Istanbul's Maltepe Prison, where Berberoğlu is jailed. The 69-year-old has already walked a third of the 450 kilometers between the two cities under the monitoring of physicians, including a passage at an altitude of more than 1,500 meters. At first the weather was rainy and cool, but now the summer heat has started to burn. Kılıçdaroğlu is marching with his supporters throughout the ongoing Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr.

President Tayyip Erdoğan first reacted strongly on the third day of the march. The first condemnation actually came after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli, who also gave strong support to the government in the campaign for the April 16 referendum on shifting to an executive presidential system.

Erdoğan accused Kılıçdaroğlu of committing an unconstitutional act by challenging the ruling of "independent courts in Turkey." He even compared...