Poll campaigners attacked
Activists against Erdogan’s power push assaulted and bullied by police
ISTANBUL // Turks who oppose granting their president more power in the coming referendum say they have been the victims of frequent physical assault.
There are just over two weeks before Turkey’s crucial April 16 constitutional referendum, with supporters of the No camp reporting police threats and assaults in the street – and a lack of coverage from many media outlets – in recent weeks.
Critics of the constitutional changes say they are an open power grab that will pave the way for a “one-man” system.
While polls indicate the vote could go either way, the playing field is far from level.
The lavish Yes campaign is bolstered by state resources, and huge posters of Mr Erdogan and prime minister Binali Yildirim – whose job would ironically be eliminated in a Yes vote – have been plastered on walls all over Istanbul. But when 100 campaigners were out distributing No flyers round the Istanbul district of Kadikoy last month, the police sprayed them with tear gas and detained several of them.
The campaigners, who say they were targeted for handing out the flyers, claim police also drew their weapons and threatened to fire. This was one of dozens of incidents of violence against No campaigners in recent weeks in districts across Istanbul and throughout Turkey, media reports say.
Another incident occurred on the main square of Istanbul’s Bakirkoy district this month, when one person knocked flyers out of a No campaigner’s hand, then six others kicked and punched a campaigner who tried to intervene. No campaigner Mehtap Turedioglu saw the attack but says she is determined to carry on. “We’re not scared at all,” she said as she handed out pamphlets on the same square a few days later in Bakirkoy.
She was with a group of fellow No campaigners from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Furkan Edepli, vice president of a local youth branch of Mr Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and a Yes campaigner, condemned the attacks. “These ugly people can be found in every country and from a number of different ideologies,” he said at an AKP campaign tent in the centre of Istanbul’s bustling Besiktas district.
“If I encounter someone distributing No brochures, I don’t get in their way, and they don’t get in mine either.
“Everyone will continue working in an atmosphere of peace and brotherhood.”
Mr Edepli insisted that all parties were able to campaign freely. But directly across the Bosphorus in the conservative district of Uskudar, things appeared less rosy. “Members of the AKP and the [far-right Nationalist Movement Party] MHP come here and call us terrorists,” said Solmaz
‘ These ugly people can be found in every country and from a number of different ideologies Furkan Edepli vice president of an AKP youth branch
Acikkol, who was distributing No pamphlets on behalf of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). The government accuses the HDP of being linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Since being stripped of parliamentary immunity last year, some HDP members of parliament – including the party’s co-leaders – have been jailed on charges of supporting terrorism by the PKK.
Other officials and supporters of the HDP have also been arrested on such charges.
“We are waging a difficult campaign and are being attacked everywhere,” Ms Acikkol said. As she talked a young man lurked over her shoulder, scurrying off only after she put her hand in his face.
Mr Erdogan has not spared the country any of his famously divisive talk in the months leading up to the referendum. He said voting No was tantamount to supporting terrorism, claiming the PKK also favours No. The Yes camp is composed of an alliance between the AKP and the MHP, which says voting for it is a show of support for national unity.
Its campaign also has the media in its corner.
Figures from a study by the Unity for Democracy campaign show that between March 1 and March 20, the AKP and the office of the presidency were given a combined 470 hours across 17 national television channels for referendum campaigning. The CHP was granted a mere 45 hours, and the HDP none.
This along with the attacks and police interventions have left No voters convinced that the dice are loaded against them.
“It’s not equal,” said CHP supporter Mehtap Turedioglu. “It is an asymmetric campaign.”