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Monitors criticize Turkey referendum; Erdogan denounces ‘crusader mentality’

Supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan celebrate in Istanbul.

By Gulsen Solaker and Daren Butler

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A defiant Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the West’s “crusader mentality” on Monday after European monitors criticized a referendum to grant him sweeping new powers, which he won with a narrow victory laying bare the nation’s divisions.

Supporters thronged the streets honking horns and waving flags, while opponents banged pots and pans in protest in their homes into the early morning. The main opposition party rejected the result and called for the vote to be annulled.

Election authorities said preliminary results showed 51.4 percent of voters had backed the biggest overhaul of Turkish politics since the founding of the modern republic.

Erdogan says concentrating power in the hands of the president is vital to prevent instability. But the narrowness of his victory could have the opposite effect: adding to volatility in a country that has lately survived an attempted coup, attacks by Islamists, a Kurdish insurgency, civil unrest and war across its Syrian border.

The result laid bare the deep divide between the urban middle classes who see their future as part of a European mainstream, and the pious rural poor who favor Erdogan’s strong hand. Erdogan made clear his intention to steer the country away from Europe, announcing plans to seek to restore the death penalty, which would effectively end Turkey’s decades-long quest to join the EU.

“The crusader mentality in the West and its servants at home have attacked us,” he told flag-waving supporters on arrival in the capital Ankara where he was due to chair a cabinet meeting, in response to the monitors’ assessment.

In the bluntest criticism of a Turkish election by European monitors in memory, a mission of observers from the 47-member Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights body, said the referendum was an uneven contest. Support for a “Yes” vote dominated campaign coverage, and the arrests of journalists and closure of media outlets prevented other views from being heard, the monitors said.

“In general, the referendum did not live up to Council of Europe standards. The legal framework was inadequate for the holding of a genuinely democratic process,” said Cezar Florin Preda, head of the delegation.

While the monitors had no information of actual fraud, a last-minute decision by electoral authorities to allow unstamped ballots to be counted undermined an important safeguard and contradicted electoral law, they said.

DIVISIONS

The bitter campaigning and narrow “Yes” vote exposed deep divisions in Turkey, with the country’s three main cities and mainly Kurdish southeast likely to have voted “No”. Official results are due to be announced in the next 12 days.

Erdogan, a populist with a background in once-banned Islamist parties, has ruled since 2003 with no real rival, while his country emerged as one of the fastest-growing industrial powers in both Europe and the Middle East.

He has also been at the center of global affairs, commanding NATO’s second-biggest military on the border of Middle East war zones, taking in millions of Syrian refugees and controlling their further flow into Europe.

Critics accuse him of steering Turkey towards one-man rule. The two largest opposition parties both challenged Sunday’s referendum, saying it was deeply flawed.

The pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party said it presented complaints about unstamped ballots affecting 3 million voters, more than twice the margin of Erdogan’s victory.

The main secularist opposition People’s Republican Party said it was still unclear how many votes were affected.

“This is why the only decision that will end debate about the legitimacy (of the vote) and ease the people’s legal concerns is the annulment of this election,” deputy party chairman Bulent Tezcan said.

Tezcan said he would if necessary go to Turkey’s constitutional court – one of the institutions that Erdogan would gain firm control over under the constitutional changes, through the appointment of its members.

“ERDOGAN’S RESPONSIBILITY”

The president survived a coup attempt last year and responded with a crackdown, jailing 47,000 people and sacking or suspending more than 120,000 from government jobs such as schoolteachers, soldiers, police, judges or other professionals.

The changes could keep him in power until 2029 or beyond, making him easily the most important figure in Turkish history since state founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk built a modern nation from the ashes of the Ottoman empire after World War One.

Germany, host to some 4 million Turks, said it was up to Erdogan himself to heal the rifts that the vote had exposed.

“The tight referendum result shows how deeply divided Turkish society is, and that means a big responsibility for the Turkish leadership and for President Erdogan personally,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in a joint statement.

Relations with Europe were strained during the referendum campaign when Germany and the Netherlands barred Turkish ministers from holding rallies. Erdogan provoked a stern German response by comparing those limits to the actions of the Nazis.

