Turkey's president campaigns for referendum at war memorial
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan turned a commemoration of a World War I campaign into a political rally on Saturday, slamming Europe and declaring that a constitutional referendum next month on whether to expand his powers will enhance Turkey's place in the world.
Erdoğan outlined his vision at a stadium ceremony in the Aegean port of Canakkale, near where Ottoman armies held off an Allied expeditionary force in 1915-1916, a bloody event that helps to underpin staunch nationalism in Turkey today. "We are offering historic reform," offered Erdoğan.
"We have around 3 million voters living abroad," he added, seemingly to his critics abroad. "Let them try and hinder them. Whether Germans, Dutch, Austrians, Swiss, Belgians, Danes or whoever it is, know that your president has stood firm and will keep on standing firm."
