Swedish expert believes the referendum has made Turkey more polarized

TurkeySupporters of Turkey.Photo. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

The result of the referendum in Turkey clearly shows the divisions in the country, says the Swedish expert on Turkey, Paul Levin.

– This is very much in line with what opinion polls which came just before the election showed – a very narrow win for the yes side, says Paul Levin, who heads the Institute for Turkish Studies at Stockholm University.

– This referendum has further polarized an already divided country. The rhetoric has been very hard and aggressive, above all from the yes side, but also from the no side, Levin says.

Levin points out that it is difficult to get support for such major changes without having a clear majority vote.

– That the Government is pushing through an amendment to the country’s form of Government of this size with such a small majority vote, when one has lost to the no side in the three largest cities and it also raised many question on the integrity of the process, it creates problems of the legitimacy, he says.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today