ANKARA: Prime Minister Binali Yildirim urged Turks to approve constitutional changes to boost President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers on Saturday, saying it would make Turkey stronger.
Yildirim spoke at the ruling party’s first rally ahead of a key April 16 referendum, when the public will vote on whether to approve the changes creating an executive presidency.
“For a strong Turkey, lasting stability, our choice is ‘yes.’ This is our wish, it will come,” Yildirim told the gathering in Ankara of party members and supporters from the country’s 81 provinces.
In the boisterous, packed arena, campaign songs floated over the flag-waving crowd with lyrics endorsing a “yes” vote as a tribute to the “July martyrs” killed during last year’s failed coup.
The coup featured heavily in another video screened ahead of his speech, with images of the victims also appearing on banners held by the audience.
Yildirim, upon arrival, handed out red carnations to supporters.
In his speech he insisted no one would be forced to back the changes, which the government says are necessary for political harmony but which critics fear will create one-man rule under Erdogan.
Under the new constitution, the president will have strengthened executive powers to directly appoint top public officials including ministers.
The post of prime minister would be replaced with one or more vice presidents.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said the changes amounted to “regime change.”
“We are living through a process where all authority is being gathered in one person,” he said, quoted by Dogan news agency.
But the government argues the changes would reduce bureaucracy and respect parliament’s powers.
“There is no creating fear,” Yildirim told the excited crowds. “We want a willing ‘yes.’ ”
Some 6,500 police officers were deployed in and around the arena where heavy security was in evidence, state-run news agency Anadolu reported.
In the arena, there were thousands of people, including many young women, most of whom were waving Turkish flags — noticeably there were no AKP flags — or carrying banners, including one praising “grand master” Erdogan.
There were also balloons of Turkish flags and some with the word yes while the area around the arena was covered in orange, blue and white AKP flags.
Audience member Ayse Cakmak said she was voting for the presidential system for “more democracy, for a stable country, for our people to live in security.”
The heavy focus on encouraging young people to vote “yes” could be seen everywhere in the arena, with one large banner saying: “Turkey’s issues are young people’s issues.”
The premier’s granddaughter, Ecemsu, appeared on stage with him briefly after featuring in a “yes” promotion video.
Part of the changes proposed include lowering the minimum age of MPs to 18 from the current 25.
Ahead of the referendum, “we will go square-to-square, street-by-street, door-by-door, and we know what we will say for change, don’t we?” Yildirim said.
“Yes” roared the crowd, whose loudest cheers were reserved for Erdogan.
The result of the referendum has proven difficult to predict with polls showing varied results.
One pollster this month had the “no” side edging ahead with 51.1 percent, while another survey said the changes would be approved by 55 percent of the public.
Boosting Erdogan powers will make ‘strong Turkey’: PM
Boosting Erdogan powers will make ‘strong Turkey’: PM
‘Keep dreaming’: NATO chief says Europe can’t defend itself without US
BRUSSELS: NATO chief Mark Rutte warned Monday Europe cannot defend itself without the United States, in the face of calls for the continent to stand on its own feet after tensions over Greenland.
US President Donald Trump roiled the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize the autonomous Danish territory — before backing off after talks with Rutte last week.
The diplomatic crisis sparked gave fresh momentum to those advocating for Europe to take a tougher line against Trump and break its military reliance on Washington.
“If anyone thinks here again, that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the US — keep on dreaming. You can’t,” Rutte told lawmakers at the European Parliament.
He said that EU countries would have to double defense spending from the five percent NATO target agreed last year to 10 percent and spend “billions and billions” on building nuclear arms.
“You would lose the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the US nuclear umbrella,” Rutte said. “So hey, good luck.”
The former Dutch prime minister insisted that US commitment to NATO’s Article Five mutual defense clause remained “total,” but that the United States expected European countries to keep spending more on their militaries.
“They need a secure Euro-Atlantic, and they also need a secure Europe. So the US has every interest in NATO,” he said.
The NATO head reiterated his repeated praise for Trump for pressuring reluctant European allies to step up defense spending.
He also appeared to knock back a suggestion floated by the EU’s defense commissioner Andrius Kubilius earlier this month for a possible European defense force that could replace US troops on the continent.
“It will make things more complicated. I think Putin will love it. So think again,” Rutte said.
On Greenland, Rutte said he had agreed with Trump that NATO would “take more responsibility for the defense of the Arctic,” but it was up to Greenlandic and Danish authorities to negotiate over US presence on the island.
“I have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark, so I didn’t, and I will not,” he said.
Rutte reiterated that he had stressed to Trump the cost paid by NATO allies in Afghanistan after the US leader caused outrage by playing down their contribution.
“For every two American soldiers who paid the ultimate price, one soldier of an ally or a partner, a NATO ally or a partner country, did not return home,” he said.
“I know that America greatly appreciates all the efforts.”
