Turkey’s referendum campaign unfair, Erdogan opponents say
ANKARA, Turkey — Opposition figures in Turkey say they have faced threats, violence, arbitrary detentions, a lack of TV airtime and even sabotage in the campaign for a referendum on expanding the president’s powers.
The complaints come even as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself has slammed European countries for not letting his ministers campaign on their soil for the April 16 vote on giving his office more power.
Erdogan kept up the criticism in an Istanbul speech on Sunday, denouncing the Netherlands and then singling out German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“You are committing Nazi practices too,” he said. “To whom? To my Turkish brothers and sisters in Germany.”