HUNDREDS of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul yesterday to greet Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and others as they completed a 280-mile March for Justice that began in the capital Ankara.

The marchers were protesting at the massive crackdown on free speech and opposition parties launched by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following a failed coup against him last summer.

It was called in response to the conviction of Enis Berberoglu, a CHP MP from Istanbul who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for revealing state secrets.

Supposedly it was Mr Berberoglu who leaked footage to the Cumhuriyet newspaper proving that Turkey’s secret service was supplying munitions to Islamist extremists in Syria.

Following publication of the damning footage, Cumhuriyet’s then editor Can Dundar was put on trial.

He has fled to Germany and been sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.

Mr Erdogan claims that the march constitutes support for terrorists.