19 June 2017•Update: 19 June 2017
By Mehmet Tosun and Duygu Yener
ANKARA
An opposition supporter has died after he suffered a suspected heart attack during a protest march from Ankara to Istanbul, a medical official said Monday.
Hasan Tatli, 69, from Ankara’s Mamak district, suffered the attack on Sunday as the march, led by the Republican People's Party (CHP), passed by Kahramankazan, a town 34 kilometers (21 miles) north of the capital.
The CHP member received medical attention at the scene before being taken to Kazan State Hospital and later transferred to Ankara’s Numune Training and Research Hospital.
The hospital official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said Tatli died in the intensive care unit on Monday.
The march was launched Thursday by CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu following the jailing of party lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, who was sentenced to 25 years for giving a newspaper information on the transportation of arms to Syria.
Kilicdaroglu intends to complete the 450 km (280 mile) walk from the capital to Maltepe prison in Istanbul, where Berberoglu is being held, in 24 days.
He is being accompanied by CHP deputies and supporters as well as family members.
Berberoglu was convicted of revealing state secrets by passing images to the Cumhuriyet newspaper concerning the search of National Intelligence Organization trucks en route to Syria in January 2014.
He is the first CHP deputy to be imprisoned in recent years. Around a dozen lawmakers from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) are currently jailed, mostly awaiting trial over alleged links to the PKK terror group.
In May last year, parliament voted to strip lawmakers facing trial of their parliamentary immunity.
