Turkey's CHP urges all to draw lessons from Gezi protests

The leader of Turkey's opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, strongly urges Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to embrace all the people of the country, not only his party’s supporters, and appeals to him to respond to the democratic demands voiced during the Gezi Park protests, Hürriyet Daily News reports on Friday.

“We are facing a new incident which the government couldn’t suppress, regardless of all kinds of violence and repression. Environmental and urban consciousness has turned into a nationwide reaction,” Kılıçdaroğlu is quoted by the news agency as saying at a meeting of the Turkey City Council.

“Now there are lessons we have to learn from the legendary Gezi Park demonstrations. How come a local environmental protest turned into a nationwide crisis? No doubt the government played a big role by using violence against a community which was using its democratic rights. In other words, the government’s committing a crime affected the incidents,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.