Thousands of Erdogan supporters waved flags and blasted horns into the early hours on Monday in celebration of a man who they say has transformed the quality of life for millions of pious Turks marginalized for decades by the secular elite.

There were scattered protests against the result, but these were more sporadic. In some affluent, secular neighborhoods, opponents stayed indoors, banging pots and pans, a sign of dissent that became widespread during anti-Erdogan protests in 2013, when the police crushed demonstrations against him.

The result triggered a two percent rally in the Turkish lira from its close last week.

Under the changes, most of which will only come into effect after the next elections due in 2019, the president will appoint the cabinet and an undefined number of vice-presidents, and be able to select and remove senior civil servants without parliamentary approval.

There has been some speculation that Erdogan could call new elections so that his new powers could take effect right away. However, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told Reuters there was no such plan, and the elections would still be held in 2019.

Erdogan served as prime minister from 2003 until 2014, when rules were changed to hold direct elections for the office of president, previously a ceremonial role elected by parliament. Since becoming the first directly elected president, he has set about making the post more important, along the lines of the executive presidencies of France, Russia or the United States.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux in Istanbul and Ankara; Writing by Daren Butler, David Dolan and Dominic Evans; Editing by Peter Graff)

Plaque commemorating Thai revolution removed, prompting outcry

A new plaque is seen in place of a previous plaque, which had gone missing, at the Royal plaza in Bangkok, Thailand, April 15, 2017. REUTERS/Matthew Tostevin

BANGKOK (Reuters) – A plaque commemorating a 1932 coup in Thailand that saw absolute monarchy abolished and democracy established has gone missing, police in Bangkok said on Saturday, prompting outcry from pro-democracy activists.

The 1932 coup, also known as the Siamese Revolution, was a crucial turning point in Thai history and ended nearly seven centuries of absolute monarchy, paving the way for political and social reforms.

Since then, Thailand has gone through a shaky experiment with democracy and has witnessed a succession of political protests and coups.

Thailand has been governed by a junta since the latest coup, 2014, which saw the military overthrow a democratically elected government.

The plaque, which was embedded in a square in central Bangkok, was removed and replaced with a new one which highlights the importance of the monarchy.

“It is good to worship the Buddhist trinity, the state, one’s own family, and to be faithful to one’s monarch and allow oneself to be the engine that brings prosperity to the state,” the new plaque reads.

Police in the Dusit district where the plaque was located said they were not sure who removed it and were investigating.

Ultra-royalist groups had previously threatened to remove the plaque.

Activists said that the plaque’s removal was a bid by royalist conservatives to rewrite history.

“This is another attempt to alter the history of democracy in this country,” Than Rittiphan, a member of the student-led New Democracy Movement which has protested against military rule, told Reuters.

“It is nothing more than fascist rhetoric aimed at brainwashing the next generation,” he said.

The government, led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief and staunch royalist, has stepped up prosecution of critics of the monarchy under a harsh royal insult law.

Rights groups say sensitivity over any activity deemed as anti-monarchy has grown since King Maha Vajiralongkorn ascended the throne following the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, last year.

Last week, the government announced a ban on all online interaction with three critics of the junta who live abroad.

King Vajiralongkorn signed a military-backed constitution into law this month, a step toward an election next year that the junta has said will restore democracy.

The new constitution is the 20th since the end of absolute monarchy and critics say it will give the military sway over politics for years to come.

(Reporting by Cod Satrusayang and Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Robert Birsel)

Victims of Turkey purges fear heavier crackdown after referendum

Mehtap Yoruk, a former Turkish nursery school teacher who was dismissed as part of a massive purge after last July’s failed coup, cleans her chicken and rice stall in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, April 7, 2017. Picture taken April 7, 2017. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar

By Umit Ozdal and Humeyra Pamuk

DIYARBAKIR/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Mehtap Yoruk used to teach in a nursery school in southeast Turkey, until she was sacked last year in a purge of tens of thousands of state employees. Now, she ekes out a living selling chicken and rice from a food cart on a side street, dreaming of being reunited with her classroom full of children.

