Current Events > Turks votes "Yes" on referendum to DESTROY their own DEMOCRACY

(+) Yeah! (+)

EVEN before all the votes had been tallied, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, claimed victory. “My nation stood upright and undivided,” he said of the referendum on a new constitution giving the presidency immense new powers. “April 16th was a victory for all of Turkey.”

The Yes camp, which Mr Erdogan headed, limped away with just over 51.4% of the vote. Outside observers accused the government of stacking the odds in its favor. The No camp accused it of foul play. The country is more divided than ever.

The constitutional changes that will now be implemented will bring about the most radical overhaul of the state Turkey has witnessed in over nine decades. After fresh elections in 2019, when most of the changes come into effect, Mr Erdogan will rule uncontested, appointing senior officials, judges and members of his own cabinet, with little oversight by an expanded but weakened parliament. The office of prime minister will cease to exist. Presidential elections will take place at the same time as parliamentary ones. The president will be limited to two terms, unless parliament cuts short the second, in which case he can run for a third. That will allow Mr Erdogan to rule until 2029, and possibly up to 2034.

Official results are not expected for at least another ten days, but Mr Guven signalled that the outcome would not change, as the Yes side was ahead by over 1m votes, with all but 600,000 ballots counted. In a statement, observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said the electoral board's decision "undermined an important safeguard and contradicted the law."

Opponents of the new constitution say it will transform the government, already dominated by one man, into a regime. Supporters argue that it will improve decision-making by concentrating executive power in the president’s hands.

In fact, it was one of Mr Erdogan’s worst electoral showings in years. The two blocs that backed the president’s project, the ruling AK and the main nationalist opposition, had received a combined 61.4% in the last parliamentary elections. On Sunday they performed well below expectations.

The referendum campaign had been the most lopsided in decades. The main state broadcaster awarded the president, government officials and the ruling AK more than ten times as much airtime than all the opposition parties combined. A pro-Kurdish party whose leaders were thrown behind bars last autumn was virtually banished from television. Under a state of emergency imposed shortly after last July’s coup attempt, accompanied by nearly 50,000 arrests plus a climate of intimidation and nationalist hysteria, many critics of the new changes, from celebrities to some AK politicians, were too afraid to speak up. "Voters were not provided with impartial information about key aspects of the reform," the OSCE statement said, "and limitations on fundamental freedoms had a negative effect."

Western partners took a dimmer view of the outcome. By the afternoon of April 17th, the day after the vote, no major world leader had congratulated the Turkish leader. The EU and America's State Department announced they would not weigh in on the vote before an assessment by international observers. Mr Erdogan himself does not appear eager to rebuild bridges with allies: on the day of the vote, he pledged once again to do his part to reinstate the death penalty, a move that would damage his country’s relations with the EU. Mr Erdogan has the constitution he has long coveted. It may come at the cost of tensions at home and isolation abroad.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21720911-turks-vote-yes-constitutional-overhaul-narrow-margin-erdogan-claims-victory-turkeys
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The age of democracy is coming to an end throughout the world. Authoritarianism is rising everywhere.
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yeah I have no idea what will happen with that. the referendum was close and you can be pretty sure erdogan had it rigged
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Silver lining, scumbags like Reza Aslan have to stop pretending that Turkey is an example of moderate Islam.
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Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

Silver lining, scumbags like Reza Aslan have to stop pretending that Turkey is an example of moderate Islam.

Eh. I'm not sure you can blame radical Islamism for these developments, so much as the worldwide slide towards authoritarianism, as seen in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, the Phillippines, etc.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1FFVWEQnSM
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CircleOfManias posted...

The age of democracy is coming to an end throughout the world. Authoritarianism is rising everywhere.

humans are fickle creatures

they tend to go in cycles

if they have something for awhile they get tired of it and want something else

the whole "grass is greener on the otherside" proverb

but objectively you would think democracy has always been better and no one would think grass is greener under Authoritarianism
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thanks duroumfph
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Please let this world decline go slowly until I die
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Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

Silver lining, scumbags like Reza Aslan have to stop pretending that Turkey is an example of moderate Islam.

Such silver lining. I am glad you have your priorities straight. As if the credibility of a brain eater actually matters.
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Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

Silver lining, scumbags like Reza Aslan have to stop pretending that Turkey is an example of moderate Islam.

like he's ever had a shred of honesty to begin with
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Gee I wonder why the guy who just made himself effectively a dictator wants to reinstate the death penalty?
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foreveraIone posted...

I am glad you have your priorities straight.

Zomg a joke, no priorities!!!!
Obviously the loss of a civilized nation into fundamentalism and authoritarianism is a huge problem. Especially a major ally, NATO member, and host to military bases for the region and ICBM silos.

Xeno14 posted...

like he's ever had a shred of honesty to begin with

Yeah I was definitely being optimistic.
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The world is fucked if this trend is allowed to continue.
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Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

Silver lining, scumbags like Reza Aslan have to stop pretending that Turkey is an example of moderate Islam.

azlan is a terrible person, agreed.
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Saloonist posted...

Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

Silver lining, scumbags like Reza Aslan have to stop pretending that Turkey is an example of moderate Islam.

Eh. I'm not sure you can blame radical Islamism for these developments, so much as the worldwide slide towards authoritarianism, as seen in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, the Phillippines, etc.

You listed a bunch of countries that have never been democratic in the first place as proofs of authoritarianism. Philippine is the only democratic one on that list.

