Europe going crazy over proposed executive presidency in Turkey: Erdoğan

İZMİR

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European countries are going crazy over the proposed executive presidency in Turkey which will go to a public vote on April 16, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said April 9.  

“You have seen what happened in Europe. Why did they go crazy? Why did they go berserk? They saw what this system will bring Turkey. Turkey is leaping, growing. This makes them go crazy,” Erdoğan said at a rally in the western province of İzmir.

“I expect a serious explosion of votes in Europe” because the Turks on the continent are “oppressed and humiliated,” he said.

Europe “will pay for what they have been doing,” Erdoğan said, reiterating that Ankara would reconsider Turkey’s EU membership bid will be after the April 16 referendum. 

“But our people will also ask for it; the time is coming. We will make them pay the price after April 16,” the president said. 

After the April 16 referendum, “Turkey’s democracy will be strengthened,” Erdoğan said, noting that both proponents and opponents of the charter amendments needed to be respected.

He criticized Republican People’s Party (CHP) Konya province deputy Hüsnü Bozkurt for his controversial remarks saying that “yes” voters will be “thrown into the sea” after April 16.

“What an embarrassment this is...Are you going to decide the fate of my vote for me?” he said. Erdoğan also criticized CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for not taking concrete disciplinary action against party deputies who make controversial remarks.

Similarly to the rally in İzmir, Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım urged people to vote “yes” in the upcoming referendum at a gathering in Istanbul on April 8. 

“Are you ready to completely get rid of the terrorist organizations; FETÖ, the PKK, Daesh, and the DHKP-C?” Erdoğan asked, referring to an assortment of enemies.

Stressing how “significant” the referendum is for Turkey’s future, Erdoğan said the country’s short-lived governments of the past were “signs of instability.”  

“If stability had been ensured, our development would have been twice what it is now,” he said.        

Erdoğan also suggested that some previous leaders from various political parties had favored a presidential system, “but they just could not start the change.”        

Calling on Turkish expats in Europe, Erdogan also said they should “definitely” go to the polls. “April 16 will be a milestone,” the president said.