Kılıçdaroğlu reacts to detentions ahead of NATO summit

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who assumed the role of CHP Chairman following a judicial decision, reacted to the wave of detentions that began ahead of the NATO Leaders' Summit to be held in Ankara on July 7-8. Tagging President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his social media post, Kılıçdaroğlu said, "Take your hands off journalists, academics, lawyers, and civil society." 

Kılıçdaroğlu made the following statement on his social media account:

"Take your hands off journalists, academics, lawyers, and civil society! We do not accept the detention of T24 and Odatv reporters, academics, lawyers, and civil society representatives under the pretext of the NATO Summit. Preventing the right to non-violent democratic protest is unacceptable. Arbitrary detentions clearly threaten the right to assembly and demonstration. Protests at international summits attended by world leaders are a normal part of democratic life. What damages a country's reputation is not the existence of protests, but the obstruction of the right to democratic protest. Freedom of the press is not a privilege, but an indispensable condition of a democratic state governed by the rule of law. Where the independent press is silenced, the nation cannot hear the truth; where the truth is silenced, democracy cannot survive."