AKP set to officially launch ‘Yes’ campaign next week

ANKARA

REUTERS photo

Details of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) campaign for the upcoming referendum on constitutional changes will be publicly announced by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım in Ankara on Feb. 25. 

Final tweaks to the campaign will be clarified at the AKP’s Central Executive Board Meeting this week, AKP Deputy Chair Hayati Yazıcı told state-run Anadolu Agency on Feb. 20. 

Yazıcı said around 40,000 people are expected to attend the presentation meeting including party members, mayors, provincial council members, provincial heads, AKP parliamentary group members, and citizens. 

Stating that the goal of the campaign process is to “explain the new system to the public,” he added that Yıldırım will hold up to 30 different rallies in cities across Turkey. 

“We will both hold rallies and introduce this constitutional project by addressing different communities,” Yazıcı said. 

“This is not an ordinary constitutional amendment. It is an amendment that is making the most radical change to the 1982 constitution [approved after the 1980 military coup]. We need to explain this very well, we will be sensitive to this,” he added. 


Erdoğan to address public on weekends 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to visit the western provinces of Aydın, Muğla and Manisa for public rallies this weekend. 

He is expected to address rallies in 40 different cities on weekends up until polling day, April 16. Having scheduled to go to five or six cities in Turkey each week, Erdoğan will also appeal to overseas Turkish citizens at campaign stops in Germany, Holland and Belgium.