That day may never come if Sunday’s referendum grants President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers, she said, scooping rice in a paper plate for a customer.

“If there is a ‘Yes’ in the referendum, it will be much harder for us to be reinstated in our jobs. And these removals will probably expand.”

After an abortive coup in July, Turkish authorities arrested 40,000 people and sacked or suspended 120,000 others from a wide range of professions including soldiers, police, teachers and public servants, over alleged links with terrorist groups.

The vast majority of those people, like Yoruk, say they have nothing to do with the armed attempt to overthrow the government, and are victims of a purge designed to solidify the power of an increasingly authoritarian leader.

The referendum has bitterly divided Turkey. Erdogan argues that strengthening the presidency would avert instability associated with coalition governments, at a time when Turkey faces security threats from Islamist and Kurdish militants.

But his critics fear further drift into authoritarianism, with a leader they see as bent on eroding modern Turkey’s democracy and secular foundations.

Mass detentions immediately after the attempted coup were supported by many Turks, who agreed with Erdogan when he blamed U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating the putsch which killed 240 people, mostly civilians.

But criticism mounted as the arrests widened to include people from all walks of life such as midwives and prison guards in remote parts of Turkey, and to pro-Kurdish opposition lawmakers, effectively leaving the nation’s third-biggest party leaderless.

“These purges are not individual cases at all. This is a systemic phenomenon empowered by an environment of lawlessness. And in the case of a ‘Yes’ win that will only get worse,” said Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a doctor and rights activist dismissed earlier this year.

FROM “WAR VETERAN TO TERRORIST”

A report by opposition parliamentarian Zeynep Altiok said that the purge of public employees since the coup had deprived 1.5 million students of their teachers. More than 600 companies were seized by the state, 140,000 passports were revoked and 65 elected mayors ousted, it said last month.

In addition, more than 2,000 journalists were sacked and scores of TV and radio stations, news agencies and newspapers were shut down.

United Nations rights experts said on Thursday those closures had undermined the chance for informed debate on the referendum, and a state of emergency imposed after the failed coup had been used to justify repressive measures which may be just the beginning if Erdogan wins greater powers on Sunday.

“Given the arbitrary and sweeping nature of the emergency decrees issued since July 2016, there is serious concern that such powers might be used in ways that exacerbate the existing major violations of economic, social and cultural rights,” the U.N. experts on education, poverty and free speech said.

After a decade as prime minister, Erdogan assumed the presidency in 2014. He has already transformed what had been a largely ceremonial role into a platform for action, and the referendum would formally grant him executive powers once reserved for the cabinet that answers to parliament.

He has also promised to reinstate the death penalty if the ‘Yes’ vote wins, almost certainly ending Turkey’s decades-long bid to join the European Union, which bars executions. Turkey’s EU candidate status has been one of the brakes on Ankara, requiring steps to improve human rights and transparency.

Aysegul Karaosmanoglu, a headscarved teacher suspended two days after the coup and sacked in September, said the coup was used as an excuse by the government to purge dissidents. A “Yes” win would probably broaden and deepen that crackdown, she said.

“It could create an environment for all dissidents to be hanged, or denied any chance of life,” Karaosmanoglu, 45, said. “I hear they are opening lots of new prisons. I guess they’ll put people like us there”.

She was speaking at a rare gathering in Istanbul this week of purged civil servants and families of those jailed, who came together to publicize their plight. They rejected any link with the failed coup, and some said they were sacked for causes as remote from any real wrongdoing as simply being members of a union which was deemed a Gulenist institution.

Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, denies involvement in the coup. He is a former Erdogan ally whose network was declared a terrorist group by Turkey’s national security council two months before the failed coup.

Ahmet Erkaslan, a gendarmerie officer who was shot by Kurdish militants during a security operation in Diyarbakir’s Sur district last year, says he was sacked from his job without being given a reason. That has transformed him from a war veteran to a so-called terrorist, overnight.

“I still remember the whistle of the bullets as I lay on the ground,” Erkaslan said.

He said he expects it will be difficult to get his job back, regardless of how the country votes in the plebiscite.