Kekistan posted...

Saloonist posted...

Anarchy_Juiblex posted...

Silver lining, scumbags like Reza Aslan have to stop pretending that Turkey is an example of moderate Islam.

Eh. I'm not sure you can blame radical Islamism for these developments, so much as the worldwide slide towards authoritarianism, as seen in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, the Phillippines, etc.

You listed a bunch of countries that have never been democratic in the first place as proofs of authoritarianism. Philippine was the only correct one in that list.

Hungary and Poland are democracies. Russia too underwent a democratization phase in the 1990s which was undone by Putin. China too, while never democratic except for some reforms before the Communists took power, is quickly becoming its most authoritarian since Mao.

It's also a little bit fallacious to argue that a state has to be democratic in order to become more authoritarian. That's simply not true.
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Yet another close-to-50/50 result.

THAT IS NOT A WORKABLE ELECTION RESULT, WORLD. The half that lost is large enough to cause trouble over this and keep protesting and cockblocking the winning half's actions as much as they can. And there's a good chance they'll actually manage to do that to a certain extent, because (surprise, surprise) they consist of half the people.
Go and have new elections with better options and don't come back until the score is 60-40 at the very least.

*wakes up from his utopic dream and gets ready for another day in a world that seems hell-bent on voting to get cucked in every single way except the literal sense*
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SoIidLegacy posted...

Yet another close-to-50/50 result.

THAT IS NOT A WORKABLE ELECTION RESULT, WORLD. The half that lost is large enough to cause trouble over this and keep protesting and cockblocking the winning half's actions as much as they can. And there's a good chance they'll actually manage to do that to a certain extent, because (surprise, surprise) they consist of half the people.
Go and have new elections with better options and don't come back until the score is 60-40 at the very least.

*wakes up from his utopic dream and gets ready for another day in a world that seems hell-bent on voting to get cucked in every single way except the literal sense*

Yeeeaaahhh, that 50% +1 bullshit nearly destroyed Canada, TWICE. Referendums in general, are crap.
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and why is turkey in NATO again?
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Supporters argue that it will improve decision-making by concentrating executive power in the president’s hands.

"Streamlining decision making" is what they always say whenever this kind of shit happens.
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EyeWontBeFooled posted...

Yeeeaaahhh, that 50% +1 bullshit nearly destroyed Canada, TWICE. Referendums in general, are crap.

What referendum was that about exactly?
*is European*
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Conservatives voting against their own interests, who'd have guessed.
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SoIidLegacy posted...

EyeWontBeFooled posted...

Yeeeaaahhh, that 50% +1 bullshit nearly destroyed Canada, TWICE. Referendums in general, are crap.

What referendum was that about exactly?
*is European*

Quebec had not one, but TWO referendums in 20 years to decide on whether they should separate from the rest of Canada, and become their own country. Thankfully, by VERY slim margins, they decided to stay as a part of Canada. Thankfully, the last one was 22 years ago, and attempts by the Parti Quebecois to gain a foothold in provincial politics (seriously, their main plank of their platform is to be separated from Canada) in the last few years gained almost no steam.
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Supermajorities are a double edged sword.

People will turn on the system for obstructionism if you put up too many roadblocks to change, yet at the same time this last year has proven the dangers of direct democracy. The founders were right.
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Bump
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Trump has called to congratulate him: https://twitter.com/CNNTURK_ENG/status/854059951106424836
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Antifar posted...

Trump has called to congratulate him: https://twitter.com/CNNTURK_ENG/status/854059951106424836

lmao
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Saloonist posted...

Supermajorities are a double edged sword.

People will turn on the system for obstructionism if you put up too many roadblocks to change, yet at the same time this last year has proven the dangers of direct democracy. The founders were right.

In what way?

In any case, Erdogan rigged it. Not in terms of literal ballot-stuffing, but the opposition was silenced and rules for voting were changed at the last minute. Even then, the referendum barely passed. Might be some instability, but Erdogan took notes on how Putin did it(also Russia was never very democratic. Yeltsin was so unpopular he had to rig the 1996 election to avoid losing to the Communists. As in, the literal continuation of the ruling party of the USSR.)

J E S U S posted...

and why is turkey in NATO again?

Because we used to need them to have missile bases close to Russia & the Middle East.

Trump congratulated the Turkish pres on it passing.
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http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/scrubs/images/b/bd/5x24-TurkStares.jpg
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ElatedVenusaur posted...

Saloonist posted...

Supermajorities are a double edged sword.

People will turn on the system for obstructionism if you put up too many roadblocks to change, yet at the same time this last year has proven the dangers of direct democracy. The founders were right.

In what way?

In any case, Erdogan rigged it. Not in terms of literal ballot-stuffing, but the opposition was silenced and rules for voting were changed at the last minute. Even then, the referendum barely passed. Might be some instability, but Erdogan took notes on how Putin did it(also Russia was never very democratic. Yeltsin was so unpopular he had to rig the 1996 election to avoid losing to the Communists. As in, the literal continuation of the ruling party of the USSR.)

Oh absolutely he rigged it. No question.

But regarding supermajorities, just look at Congress. So many people today complain about how Congress doesn't do anything anymore, and as a result, public opinion of Congress has plummeted. This is at least in part due to the fact that the Senate essentially requires a supermajority to get anything done, because almost every piece of legislation is subject to a veto.
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