Turkey referendum: Erdogan tells poll monitors to 'know their place'

Monitors suggested the referendum giving him extra powers fell short of international standards

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday told international monitors to “know your place”, after they suggested the landmark referendum giving him extra powers fell short of international standards.

“Know your place first,” Erdogan told the monitors in an address to supporters outside his vast presidential palace in Ankara. “We neither see, hear, nor know those politically motivated reports that you will draft,” he said, after the report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) monitors.

“We will continue down our road,” he said. “This country held the most democratic elections that have never been seen in any other country in the West.” The president also warned the international monitors “not to join a race of casting shadows over the elections,” adding: “You cannot achieve any result.”

Turkey voted on Sunday in a referendum on granting Erdogan strengthened powers that was won by the ‘Yes’ camp but disputed by the opposition.

“The referendum took place on an unlevel playing field and the two sides of the campaign did not have equal opportunities,” said Cezar Florin Preda of PACE. The group’s preliminary conclusions were also blasted by the Turkish foreign ministry as “biased” and “prejudiced.”

Earlier, Germany and France had said the close result in Turkey’s referendum on expanding Erdogan’s powers showed the division in Turkish society, while others questioned Europe’s relations with the country. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said it was a big responsibility to bear for Erdogan. The result prompted renewed calls by Austria for Turkey’s EU stalled accession talks to be halted. Germany's Gabriel called for a new format for talks with “our neighbour”, comments echoed by the conservative bloc in the European Parliament.