Know your place, Erdogan tells critics

ANKARA // Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday angrily rejected criticism by international monitors of the referendum that granted him extra powers.

The vote was also disputed by the opposition and exposed bitter divisions in the country.

It was seen as crucial for shaping Turkey’s political system and the strategic direction of a nation that has been a Nato member since 1952 and an EU hopeful for half a century.

Returning in triumph to his presidential palace in Ankara, Mr Erdogan addressed thousands of supporters.

He told monitors who criticised the poll: “Know your place.”

Showing no sign of pulling his punches, he also said Turkey could hold further referendums on its EU bid and reintroducing the death penalty. The “Yes” camp won 51.41 per cent in Sunday’s referendum, election authorities said. But the opposition immediately cried foul, claiming a clean vote would have made a difference of several percentage points and handed them victory.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party ( HDP) said they would challenge the results from most ballot boxes.

“There is only one decision to ease the situation in the context of the law – the Supreme Election Board should annul the vote,” CHP deputy leader Bulent Tezcan said. The referendum has no “democratic legitimacy”, HDP spokesman and politician Osman Baydemir said in Ankara.

There were protests in Istanbul with hundreds of people crowding the anti-Erdogan Besiktas district, blowing whistles and chanting “We are against fascism”.

The opposition had already complained of an unfair campaign in which “Yes” backers swamped airwaves and billboards across the country in a saturation advertising campaign. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Eu- rope and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe agreed that the campaign was conducted on an “unlevel playing field” and that the vote count was marred by late changes. “The legal framework remained inadequate for the holding of a genuinely democratic referendum,” said the international observers.

The Turkish opposition was incensed by the board’s decision to allow voting papers without official stamps to be counted, which they said opened the way for fraud. But Mr Erdogan said Turkey had no intention of paying any attention to the report.

Turkey’s western allies have shown little enthusiasm for congratulating Mr Erdogan and he has given ominous signs of a looming crisis with the EU.

Mr Erdogan said yesterday that he would hold talks on reinstating capital punishment, which would end Turkey’s bid for EU membership.