Turkey: Presidential candidate makes TV speech from prison

He called Turkey’s current climate a “teaser” and warned that “the actual scary part of the movie has not yet begun”

Turkey’s state broadcaster aired a campaign speech by a jailed presidential candidate Sunday, a week before snap parliamentary and presidential elections.

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Selahattin Demirtas asked voters in the June 24 elections to prevent the “one-man regime” of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He called Turkey’s current climate a “teaser” and warned that “the actual scary part of the movie has not yet begun.”

Broadcaster TRT recorded the 10-minute speech at a prison in western Turkey where Demirtas is being held on charges of alleged terrorism. He can run for office because he hasn’t been convicted of any crime.

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The 45-year-old candidate for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, says he was detained “illegally” 20 months ago because the government fears him.

Source: sfgate