Erdoğan asks for ‘Yes’ vote in charter referendum to 'fight terrorism'

ORDU

A “Yes” vote in the upcoming referendum on constitutional amendments is necessary to fight terrorism more effectively, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, accusing the opposition of supporting terror and standing against the interests of Turkey. 

“After April 16, Turkey can fight terrorist organizations and powers that support those organizations in a more determined manner,” Erdoğan said at a rally in the northern province of Ordu on April 13.

Speaking mostly on “domestic and foreign threats,” Erdoğan said the new constitution will help facilitate the fight against terror threats. 

“We have been tripped by outside and internal [forces]. We have commenced a grand struggle in order to scrape the terrorist organizations off. In our struggle against FETÖ [Fethullahist Terrorist Organization], PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party] and DHKP-C [outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party - Front]. We have not showed mercy to anyone; we will not do that,” he said.

“We have neutralized around 11,000 terrorists. We will break their backs. We buried them and continue to do so. We buried them into the ditches they dug in the southeast. They cannot divide this country; they cannot silence our calls to prayers,” he added.

Saying the terrorist organizations were against the constitutional amendments, Erdoğan accused all naysayers of aligning with terror groups. 

“It would be a shame for a person to say ‘no,’ which the PKK-affiliated party [Peoples’ Democratic Party – HDP] says too; which those who have sold their souls for a dollar and to FETÖ says too; which most European countries say too,” he said, reiterating that European countries were also in the naysayer camp. 

“Today, all of the magazines and the newspapers of the West are attacking this brother of yours. Don’t we need to give a suiting answer to them from Turkey?” he said, referring to himself as the victim of the West.  

“That is why Sunday [April 16] night is very important. There was a chant in a football stadium, where people said, ‘Europe, hear our voice.’ With God’s permission, on Sunday night, Europe will hear our voice. They will hear it all right. Then, they will say that Turkey is not a country to mess with,” he said.

“We will show them that Turkey is not the old Turkey after April 16,” he added.