PM Yıldırım vows unity, new beginning after narrow win

ANKARA

“Yes” voters and “no” voters are just as valuable as each other, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said in an address to ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) followers in Ankara following a provisional win in a divisive constitutional referendum. 

“The ones who have voted ‘yes’ and who have voted ‘no’ are one and the same; they are as valuable as the other in the same manner. I hereby express my appreciation to all my citizens who have voted ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ I am greeting all of them with love and sympathy,” Yıldırım said April 16 at AKP headquarters, addressing a chanting crowd following the unofficial results of a constitutional amendment in the referendum.

“There is no loser in this referendum. Turkey is the winner, the dear nation is the winner,” he said.

Yıldırım said the government would start to work on making necessary regulations to harmonize the existing system with the new system.

“Now we will look forward and focus on our business. Now we will look at the distant horizons for the bright future of our nation. We will make the necessary preparations for 2019 elections, and we will put the new governing system into effect at the next election,” he said.

“As we have said when we started our march, ‘however the will of the people reflects itself, that result is the most accepted by us.’ Our nation has made its decision and approved the presidential governing system. This country, this nation has shown one more time that it will never kneel down to any tutelage or external intervention,” he added.

“With this election, our nation has given the best answer to the external forces which are hostile to Turkey, to the separatist terrorist organization and to the terror organization which conducted the coup attempt on July 15 [2016],” he added.