“Even if the removals stop, they would no longer employ people who are critical of them,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Dominic Evans and Peter Graff)

Emotional reunion shows plight of Syria’s lost children

Hajar Saleh poses with her grandson Jaafar as she holds a picture depicting Jaafar's parents, Amina Saleh and her husband Imad Azouz who were killed fleeing Syria's civil war, at a garden in the Damascus district of Mezzeh,

By Dahlia Nehme

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – When Jaafar’s grandmother recognized him by his birthmark in a Turkish orphanage, months after his parents were killed fleeing Syria’s civil war, she held him tight, screaming for joy.

The story of how Hajar Saleh, a 47-year-old nurse, spent fraught weeks tracing her grandson in a foreign country and many months trying to bring him home underscores the terrible plight of Syria’s thousands of lost children and their families.

Jaafar was only three-months-old when his parents, Amina Saleh, 23, and her husband Imad Azouz, 25, decided to flee their home in the Sayeda Zeinab suburb of Damascus, close to a frontline, and seek a better life for their family abroad.

Palestinian refugees whose families had been in Syria for decades, they lacked legal travel documents, so they gathered their scant savings and paid a smuggler to guide them across the border into Turkey from an area held by Kurdish groups.

A last photograph Amina sent her mother before the attempted border crossing in January 2016 shows her smiling warily at the camera, wearing a heavy winter coat and black headscarf and holding Jaafar, a tiny pink baby in yellow romper suit.

But when they tried to cross the frontier a few hours later with dozens of other refugees in a smuggler convoy in northeast Syria, the Turkish border guards who battle Kurdish insurgents there opened fire. Amina and her husband were killed.

Little Jaafar escaped unscathed, protected by his father’s body, and was gathered up by survivors of the shooting and taken to the nearby Turkish city of Mardin, where they gave him into the care of a local judge.

Hajar’s account of the ill-fated border crossing comes from them and from what Turkish authorities told the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF, she said.

Before they left Mardin, some of the refugees phoned Hajar to inform her of the fate of her daughter and son-in-law, and to give her the name and phone number of the judge, the start of her months-long odyssey to reclaim her grandson.

“I still have two sons, but Amina was my only daughter. My friend and secret keeper,” said Hajar apologetically, as if to justify her frequent sobbing and the black clothes of mourning she still wears for the dead couple.

LOST CHILDREN

UNICEF told Reuters in March it had documented the cases of 650 separated children in 2016 alone, but that the likely number of undocumented cases was probably far higher.

Since the war began in 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and about half the country’s pre-war population made homeless, large numbers of them children.

After learning about her grandson’s plight, Hajar approached every local and international organization she could think of seeking help.

Eventually, UNICEF and the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR located Jaafar and secured travel documents for her to visit Turkey to pursue the legal process of proving kinship and claiming him.

“My daughter always came to me in my dreams and would beg me to bring her son back and raise him,” she said, speaking in the UNICEF headquarters in Damascus.

Little Jaafar, now 16-months-old, wide-eyed, smiling and well-groomed, was meanwhile snatching at everything in his reach and fidgeting to escape his grandmother’s lap for a few steps before quickly returning to her.

Hajar’s journey to the orphanage in Mardin was nearly over before it began, a victim to the chaos inflicted by the attempted coup d’etat in Turkey last summer, a day before she was scheduled to fly, which closed all the country’s airports.

With her Lebanese visa running out, Hajar only managed to fly to Ankara five days later with a day to spare before she would have been returned to Syria.

Unable to speak Turkish and having never traveled before, she was lost for five hours while changing flights in Istanbul before UNHCR officials found her and guided her onwards. After a 16-hour bus drive from Ankara, she finally reached Mardin.

REUNITED

As soon as Hajar saw Jaafar in the Cucuk Evleri Sitesi Mudurlugu orphanage, she recognized him by the prominent birthmark on his forehead, she said.

“I held him tight, crying and screaming in joy and I fainted afterwards,” she said. “When I woke up I held him tight again and sobbed. He stared at me. He didn’t cry or feel afraid. Instead he wiped my tears away,” she added.

