On 250-Mile March, Turkey Opposition Starts to Find Its Way
- Leader of main opposition party leads march to Istanbul
- Street action marks a switch in tactic as Erdogan clamps down
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After walking for hours in the rain with a more than mile-long column of protesters trekking west toward Istanbul, Turkey’s main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu swapped his wet sneakers for a pair of sandals to give his feet a rest.
It had been 20 days since he ventured from Ankara on foot with hundreds of others to resist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s far-reaching crackdown on dissent. Along the way, the march has grown to about 30,000 followers, waving banners that say “adalet” or “justice” and blocking two lanes on the road connecting Turkey’s biggest cities.