Original subtitles

This week on Vice:

the historic vote in Turkey

that could change the face of Europe.

This is a proposal to turn Turkey

into Wahhabist's version of North Korea.

This is what we are fearing.

It's the day before the referendum here in Istanbul,

and President Erdogan is holding several rallies.

Go, go, go!

We are not animals!

Sync & corrections by honeybunny www.addic7ed.com

Last summer, television cameras from around the world

were transfixed by a dramatic coup in Turkey.

An attempted coup in Turkey.

The military claiming it has seized power

from Turkey's president.

The president says the coup has failed.

We're watching people right now

pouring into the streets after this military coup.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

used the passions and political tensions

to push through a referendum

that granted him sweeping new powers

and moved Turkey's democracy closer to dictatorship.

Turkey is a crucial American ally

and a longtime member of NATO,

but now, Erdogan's victory in April

is shaking old alliances with the West.

So, we sent Isobel Yeung to Istanbul

to witness this historic vote.

Everyone's outside, celebrating jubilantly.

This right here is President Erdogan's home,

and people have gathered in their thousands

to congratulate each other

and to celebrate the results, despite the tight margin.

Turkey's historic referendum has the potential

to be a major turning point in the future of global politics.

With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I,

Turkey was established as a republic,

long known for secularism and democracy.

But those principles have slowly been eroded

under the leadership of President Erdogan.

He's built a cult of personality

stemming from years

of economic booms...

defending Islamic values,

and defying Turkey's international rivals.

After serving the maximum three terms as prime minister,

Erdogan was elected president in 2014.

A role which, until now,

has largely been ceremonial.

With this vote, Erdogan is effectively rewriting the constitution.

There will no longer be a prime minister,

the president assumes broad control

of the judiciary, can rule by decree,

and could remain in power until 2034,

which critics fear will cement his one-man rule.

We followed the run-up to this highly-divisive vote

to understand why a key American ally is pulling away from democracy.

That journey began in Washington, D.C.

We're at Washington Dulles Airport, and these guys

that just pulled up here are Turkish delegates

who have arrived with thousands of ballot papers

that they've been collecting over the last few weeks

in preparation for the referendum.

Turkish citizens all around the world rallied

for this historic referendum,

convinced that the future of the country

hung in the balance.

As tensions mounted,

Turkish relations with the EU hit a new low.

Here in the US, we traveled with delegates from each side.

Omer supports a "Yes" vote,

while Yurter is from the opposing party.

Three million Turkish diaspora,

that's pretty significant. These votes could make a real difference.

Yeah, it changes about three percent of total votes.

Why should the world care, in general, what happens in Turkey?

Number one, Turkey is a NATO member.

Number two, Turkey is the only secular

and democratic country with a predominantly Muslim population.

And number three, because of its geostrategic location.

Turkey is the gateway

between Europe and the Middle East.

It's home to over three million Syrian refugees

more than any other nation.

And a recent string of terrorist attacks

by ISIS and Kurdish insurgents

have further destabilized the country,

garnering support for Erdogan's strongman rule.

In the world's most volatile region,

Turkey is a vital Western ally,

maintaining the second-largest military in NATO.

But factions of that military shocked the world in July 2016,

with an attempt to overthrow President Erdogan.

As the coup plotters took to the streets,

President Erdogan spoke to journalist Hande Firat.

Maybe you can just give us an account of what happened that night.

Galvanized by Erdogan's call to arms,

crowds of people confronted the coup plotters

on Istanbul's Bosphorus Bridge.

Melih Ecertas,

leader of the AK Party Youth Branch,

was there to fight for what he saw

as a pivotal moment for Erdogan.

There were four tanks.

There were maybe 60 soldiers with rifles

The people were walking down to here...

protesting.

The soldiers were shooting.

So, you saw several people die.

I saw several people martyred,

so we feel this is a battlefield.

The police officers throughout the country

just start shooting with them.

After half an hour, the soldiers,

they are giving up.