With little money left and the weather turning colder, Hajar’s efforts to bring Jaafar home were further complicated by the Turkish government’s purge of the judiciary in the aftermath of the attempted coup, she said.

It took three months to prepare a DNA test and find a judge who could verify it and give her permission to take home her grandson.

“Every time a judge assumed my case, he would be replaced soon after,” she said.

The Turkish authorities told her where her daughter and son-in-law were buried in unmarked graves, but she was unable to visit them. Even when they finally tried to fly back in December, a blanket of heavy snow delayed their journey for days.

But now they have returned to her home in Sayeda Zeinab.

“Jaafar is full of energy and loves putting himself in trouble,” she said. “But for the sake of my daughter, I will raise him as well as I can.”

(Editing by Angus McDowall and Angus MacSwan)

Greek Supreme Court denies extradition of Turkish soldiers who fled after coup attempt

Turkey soldiers who fled to greece after failed coup

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s Supreme Court ruled against the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece in July after a failed coup attempt in Turkey, a decision which is likely to anger Ankara.

Turkey has demanded Greece extradite them, alleging they were involved in the coup attempt and has branded them traitors.

The men — three majors, three captains and two sergeant-majors — landed a helicopter in northern Greece on July 16 and sought political asylum saying they feared for their lives in Turkey. They deny playing a role in the attempt to oust President Tayyip Erdogan, which led to a purge of the military and civil service.

“The possibility of their rights being violated or reduced regardless of the degree of guilt or the gravity of the crimes they are accused of does not allow the implementation of extradition rules,” a Supreme Court president said.

The court ruled that the soldiers, who have been kept in protective custody pending final decisions on their asylum applications, must be freed. The rulings cannot be overturned.

Their lawyer Christos Mylonopoulos said the verdict was “a big victory for European values”.

The soldiers have been accused in Turkey of attempting to abrogate the constitution, attempting to dissolve parliament and seizing a helicopter using violence and for attempting to assassinate Erdogan.

The case has highlighted the sometimes strained relations between Greece and Turkey, neighbors and NATO allies at odds over a series of issues ranging from the divided island of Cyprus to air fights over the Aegean Sea.

The two countries play an important role in the handling of Europe’s worst migration crisis in decades and the EU depends on Ankara to enforce a deal to stem mass migration to Europe.

(Reporting by Constantinos Georgizas,; Writing by Renee Maltezou, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

U.S. citizens targeted after extradition of Haiti ex-coup leader

Guy Philippe marches in Haiti

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haitian police have evacuated some 50 U.S. citizens to safety after attempted attacks by supporters of Haitian Senator-elect Guy Philippe, who was arrested and extradited to the United States last week, a police official said on Monday.

Philippe, long wanted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and remembered for his role in a 2004 coup against former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was elected senator for the southwestern Grand’Anse region in polls on Nov. 20.

But on Thursday, days before he was supposed to be sworn in, police arrested him outside of a radio station and flew him to the United States, where a Miami court charged him with money laundering and drug trafficking. Philippe denies the charges.

The extradition has stirred tensions in Grand’Anse, an area that is rebuilding after damages inflicted by Hurricane Matthew last October and where Philippe enjoys popularity.

Supporters of Philippe have clashed with political opponents in the streets, burned two police vehicles and attacked several police stations, forcing officers to flee, said Berson Soljour, a police commissioner in Grand’Anse.

Philippe supporters are also believed to have attacked two U.S. citizens who ran an orphanage and stole their passports and other belongings from their home, police officials said.

Police have evacuated more than 50 U.S. citizens to safer places in Haiti since Friday, Soljour said, who advised those who chose to stay not to leave their residences. Higher than usual numbers of U.S. citizens are in the region helping with hurricane recovery.

U.S. citizens were evacuated to a police station before moving to a United Nations base, where they waited for preparations to fly them to Port-au-Prince, Soljour said. Some have been flown to the capital, while others are still waiting.

“There are groups linked to Guy Philippe that were actively seeking to attack or capture U.S. citizens following (his) arrest and extradition,” Soljour said.

