BDP To Support 'From Gezi To Lice' Rally On Sept. 1

Various civil society organizations will hold a demonstration in which participants will hold hands o form human chains in different neighborhoods of İstanbul on Sept. 1, World Peace Day, and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has announced that it will support the event.



The event, which is being organized by some civil society groups and professional chambers -- such as the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions (DİSK), the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK), the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects' Chambers (TMMOB) and the Human Rights Association (İHD). Gençay Gürsoy, a spokesperson for the alliance of the civil society groups, said the crowd will meet on Sept. 1 to form human chains from Üsküdar to Kartal on the Anatolian side and from Sarıyer to Bakırköy on the European side of İstanbul. The rally will be named 'From Gezi to Lice,' referring to the May-June Gezi Park protests in which four demonstrators were killed by police and to a protest in Diyarbakır's district of Lice in June, where an 18-year-old demonstrator was killed during a police intervention to disperse the protesters.



Gürsoy, speaking at a press conference, announced the event on Wednesday. BDP İstanbul district co-chair Arife Çınar also attended the conference along with DİSK Secretary-General Arzu Çerkezoğlu, head of the İstanbul Chamber of Doctors Taner Gören and KESK İstanbul spokesperson Sadrettin Güler.



"Sept. 1 is the day to tell the world that it is time to stop the bloodshed in the Middle East, where hundreds are being killed every day because of the bloody calculations of some," Gürsoy said. He called on workers and all oppressed segments of society to demonstrate in the streets on Sept. 1.



BDP's Çınar also spoke at the press conference and said, "We are greeting Sept. 1 Peace Day with pain this year because the Middle East has turned into a pool of blood."



(Cihan/Today's Zaman)