Istanbul // Tens of thousands packed one of Istanbul’s biggest public spaces on Saturday as president Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted a giant rally seeking votes in next week’s referendum on enhancing his powers.
Lambasting Turkey’s enemies and taking pot shots at his opponents, Mr Erdogan said a ‘Yes’ vote in the April 16 referendum would give the country more stability and power.
“On April 16, do you want to say ‘Yes’ to a strong Turkey?” Mr Erdogan asked the crowd, who waved a sea of red and white Turkish flags.
“Do you want a great Turkey? Do you want to say ‘Yes’ to stability? Will you be there Istanbul?” he added, as the crowd roared back ‘Yes!”.
Mr Erdogan arrived by helicopter to cheers at the vast open ground in Istanbul’s Yenikapi district, on the shores of the Sea of Marmara.
It was here in last August that he held a mass rally calling for national solidarity after the failed July coup blamed on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, and Mr Erdogan clearly wanted to capture the spirit of that day.
Mr Erdogan said the likes of Mr Gulen, who denies being behind the coup, and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) wanted to see a ‘No’ vote.
And he charged that ‘No’ voters were also against his bid to transform Turkey through modern infrastructure projects such as bridges and tunnels.
Analysts see the referendum as tightly contested, despite the domination of the ‘Yes’ campaign in the media.
If approved, the new system will see the scrapping of the post of prime minister, the creation of vice presidents and the empowering of the president to appoint ministers.
* Agence France-Presse
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Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
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David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