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy, Karl Adam, said the embassy was aware of the threats and has sent messages to citizens to advise them to avoid certain areas and to be particularly careful.

“I know some have decided to leave and this is not something the embassy is organizing”, Adam said.

More protests were scheduled to take place over the next several days in Grand’Anse and in Port-au-Prince, including outside the U.S. embassy.

Some 200 protesters massed at a barricade across the street from parliament on Monday as new senators were sworn into office, with about half denouncing Philippe’s arrest with slogans, T-shirts and waving signs.

(Editing by Makini Brice and Michael Perry)

Executives from top Turkish conglomerate held in post-coup probe

Dogan Holding logo

By Ceyda Caglayan

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Police detained the top legal advisor and a former chief executive of Dogan Holding, one of Turkey’s biggest conglomerates, on Thursday in an investigation into the network of the U.S.-based cleric blamed for a failed coup.

Authorities have detained, dismissed or suspended some 120,000 people including soldiers, police officers, teachers, judges and journalists since the July coup attempt, although thousands have since been restored to their posts.

Companies with ties to the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom President Tayyip Erdogan and the government accuse of orchestrating the coup attempt, have also been targeted in the crackdown. Hundreds of companies, for the most part smaller provincial firms, have been seized.

Dogan – which has interests in media, finance, energy and tourism and owns newspaper Hurriyet and broadcaster CNN Turk – said the raids were on the personal offices and homes of the two individuals and that its operations were unaffected.

Last month, another Dogan Holding executive, Barbaros Muratoglu, was remanded in custody on an accusation of “aiding a terror group” as part of an investigation into Gulen. Ankara refers to the cleric’s network of followers as the “Gulenist Terror Organisation”.

In its statement to the Istanbul stock exchange, Dogan said Thursday’s detentions were part of the same investigation.

“The search has been carried out solely in the personal offices of the mentioned executives and there is no situation that has an impact on the operations of our company or its subsidiaries,” the statement said.

TRUMP TOWERS

Dogan’s founder, Aydin Dogan, developed a glass commercial and residential complex called Trump Towers Istanbul which soars over a commercial district in the city. Dogan pays U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for the brand name.

Turkey wants Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, extradited and has been infuriated by what it sees as Washington’s reluctance to hand him over.

It is hoping that a Trump administration will be more willing to do so. U.S. officials have said the issue is a judicial matter, not a political one.

Dogan shares initially fell as much as 9.9 percent after the market opened, and were down almost 5 percent by 1145 GMT in high-volume trading. Hurriyet shares fell as much as 7.6 percent.

Aydin Dogan is a prominent figure in Turkey’s secular establishment and has had strained ties with Erdogan and the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party in the past. His group has faced multibillion-dollar tax fines.

More than 240 people were killed in the failed coup in July and the government says the extent of the subsequent crackdown, including on business suspected of links to Gulen, is justified by the gravity of the threat to the state.

More than 41,000 people have been jailed pending trial.

Dogan Holding itself has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing and has disavowed links to Gulen.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Turkish PM says finalizing constitutional change to bolster Erdogan powers

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Turkey,

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s ruling AK Party is finalizing plans to formally cement President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers by creation of an executive presidency and will meet the nationalist opposition to iron out details, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday.

Erdogan has long sought constitutional change to strengthen what had been in the past a largely ceremonial position. Unrivalled in popularity, he has turned the presidency into a powerful vehicle for his ambitions, bolstered since a failed July military coup by imposition of emergency rule.

To achieve the majority needed in parliament to trigger a referendum on the issue, the AKP needs the support of the nationalist MHP party.

“We will meet one more time with (MHP leader Devlet) Bahceli and give this (constitutional) change its final shape,” Yildirim told a parliamentary meeting of his party.

Earlier, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Bahceli said “significant progress” had been made in their talks and he believed the bill could be sent to the constitutional commission once “one or two” issues are overcome.

Officials who have seen a draft of the reform told Reuters earlier this month that Erdogan could govern Turkey until 2029 under the proposal.

