Main opposition leaders say Turkey has transformed into a semi-open prison where democracy is suspended.
The head of the main opposition bloc in parliament, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, criticised the fact that lawmakers, journalists and academics have been jailed.
He told reporters on Friday in Ankara: “if Turkey has turned into a semi-open prison today, and if Turkey is governed by emergency decrees today, democracy cannot be talked about in Turkey.”
Kilicdaroglu, who is the head of the centre-left People’s Republican Party (CHP), criticised jail sentences for expression of thought in Turkey, adding it harmed “years of struggle for democracy.”
Kilicdaroglu met the new co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Serpil Kemalbay, in Ankara on Friday.
Kemalbay also criticised the “anti-democratic process” in Turkey.
A total of 11 HDP lawmakers are currently in jail, including the party head Selahattin Demirtas.
Demirtas, along with former co-chair Figen Yuksekdag and Diyarbakir lawmaker Nursel Aydogan, have already been sentenced to separate jail terms.
Aydogan and Yuksekdag were stripped of their seats in parliament.
Some 50,000 people are in jail in relation to an abortive coup in 2016, and more than 120,000 people have been purged from their jobs in the civil service and armed forces.
Turkey imposed a strict state of emergency after the failed coup on July 15, giving President Tayyip Erdogan’s government sweeping powers to rule by decree.(dpa/NAN)