And then the people are screaming,

"We got the Bosphorus Bridge."

At the end of the night, 50 people were killed in here.

In all Turkey, around 250 people were killed.

Support for Erdogan surged after the coup

and emboldened him to crack down on those responsible.

He began by arresting followers

of Islamist cleric Fethullah Gulen,

his former ally, now living in exile in Pennsylvania.

But critics claim Erdogan has since used the state of emergency

as a chance to purge all opposition.

Meanwhile, supporters like Mileh

are tirelessly campaigning for a "Yes" vote

to expand Erdogan's powers.

Obviously, you've spoken to so many people

over the last few weeks in your campaigning.

What are the biggest issues they have with constitutional change?

They would like to understand the basic change,

and we will start telling them, "We need a strong Turkey.

We need a strong judiciary system."

They start understand.

In total, across Turkey,

how many volunteers do you have?

Wow.

Thanks to a strong parliamentary backing,

the "Yes" campaign draws on significant funding and state resources.

You all are? If I see Erdogan, I'll tell him he has a very big fan base here.

The AK Party Youth Branch has held

7,000 of these "Yes" campaign events

in the 45 days leading up to the referendum.

Right now, they're playing on the screens

scenes from July 15th of the attempted coup.

It's a very strong reaction

as soon as anyone from the opposition comes on the screen.

There was a clear momentum behind the "Yes" campaign.

In part, that's because critics have largely been silenced

in the post-coup purge.

Over 110,000 people have been detained,

accused of being Gulenists or enemies of the state.

Police officers, civil servants,

and journalists have been sacked.

And in academia, tens of thousands

of teachers and professors have been dismissed,

but some of those professors are attempting to fight back

by taking their classes underground.

Many of these professors formerly taught at Ankara University.

How long have you been working in academia?

Are you saying that none of the professors who were dismissed

were in any way linked to the Gulenist movement?

What do you think this means for the future of Turkey?

And it's not just academia that's under attack.

Lawyers and judges who are seen as sympathetic

to detainees have also been targeted.

A group of lawyers are staging weekly protests

against the arrests of their colleagues.

One of them agreed to speak with us.

As a lawyer, do you feel like the current judiciary system

in Turkey will provide justice?

The deterioration of the rule of law

has fueled opposition to Erdogan's proposed constitutional changes.

Groups like this one are campaigning for "No,"

"Hayir" in Turkish.

We're with the "No" campaigners

as they're handing out leaflets as well.

Slightly more mellow campaign

than it was when we were with the AKP guys.

It's really divided. You can see the difference.

Like, when you're in Kadikoy or here,

it seems, like, great, and you feel more confident,

and then, like, in just 20 minutes, everything changed.

You're in a conservative neighborhood,

and you can feel just the opposite.

Yeah, it does feel very divided.

It feels very, very different. Yeah, it is like

Turkish community is so divided now.

Tensions are running very high by the looks of things. Yeah, yeah, of course.

What are the main reasons that you're campaigning for "No"?

This is scary. I mean, as a woman, especially,

I really don't want to live in a religious country.

We know this from other, like, Middle Eastern countries.

If there is a "Yes" vote, what does Turkey look like in 10, 20 years time?

Some people talks about civil war.

And yeah, there's no good scenario at all.

We will have, obviously, a dictatorship with "Yes."

Why is it, do you think, that so many people are voting for "Yes"?

Turkish people feel like they're alone,

and, like, Europe hates them,

like-- I don't know-- America hates them, everybody hates them.

That popular belief stems in part

from 30 years of being denied entry to the EU,

which many believe is rooted in Islamophobia.

Widespread disappointment at this rejection

has helped garner nationalist views

that have only deepened the polarization within society.

I was attacked by 15 members of parliament,

who were female members,

with screwdrivers and scissors in their hands.

For the past six years,

Safak Pavey has served

as a parliamentary member

for Turkey's main opposition party.

Anyone who is a non-supporter for them,

is gonna be facing imprisonment, social lynching.