Erdogan’s supporters argue Turkey needs a strong executive presidency, akin to the system in the United States or France, to avoid fragile coalition governments that hampered development in the past. The country also faces threats from war across the border in Syria and Iraq and turmoil following the coup bid.

Opponents fear it will bring increasing authoritarianism to a country already under fire from Western allies over its deteriorating record on rights and freedoms.

The head of parliament’s constitutional commission, AKP’s Mustafa Sentop, said his party would submit the constitutional reform draft to parliament within two weeks, Dogan news agency reported.

“We will present a constitutional change for our people’s approval in a referendum in the spring months,” he told a university conference in northwest Turkey on Monday.

(Reporting by Ercan Gurses and Gulsen Solaker; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan)

From soldiers to midwives, Turkey dismisses 15,000 more

Turkish air force cadets march during a graduation ceremony for 197 cadets at the Air Force war academy in Istanbul, Turkey

By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Nick Tattersall

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey dismissed 15,000 more state employees on Tuesday, from soldiers and police officers to tax inspectors and midwives, and shut 375 institutions and several news outlets, deepening purges carried out since a failed coup.

The dismissals, announced in two decrees, bring to more than 125,000 the number of people sacked or suspended in the military, civil service, judiciary and elsewhere since July’s coup attempt. About 36,000 have been jailed pending trial in the crackdown condemned by Western allies and rights groups.

President Tayyip Erdogan said the measures had significantly weakened the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers are blamed by Ankara for infiltrating state institutions over several decades and carrying out the attempted putsch.

But he made clear the purges were not yet over.

“We know they have not been completely cleansed. They are still present in our military, in our police force, in our judiciary,” he told a conference on policing in his palace.

“We will not leave our country to them, we will not let them consume this nation. We will do whatever is necessary,” he said.

The coup and its aftermath have shaken confidence in the stability of Turkey, a NATO member key to the fight against Islamic State and a bulwark for Europe against the conflicts raging in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

The crackdown has covered a vast range of professions – often where links to Gulen’s network are unclear – including doctors, nurses and midwives. Dismissals are announced in the Official Gazette with no reasons given beyond “membership of, or links to, terrorist organisations or groups deemed to be acting against national security interests”.

Some of the accused have been targeted for having accounts with a bank once controlled by Gulen’s followers, being members of an opposition union, or using a smartphone messaging app seen by the authorities as a Gulenist communications tool, according to Turkish media reports.

European allies have criticised the breadth of the purges, and EU parliament lawmakers called on Tuesday for a freezing of Turkey’s EU membership talks. A senior U.N. official has described the measures as “draconian” and “unjustified”.

Erdogan has rejected such criticism, saying Turkey is determined to root out its enemies at home and abroad, and could reintroduce the death penalty. He has accused Western nations of siding with coup plotters and of harbouring terrorists.

‘SOLD THEIR SOULS’

Ankara blames Gulen and his network, which it refers to as the “Gulenist Terror Organisation” (FETO), for the events of July 15, in which more than 240 people were killed as rogue soldiers commandeered tanks, fighter jets and helicopters, bombing parliament and other key buildings.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania in the United States since 1999, denies involvement.

“There is no place in this … land drenched with the blood of martyrs for those who sold their souls to Pennsylvania, the separatist terrorist organisation, or any other illegal organisation,” Erdogan said.

He frequently uses “Pennsylvania” as shorthand for the cleric’s network. The “separatist organisation” is a reference to the Kurdish PKK group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.

Nearly 2,000 members of the armed forces, 7,600 police officers, 400 members of the gendarmerie, and more than 5,000 public workers, including nurses, doctors and engineers, were dismissed in Tuesday’s decrees for suspected links to terrorist organisations.

The Official Gazette made clear they would not be able to claim any severance or seek any other job in public service. The decrees were issued under the emergency rule imposed in the wake of the failed coup, which allows Erdogan and the government to bypass parliament.

Erdogan’s opponents say the purges go well beyond a crackdown on suspected Gulenists and are being used to crush dissent. Those accused are often unable to find other work and ostracised in their community, with Turkish media reports saying some have committed suicide before their trials can begin.

