Trump congratulates Turkey's Erdogan on 'referendum victory,' breaking with Europe, U.S. State Department

President Trump congratulated Turkish president on referendum
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to congratulate him on "his recent referendum victory," the White House confirmed. A narrow 51 percent of Turks approved a referendum on Sunday that granted Erdogan broad new powers, according to unofficial results, changing Turkey from a parliamentary democracy to an executive presidency, most consequentially giving the president power to appoint judges and prosecutors.

Opponents of the referendum, carried out under a state of emergency in place since an attempted coup in July, are calling for a recount of at least a third of the vote, and election monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) say the voting was marred and fell "well short" of democratic norms, in part because opposition to the referendum was almost entirely excluded from Turkish media made for an "uneven playing field." Under the emergency powers, Turkey has arrested some 40,000 Erdogan critics, including a record number of journalists, and fired at least 100,000 more Turks.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.