This is a proposal to turn Turkey

into Wahhabist's version of North Korea,

so this is what we're fearing.

President Erdogan is incredibly popular.

I see his image everywhere.

A lot of people that I've spoken to have sung his praises

and have said that Turkey has transformed under his leadership

and that economic transformation, financial transformation,

infrastructure's being built under his leadership,

which wasn't built under the CHP's leadership.

Um, no. I-- I have to say that this is part of their propaganda.

Government controlled media is about 99 percent

of Turkish media right now,

so there's almost no space allowed for our messages.

But the biggest power that they have is the religious populism.

I mean, just this week, Erdogan has declared

that those citizens that vote for "No,"

they will lose their place in heaven.

In Turkey, the mosques are directly answerable to the state,

meaning the government can easily reach

the congregation of millions of people a week.

What sort of role do you think that religion plays here in Turkey?

Why is it that you weren't able to go to school

with your headscarf before AK Party came to power?

Is there anything about Turkey you think that, uh...

people in the West, people in America might not understand?

That sentiment, that Erdogan is the reason for Turkey's strength,

is echoed by huge swaths of the population.

It's the day before the referendum here in Istanbul,

and President Erdogan is holding several rallies throughout the city.

They're expecting hundreds of thousands of people to be attending

and to be rallying and campaigning for the "Yes" vote.

In the height of this frenzied atmosphere,

we finally caught a glimpse of the man

at the center of this divisive vote.

With the "Yes" campaign at a fever pitch,

it was finally the day of the referendum.

A massive 85 percent of the population turned out to vote.

We went to a "No" campaign HQ, where what played out

over the next few hours would determine the direction of Turkey's entire future.

The atmosphere here is getting more and more subdued

as all the votes are coming in.

Almost all of them have been counted now,

and it's standing at about 52 percent "Yes"

and 48 percent "No."

It's not the result that these guys are hoping for.

In spite of the significant advantages afforded

to the "Yes" campaign, the vote was nearly split,

signifying just how deeply divided the country really is.

Do you see this as a turning point in Turkey's history?

We've heard that there is Erdogan supporters out on the streets already,

so we're heading towards President Erdogan's house,

to see what's going on down there.

How are you feeling tonight?

What do you think this means to the rest of the world?

While Erdogan supporters

celebrated their victory against the world,

international monitors slammed the validity

- of the referendum itself. - They don't believe

this referendum was fair.

The State Department acknowledged

the concerns the international monitors raised.

The 16th April constitutional referendum

took place on an unlevel playing field.

To understand how the country

can move forward, we sat down

with Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak.

There are widespread protests throughout the country.

Can you understand why almost half the population

feels deeply concerned that Turkey is now

on a path to one-man rule?

I have to bring it to you that

not only opposition groups, but also international monitors

around the world have said that that these results

are heavily, heavily contested.

How do you plan to reconcile those issues?

It seems like there's a real distrust of media in Turkey, including foreign media.

Why do you think it is that Turkey struggles so much with freedom of press?

Turkey has locked up more journalists

than anywhere else in the world.

Obviously, freedom of press is an issue here.

What happens to your role now that, under this new system,

the prime minister's position is obsolete?

Presumably the deputy prime minister's position is also obsolete.

Have you done yourself out of a job?

But whether this transfer of power to Erdogan

actually brings more stability remains to be seen.

Since the referendum, Germany has moved

to withdraw its troops from a NATO airbase in Turkey,

and Erdogan's own bodyguards violently attacked protesters on an official D.C. visit.

In Turkey, the state of emergency was extended once again

and thousands more have been fired and detained.

We followed as protesters took to the streets.

It's not just even Middle East or Islam.

The whole world is going to be more and more conservative,

populist, religious, as you can see even in the US for example.

We do know how vital our struggle is

to keep modernity alive in Turkey.

This is our struggle's name,

and it has global consequences,

whether we can survive out of this or not.

Sync & corrections by honeybunny www.addic7ed.com