Pro-Kurdish politicians have been detained in a parallel crackdown, accused of links to the PKK, including the leaders of parliament’s second-largest opposition grouping the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

EUROPEAN OUTRAGE

On top of Tuesday’s decrees, authorities issued arrest warrants for 60 people, including air force pilots in the central city of Konya, over suspected Gulenist links. More than 300 pilots have already been detained or dismissed.

In another operation around Istanbul, 19 prison staff including the warden of Turkey’s largest jail Silivri were held on suspicion of using smartphone messaging app ByLock, which authorities say is used by Gulen’s network.

A trial also began on Tuesday of Gulen, in absentia, and 72 other people accused of trying to overthrow Turkey’s government. The case pre-dates the coup attempt, but is likely to be expanded to include charges related to the events of July 15.

Arrest warrants were also issued for 22 executives from telecoms firm Turk Telekom, the Hurriyet newspaper said. It said 12 of them had been detained in an operation spanning four provinces. Turk Telekom shares fell 0.7 percent, underperforming a 0.5 percent rise on the Istanbul stock index.

Tuesday’s decrees also announced the closure of 375 institutions or associations, including minority rights groups, lawyers’ associations and women’s groups. The decrees also shut 18 charities and nine media outlets. Turkey has closed more than 130 media outlets since July.

Guy Verhofstadt, head of the Liberals in the European Parliament, said the assembly was calling for EU officials to suspend negotiations with Turkey over membership of the bloc.

“Dozens of media outlets closed, members of parliament penalised or put in jail, there is a debate on the death penalty, there is more and more political control of the judiciary … Our relationship with Turkey becomes more and more of a liability,” he told a news conference on Tuesday.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Pravin Char)

Turkey’s post-coup emergency rule led to torture, abuse

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during his meeting with mukhtars at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey,

By Humeyra Pamuk

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey has effectively written a “blank check” to security services to torture people detained after a failed military coup attempt, a U.S.-based rights group said on Tuesday, citing accusations of beatings, sleep deprivation and sexual abuse.

A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said a “climate of fear” had prevailed since July’s failed coup against President Tayyip Erdogan and the arrest of thousands under a State of Emergency. It identified more than a dozen cases raised in interviews with lawyers, activists, former detainees and others.

A Turkish official said the Justice Ministry would respond to the report later in the day; but Ankara has repeatedly denied accusations of torture and said the post-coup crackdown was needed to stabilize a NATO state facing threats from Kurdish militants as well as wars in neighboring Iraq and Syria.

Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, said in a statement it “would be tragic if two hastily passed emergency decrees end up undermining the progress Turkey made to combat torture.”

“By removing safeguards against torture, the Turkish government effectively wrote a blank check to law enforcement agencies to torture and mistreat detainees as they like,” he said.

Erdogan reined in police use of torture especially in the largely Kurdish southeast, seat of a militant rebellion, when he first came to power in 2002. But the battle with Kurdish militants has become more fierce since the breakdown of a ceasefire last year and drawn accusations of rights abuses.

HRW said it had uncovered allegations that police had used methods including sleep deprivation, severe beatings, sexual abuse and the threat of rape since the failed coup. Cases were not limited to possible putschists, but also involved detainees suspected of links to Kurdish militant and leftist groups.

Turkey has arrested more than 35,000 people, detained thousands more and sacked over 100,000 people over their suspected links with Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric blamed for orchestrating the coup attempt. Gulen denies the charge.

The government says the widescale crackdown is justified by the gravity of the threat to the state on July 15, when rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and fighters jets, bombing parliament and killing more than 240 people.

Erdogan declared a state of emergency days after the failed putsch, allowing him and the cabinet to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms as they deem necessary.

Emergency decrees have since extended the period of police detention without judicial review to 30 days from 4, allowed the authorities to deny detainees access to lawyers for up to five days, and to restrict their choice of lawyer.

HRW said it had found 13 specific cases of alleged abuse in its report, which was based on interviews with more than 40 lawyers, activists, former detainees, medical personnel and forensic specialists conducted in August and September.

(Editing by Nick Tattersall)