Freedom Struggle Centre Withdraws from Official Participation in September 24 Joint Protest

The Freedom Struggle Centre has continuously advocated for the protection of democracy, the rule of law, judicial independence and the fundamental rights of the people since its establishment.

With this objective, the Centre recently took an important step towards bringing opposition political parties, both represented and not represented in Parliament, mass organisations and civil society groups together on a broad common platform.

Based on the common understanding reached at the time, September 24 was set aside to organise a joint public protest with the participation of all citizens who value democracy. The primary objective was to build a broad, peaceful and strong public mobilisation against any threat to democratic rights and institutional independence, beyond the narrow political objectives of any particular party or group.

However, due to various views, statements and actions that subsequently emerged regarding the programme, a challenging situation has arisen, making it difficult to proceed with the broad joint public action with the participation of all parties as originally expected.

We believe that broad agreement, mutual trust and transparency among democratic forces are essential under the present circumstances. We also emphasise that weakening the space available for building such common unity could ultimately have an adverse impact on the common objective of protecting democratic rights.

Accordingly, taking into consideration the situation that has arisen and the existing atmosphere of disagreement, the Freedom Struggle Centre has decided to withdraw from official participation in the joint programme planned for September 24.

Our objective was to bring all opposition political parties, groups and democratic forces together on a common platform and build a broad and strong public movement to protect the democratic rights of the people. We express our regret that this common programme cannot be implemented as originally intended at this time.

Nevertheless, we fully respect the legal and democratic right of various opposition political parties, organisations and groups to participate in protests and democratic actions that they organise individually or separately on September 24.

Therefore, in defence of judicial independence, the rule of law and the fundamental rights of citizens, we respectfully call on all political parties, civil society organisations, mass organisations and all citizens who value democracy to express their views and opposition on September 24 from wherever they are, or through any peaceful and democratic means available to them.

We also encourage the public to participate in peaceful protests and other democratic actions organised by various political parties and groups on September 24, and to raise their voices in defence of their democratic rights.

We consider the situation that has arisen today not to be an end, but another opportunity to build a broader and more lasting democratic unity.

Going forward, the Freedom Struggle Centre reiterates its commitment to building a broad democratic unity that goes beyond the boundaries of party politics, is based on transparency and mutual respect, and genuinely represents the aspirations of the people.