World media follows Turkey referendum closely

ANKARA

Sunday’s constitutional referendum filled newspaper pages and broadcast schedules across the globe as a worldwide audience watched the vote unfold.

Many focused on the victory speeches of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who successfully campaigned for a package of changes that will see Turkey abandon parliamentary democracy in favor of a presidential system.

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter was among these and carried the headline “Historic victory”.

Other media outlets concentrated on the slim extent of the win -- 51.41 percent of votes for Yes and 48.59 percent No.

“Yes vote claims slim victory, death penalty could be brought”, Swedish daily Aftonbladet said.

France’s Le Monde newspaper pointed out the “narrow victory for hyper-President Erdogan” while in Greece, the Kathimerini and Ethnos newspapers also noted a limited victory for the president.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera pointed out that the Yes campaign, which was spearheaded by the governing Justice and Development (AK) Party, did less well than expected in major cities such as Istanbul and Ankara.

In Albania, Gazeta Shqiptare said: “Erdogan won referendum but Istanbul said ‘No’”.

Bulgarian National Radio announced the results by saying: “Erdogan won by a small margin of votes but lost in Ankara, Edirne and Izmir. The opposition will challenge the results.”

The country’s Opinion news website looked at the implications for future Turkey-EU relations and noted that the next chapter would be more “intense”.

The Politika newspaper in Serbia called it a “New era for Recep Tayyip Erdogan”.

British daily The Guardian carried a photograph from Yes supporters celebrating in Istanbul and said the referendum “sets the stage for a transformation of the upper echelons of the state and changing the country from a parliamentary democracy to a presidential republic... the most important development in the country’s history.”

In Germany, with its huge Turkish diaspora, newspapers noted the celebrations of Yes voters on the streets of German cities.

Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet picked up on the 85 percent-plus turnout.

Kibris, the top-selling newspaper in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, announced a “new era in Turkey” while Kibris Postasi greeted the poll with the headline: “New Turkey with a narrow margin”.

The Cyprus Mail, a Greek Cypriot daily, was among those who noted that opposition parties planned to challenge the referendum outcome.

* Handan Kazanci and Nilay Kar in Istanbul; Hajer M'tiri in Paris; and Ahmet Gurhan Kartal in London contributed to this report.