Turkey: CHP deputy in good condition after heart spasm

By Hatice Senses Kurukiz

ISTANBUL (AA) - The condition of a hospitalized lawmaker of Turkey's main opposition party who suffered a heart spasm during a protest march was upgraded to good on Saturday.

On Friday, Huseyin Yildiz, Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy for the Aegean city of Aydin, suffered a spasm as the march -- which started after a party deputy got 25 years in prison for espionage -- passed through the northwestern Sakarya province.

After surgery at Memorial Hospital in Istanbul, Yildiz is recovering in the intensive care unit.

Last week, another party supporter died after a suspected heart attack during the march from Ankara to Istanbul.

The march was launched by CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu following the jailing of party lawmaker Enis Berberoglu, who was sentenced to 25 years for leaking state secrets.

Kilicdaroglu intends to complete the 450-kilometer (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 giving Cumhuriyet daily images 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, most awaiting trial over alleged links to the PKK terror group.

In May 2016, parliament voted to strip lawmakers facing trial of their parliamentary immunity.