Turkey’s main opposition ‘won’t challenge referendum’

ANKARA: Turkey’s main opposition will not mount a legal challenge against a bill to change the constitution and usher in a stronger presidency, its leader said on Tuesday, clearing the way for a referendum on April 16.
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) had been widely expected to challenge the bill in Turkey’s constitutional court. Opposition politicians fear it would hand too much power to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Tuesday said the issue should be settled by voters.
“We have the option of taking the planned changes to the constitutional court, but the issue here is not only a legal issue. The issue should be taken up by the people, and solved politically,” Kilicdaroglu told his parliamentary group.
“Thus we will leave the issue to the decision of the people on April 16.”
In response to CHP’s decision, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said: “They must have noticed that they can not achieve anything through the constitutional court.”
The proposed constitutional reform would mark one of the biggest changes in the EU candidate country’s system of governance since the modern republic was founded on the ashes of the Ottoman empire almost a century ago.
It would enable the president to issue decrees, declare emergency rule, and appoint ministers and top state officials. It could also see Erdogan remain in power in the NATO member state until 2029.
Erdogan’s supporters see the plans as a guarantee of stability at a time of turmoil, with Turkey’s security threatened by the wars in neighboring Syria and Iraq, and by a spate of Daesh and Kurdish militant attacks.
Opponents fear a lurch toward authoritarianism in a nation which has seen tens of thousands of people, from teachers and journalists to soldiers and police, detained since a failed coup attempt last July.