Turkey: Presidential candidate makes TV speech from prison

Published June 17, 2018

Turkey's state broadcaster has aired a campaign speech by a jailed presidential candidate.

Selahattin Demirtas asked voters in Turkey's June 24 snap elections to prevent the "one-man regime" of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He called Turkey's current climate a "teaser" for a film "whose actual scary parts have not yet begun."

Demirtas made the 10-minute speech at a prison in western Turkey, where he is being held on alleged terror charges. He can run for office because he hasn't been convicted of any crime.

The candidate for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, says he was detained "illegally" 20 months ago because the government fears him.

By law, each presidential candidate is entitled to 20 minutes of free airtime on public TV.

Demirtas told supporters: "As long as you are free, I will be free."

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/world/turkey-presidential-candidate-makes-tv-speech-from-prison