Turkish voters think that democracy is obviously too important to be left to the people are are voluntarily giving up their right to decide their future (or more correctly put giving up their children's right to decide their future).

Come home to Israel already, before it's too late.

it was reported, that many turkish citizens don't even know what a constitution is

THE JEWISH ORGAIZATIONS IN us ARE SUPPORTING ISLAM.WHY NOT IN TURKEY.BECAUSE TURKISH JIHADISTS ARE UNITED WITH IRAN AND SYRIA.LET ME TELL YOU, AMERICAN ISLAMO-FASCISTS ARE NO DIFFERENT FROM THE TURKISH AND THE IRANIANS.

This whole islamization, another Iran rhetorics stems from the belief that Islam and secularism can not co-exist. I mean Bush, Merkel or I don't know Sarkozy are and have shown far more religious tendencies than Erdogan ever did, but it is never seen as if those countries are going back to medieval inquisitionist Europe. On the other hand, %42 opposing vote is a major blow to Erdogan unlike presented, considering it is very, very high for a constitutional change and indicates there is no consensus. As such, it is very unlikely that Erdogan's party will gather the kind of vote in the upcoming elections due in 9 months, where they can form a signle party government, which literally translates into the end of Erdogan era as world knows it.

This article is a great example of truly poor journalism. The article is ostensibly about changes to the Turkish Constitution. But not one specific change is mentioned in the article, only vague opinions about unspecified changes. Thus, the article is a missed opportunity to really inform the reading public.

Make Aliyah.

so Turkish jews prefer non-democratic military coups that undermine the majority of turks in favor of a minority of militarized turks? So more rights for Turkish women and children are bad for Turkish jews?

Of course, not many Jews follow him but he is one of the leading businessmen and activists in Turkey. He runs an NGO which passionately supports Erdogan. It's all about benefits and interests.

Erdogan's Islamism is the only tool to weaken Turkish military, Turkish nationalism, and Ataturk's principles. EU and US prefer a rather Islamic and ignorant society in Turkey in order to weaken Ataturk's principle and the notion of independent Turkey.

Erdogan and his party have the power in parliament, they control most of the media, police forces, religious organizations, presidency, bureaucracy, universities, and now judiciary too. This is called fascism. But according to Erdogan and his followers this is 'democracy!'

mature enough to be democratic, besides Turkey who now going in the footsteps of radical Islam, no other Muslim country is democratic. you just throw Ataturk legacy down the drain, it start with small laws, but soon it will invade to every turk privat life, meaning the gov will take control on citizens life style, the gov will tell you what to eat where to go and what to think. just wait and see.

Dear fellow Jews: According to the history books, when the jews where persecued by the Christians, the only safe haven they had, was in a muslim land - 800 years in muslim spain and in the ottoman emipre thereafter. today many jews live in muslim land including iran. Many jews escaped the christian persecution in ww2 and were able to live in iran until now. in conclusion you have nothing to fear from islam. your rights are protected according to the teaching of islam. the only religion has such rights.

1. Erdogan's own words - A person can not be secular and Muslim at the same time - he said it many years ago and repeated it again a few days ago to a news interview. 2. I hope that you are correct for the upcoming elections next year. However after this referendum I am not much hopeful.

There are only 3 objectionable articles in that constitution amendment but one is specifically important to know. It is increasing the supreme court judges from 11 to 17. all but 4 will be appointed by the government 4 by the president. This will give total power over the judiciary branch to the government. Considering that the executive branch and the legislative branch are organically tied to each other (They are all from the same politicalparty - Furtthrmore Erdogan takes a number of signed blank papers from every one that he appoints to his cabinet so that he can fill in the papers and use when he needs to pass a bill (in Turkey you can pass a bill that is at the same power as a law without the parliaments approval) after this constitutional amendment ther is no more separation of powers in Turkey. What Chavez of Venezuela had to do by the force of military power Erdogan did it by fooling the people. In Pakistan when such a bill was proposed the bar associations revolted and toppled the government. In Turkey supporting a political party is just like supporting your favorite sports team.

I have read the entire constitutional amendments and I have not seen anything that gives more freedoms to Women. What I have seen is that if makes the judiciary subservient to the government therefore no more separation of powers. Nobody likes military coups but I am 60 years old and was still living in Turkey in 1979 before the Kenan Evren coup. The country was falling apart under the hands of a coalition of Bulent Ecevit and Necmettin Erbakan (The ideolgy father of Erdogan) Places like Ordu and Fatsa had become KURTARILMIS BOLGELER (Saved regions) by terrorists and the government was not able to deal with it. Even the military was not able to go into these towns. The government had established marshall law and was unable to appoint a new president. Considering the circumstances you can not blame the military for this coup but rather the political parties that could not govern the country. I still remember the news papers headings after the coup that wrote - ARTIK RAHAT BIR NEFES ALABILIRIZ - Now we can take a comfortable breath.

During the times of Ozal and later Demirel and Tansu Ciller businessman like Jak Kamhi (and his son), Silvio Ovadia, teh late Uzeyir Garih did support many Turkish causes and they had the following. However as an active member of the NY community Turkish Jews I am not aware of anyone supporting Erdogan in an active manner. Please enlighten me by telling me who you are talking about.

