Turkey's Erdogan seeks Kurds' support to boost powers

President Tayyip Erdogan described himself as a 'guardian of peace' on Saturday as he called on Kurds in conflict-torn southeast Turkey to vote 'yes' in a referendum in two weeks time on reforms that would grant him sweeping new powers.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to supporters prior to his speech during a rally ahead of the upcoming referendum. Source: AP

Since the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire in July 2015, the mainly Kurdish southeast has been rocked by some of the most intense fighting in three decades of conflict between Kurdish militants and Turkish security forces.

According to a United Nations estimate, about 2000 people were killed and up to a half a million displaced in the state's conflict with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), strongly supported in the southeast but cast by Erdogan as an extension of the PKK, was among the targets of the president's ire during a rallying speech in the region's largest city Diyarbakir.

"These supporters of the PKK keep on saying 'peace, peace, peace'. Does empty talk bring peace? Could there be peace with those who walk around with weapons in their hands?" he said. 

"We are the guardians of peace, we are the guardians of freedoms," he said as a crowd of several thousand in the city centre waved Turkish flags.

"Walk together"

The ruling AK Party, which Erdogan founded, also has strong support in the southeast. In a close race, pollsters say Kurdish voters, about a fifth of the electorate, could tip the balance in the April 16 referendum.

The HDP opposes the constitutional reform but its ability to campaign has been devastated by a crackdown which has led to the jailing of its leaders, a dozen of its MPs and thousands of its members on charges of PKK links. The state has taken over municipalities which the HDP had hitherto run.

The HDP denies direct links to the PKK, seen as a terrorist organisation by Europe, the United States and Turkey.

"We are ready to talk, to walk together with everyone who has something to say or has a project," Erdogan said. "We have one condition. There will be no guns in their hands."

Erdogan says Turkey needs a strong presidency to avoid the fragile coalition governments of the past. His critics cite the arrest, dismissal or suspension of more than 100,000 teachers, civil servants, soldiers, judges and journalists since a failed coup last July as evidence of his authoritarian instincts.

Braving nationalist anger, Erdogan introduced tentative reforms on Kurdish rights and in 2012 launched negotiations to try to end a PKK insurgency that has killed 40,000 people since 1984. But a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015 and fighting flared anew.

Tight result expected

Less than three weeks before Turkey votes on sweeping new powers sought by President Erdogan, opinion polls suggest a tight race in a referendum that could bring the biggest change to the system of governance in the country's modern history.

Two senior officials from the ruling AK Party told Reuters that research it commissioned had put support for "yes" at 52 per cent in early March, down from 55-56 per cent a month earlier, though they expected a row with Europe in recent weeks to have fired up nationalists and bolstered their camp.

Turks will vote on April 16 on constitutional changes which would replace their parliamentary system with an executive presidency, a change Erdogan says is needed to avoid the fragile coalition governments of the past and to give Turkey stability as it faces numerous security challenges.

Publicly-available polls paint a mixed picture in a race that has sharply divided the country, with Erdogan's faithful seeing a chance to cement his place as modern Turkey's most important leader, and his opponents fearing one-man rule.

A survey on Wednesday by pollster ORC, seen as close to the government, put "yes" on 55.4 per cent in research carried out between March 24-27 across almost half of Turkey's 81 provinces.

By contrast, Murat Gezici, whose Gezici polling company tends to show stronger support for the opposition, told Reuters none of the 16 polls his firm had carried out over the past eight months had put the "yes" vote ahead. He expected a "no" victory of between 51-53 per cent, based on his latest numbers.

None of the polls suggest the 60 per cent level of support which officials in Ankara say Erdogan wants.

"Right now we have not seen a result in our polls that did not show the 'yes' vote ahead. But we want the constitutional reform to be approved with a high percentage for wider social consensus," said AKP spokesman Yasin Aktay.

The wide disparity of the poll results is partly due to the political sympathies of Turkey's polling companies.

But it also reflects a sense that a section of the public remains undecided, including some AKP loyalists uncomfortable with too much power being concentrated in Erdogan's hands.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim held a meeting last week with former AKP ministers and officials, seeking to shore up wider support for the "Yes" campaign.

But former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu and former president Abdullah Gul, both high-profile members of the AKP who fell out with Erdogan, did not show up and were also absent from the AKP's campaign launch in late February.

"No early election"

Erdogan assumed the presidency, currently a largely ceremonial position, in 2014 after more than a decade as prime minister with the AKP, which he co-founded. Since then, pushing his powers to the limit, he has continued to dominate politics by dint of his personal popularity and forceful personality.

Critics accuse him of increasing authoritarianism with the arrests and dismissal of tens of thousands of judges, police, military officers, journalists and academics since a failed military coup in July. 

With the constitutional overhaul, the president would be able to retain ties to a political party, potentially allowing Erdogan to resume his leadership of the AKP, a move that opposition parties say would wreck any chance of impartiality.

Abdulkadir Selvi, a pro-government columnist in the Hurriyet newspaper, said the latest numbers presented to the AKP headquarters showed the lead for the "yes" campaign widening, boosted partly by Erdogan's row with Europe.

Bans on some campaign rallies by Turkish officials in Germany and the Netherlands have prompted Erdogan to accuse European leaders of "Nazi methods".

"The stance of the Netherlands and Germany is expected to motivate nationalist voters at home and abroad and add 1-1.5 percentage points to the 'yes' vote," Selvi wrote on Thursday.

The constitutional changes envisage presidential and parliamentary elections being held together in 2019, with a president eligible to then serve a maximum of two five-year terms. Those elections could be called early if Erdogan wins the referendum, enabling him to assume full executive powers sooner.

But AKP officials said such a move was unlikely, citing concern that a slowing economy could weaken their parliamentary majority and pointing to voter fatigue after four elections in the past three years.

"Whether there is a 'Yes' or 'No' vote in the referendum, leaving this parliamentary majority to have another election does not make sense for us," a senior AKP official said.