{"id":28971,"date":"2017-04-11T20:20:26","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T20:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/?p=28971"},"modified":"2017-04-11T20:20:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T20:20:26","slug":"turkeys-referendum-not-as-cut-and-dried-as-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/turkeys-referendum-not-as-cut-and-dried-as-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s referendum – not as cut and dried as you think"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/strong>As Turkish voters prepare to go to the polls on Sunday to decide their country\u2019s future direction, neither side in this bitter race seems assured of a win on April 16th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Over the course of the campaign for the constitutional amendment to drastically strengthen his executive powers, President Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have dominated the public space in Turkey. \u00a0Those opposing the changes have faced intimidation and ridicule, struggling to be heard in an extremely unfavorable environment.<\/p>\n An interim report<\/a> by the OSCE\u2019s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Observation Mission has criticised Turkey, noting that there were attempts to intimidate the \u201cNo\u201d campaigners, and that the media coverage about the referendum was one-sided.<\/p>\n State resources were freely used by the ruling party and the President to bolster the \u201cYes\u201d campaign, for financing party political rallies under the guise of inauguration of public works projects.<\/p>\n Even with the governing AKP\u2019s unfair advantage over the opposition, and despite restrictive measures under a state of emergency, opinion polls indicate that the result will be a close call.<\/p>\n Alarmed by this uncertainty, the \u201cYes\u201d camp\u2019s rhetoric is getting more and more aggressive.<\/p>\n Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party, has been the main target of ridicule throughout the campaign, but during the last few days, the insults directed at him have become fast-and-furious.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s Turkey, what can be worse than being branded as a Gulenist?<\/p>\n