1. The Jews of Spain were welcome to Ottoman land in order to serve the Ottoman Empire in controlling the western Asia Minor and the European lands that they had recently conquered from the Greeks. They welcomed the Sephardi to create a population that would be grateful to the empire and counter balance the Greek majority who were hostile. 2. In WW II only some elite German Jews were allowed to Turkey who were university professors (Such as our family friend Dr. Nielssen) who were responsible to create many modern faculties at the young Turkish universities. But on the other hand the Struma - as hip loaded with Romanian Jews - was not allowed refuge and was sent to teh Black sea with a broken engine. Eventually it was sunk by a Russian torpedo killing all but one passenger. During same period in 1941 Turkey passed a tax law - Varlik Vergisi - over taxing Jews and sending them to labor camps in Askale for not being able to pay it. Young Jewish man also were sent to a labor camp at Afyon under the guise of a 20th draft military service. My father was among them. History is not just little anecdotes that you are told. please read extensively the details. There is more to it.

David Israel, I'm #11 commentator. Your posts already show that you know the politics and history of Turkiye. I'm not sure how correct to write down names here, but Mr Alaton (I'm sure you know who I'm talking about) actively supports Erdogan both personally and through TESEV. He even participates in AKP's posters ('Bu kisiler evet diyorlar' posterlerinde de yer aliyor kendisi). If you google his name+surname+evet, you can read the articles on his supports to AKP. This is his statement: 'Bir yetmez, iki defa evet diyecegim'. He participated several TV shows to promote AKP's constitution reforms. If you'd like to know, he has also praised Pennsylvania on some occasions. Of course, he is a free person and allowed to participate politics, but these constitutional reforms and referandum division are too worrying. I am truely worried about Turkiye...our politics seems to be ruled by Pennsylvania.

Sure, there are many occsions of maltreatment of Jews by the Moslems, much less than what the Christians done, during the last couple of thousand years. The question is how the "civilized" Israeli Jews are treating the non-Jews right now! Would you be kind enough and teach us some "history" about that too?

"...you can not blame the military for this coup but rather the political parties that could not govern the country. Be careful, your fascist slip is showing, efendi.

Persian Cat, what is your knowledge of 1980 military coup in Turkiye? What is your knowledge of the clashes before the coup which caused many, many deaths and chaos? What is your knowledge of politics and history of Turkiye and the Cold War context of the time? Your attitude and ignorance already display that you have no knowledge of Turkiye and its history, but only assumptions and misinformation.

Post # 24 from a Turkish Muslim also confirms my point. I am against military rules and dictatorships. however a nation should be ready for a real democracy before they can be trusted with it. In the hands of ill intentioned people like Chavez of Venezuela or Erdogan of Turkey democracy becomes the dictatorship of the majority. The proof is in the over 1000 political prisoners held with no charges in the Silivri prison under Erdogan. One female medical Dr. among them Turkan Saylan was fighting cancer while in prison and eventually passed away. Another such professor Haberal also is in prison with no charges and was not even allowed to participate his father's funeral. If this is your definition of democracy then you deserve what you get but I know the modern educated Turks and they definitely deserve better.

Since I live in the USA i was not made aware that Ishak Alaton's support for this government was so strong. I knew teh Late Uzeyir Garih very well (and His daughter). These people usually live a very difficult balance when it comes to politics in order to continue the prosperity of their businesses. However Mr. Alaton is not the representative of the Jewish community in Turkey. He does not have a big following in the community. He only represents Alarko and the interests of Alarko.

Dear David Israel, of course I'm aware that he is not the representative of the Jewish community here. Many of my Jewish friends voted no in this referandum as they are well aware of the danger we are facing under Erdogan and AKP. Alaton's activism is his own decision, but AKP is very good at using activists/voters from all sides of political spectrum for AKP's own aims. Anyway, I agree with most of your comments. I respect your dedication for Turkiye even if you live far away now. It is sad that bright, educated and real democratic people of Turkiye are losing hope and leaving for abroad. Well, actually they are kind of forced to go abroad as it is becoming very hard to find a job here if you don't belong to AKP circles. In the long term, this is a very negative development for us. Hoscakalin ve Istanbul'dan saygilar.

When I was visiting USA in 1978 I met many Iranian young people well educated and modern. They were hopeful that the Ayatolalh regime would come to an end soon but never happened so far. After migrating to the USA in 1980n I have been actively talking to my representatives senators and social circles about Turkey, real Kemalism and the realities of Turkey. I sympathize with you and support you as much as I can. But at the end it is up to the Turkish people to vote for a better Turkiye. You might have heard about the interview asking people on the street about Ismet Inonu (The second founding father of Turkey after Ataturk dead for many years) being ousted from CHP and 1 out of 4 did not even know who he is and he was already dead. Unfortunately if this is the quality of voters this is what you can get. All the work that you and I do to improve Turkish democracy is bound to sink.

C'mom you fools leave that country and come home presto to Israel. Secondly Mehmet what I hated reading on ERdo's referendum was the shocking part of making the military treating them as civilians? Now if that does not show how afraid Erdogan is for he knows the secular military establisment can easily topple him from office.That it hasn't done so up till now i am surprised. Erdogan is an arrogant dictator with with an inflated ego..there fore he is an egocentric megalomaniac to be put to PASTURE by the electorate come the elections. The devil has been trying to prepare himself as president if he loses .I am sure you are aware yes Mehmet? Wishing you all the best,the sooner you get rid of him the better for all/.

My post that is not out yet,.COME HOME YOU FOOLISH JEWS MAKE ALIYAH ALREADY. WE HAVE BEEN RECEIVING MANY FORM EUROPE AND THE USA . ALTHOUGH NOT THESAME AS THAT ISLAMIST COUNTRY..WHY WAIT?DO THEY WANT TO END LIKE THE KURDS.OR THE ARMENIANS?