It is a pity that Turkey which plays a key role in global involvement in west Asia is heading towards unbridled despotism. President Erdogan has won a referendum which gives him sweeping powers. He sought some Constitutional changes to give these powers in the name of national security in order to fight Kurdish insurgency and tackle the refugee influx from Syria. The military troop last summer was botched up.  If the Constitutional changes are adopted, democracy will be butchered. Erdogan will be empowered to appoint judges without consulting Parliament, control budgets, issue fiats, beside top appointments in the army and civil services and even dissolve Parliament. That will be the end of the Republic. For a year pr so Erdogan has been purging the bureaucracy and making the opposition illegal. Journalists have been put behind bars and judicial independence shackled. 1,35,000 people have lost their jobs and 45000 imprisoned. The Constitutional change will free Erdogan from all checks and balances. That will result in the worst kind of Stalinism. Tyranny and excesses will be the inevitable sequel.

The opposition is trying to make out that the referendum has been flooded by widespread polling violations. The European Commission has also asked for the broadest possible national consensus. The advice should be taken before the constitutional amendments are put through. Erdogan’s victory has been a paper thin majority. His opposition is also strong enough.