Binali Yildirim, Turkey's prime minister HARDtalk

Zeinab Badawi talks to Turkey's Prime Minister.

Welcome to this special edition of HARDtalk.

My guest today is Turkey's Prime Minister,

In his maiden speech in May he said Turkey would be seeking more friends

What does this mean for the fight against terror?

Thank you very much. Welcome to Turkey, welcomed the Istanbul. A

fascinating city. A great pleasure to have you here. Thank you very

much. The world was shocked at the attack on Istanbul airport. The

president Recep Tayep Erdogan said this represented a turning point in

the global fight against terror. Can we expect any change in policies

from Turkey? I know you've only been Prime

Minister since May, but you've been in the Cabinet for more than 12

years. You've been associated president and an ally since the

early 90s, so you know what is going on. I have to put the accusations to

you. Both from inside Turkey and outside. The argument is essentially

that Turkey has in the past few years supported groups fighting

President Assad in Syria, which has helped the so-called Islamic State

take hold in the region and it now poses a threat to your own country.

Now Daesh as you call it maybe a threat but point is Prime Minister

that your government or your country has moved too late against the

threat of IS, really only in the last year. So I give you one

criticism. An adviser to the 11th president of Turkey has said, Turkey

was used as a rare base for IS, a master and other factions. --

Al-Nusra. Turkey's support of such factions in Syria normalised the

extremists in the eyes of pious Turks. So the accusation is that

Turkey has helped create this problem.

Turkey is obviously saying that there are terror attacks carried out

by IS, it's a terrorist organisation you've just said. But does Turkey

feel that it has contributed to the problem because there have been well

documented areas of research that showed that there are cells that are

links to IS in Turkey. Can you come to grow -- categorically say that

you are stopping this? And will you allow open discussion

about this topic? Because there is that in the past Turkey has wanted

to keep a lid on this kind of conversation, that you and I are

having now. I give you one example. The editor in chief of a university

newspaper was given a six-year sentence this year because he was

found guilty of leaking secret state information for his newspaper's

reports, claiming that Turkey was sending weapons to Islamist in

Syria. Are you going to have an open debate and not put pressure on

people like him who want to discuss this openly?

So if he comes back will he be put in prison? Aussie has been in the UK

recently. Could we in the light of the attacks

by IS in Turkey see a change in policy towards President Bashar

al-Assad from Turkey? Because you've always been impeccable in your

opposition to him. -- implacable. Could you perhaps, as Britain has

suggested, see that he may have to play a part up to appoint, as Philip

Hammond, the Foreign Secretary said, if there is a transition, play a

part of two point? -- up to. Pro-government Turkish newspapers

could be preparing the public for a shift. For example, it was written

in a newspaper that a deadly terror campaign inside the country by IS is

pushing Ankara to change its priorities and leave behind its

Syria policy. Is that not the case, that you might just change your

policy and say you don't want Assad to stay but maybe he can stay for

now while you sort out IS? Can you do both at the same time?

Don't you have -- have to have a priority, first moving Assad?

You've talked about the consequences of the turmoil in the region and the

fact that Turkey supports 3 million Syrian refugees. But there have also

been refugees from Syria and other countries going to Europe and you

have struck a deal recently with the European Union, that there is this

one for one refugee deal, that for every refugee that Turkey stops

going into Europe Europe will take a refugee from a camping Turkey. That

should also give Turkey something, for example these are free travel in

the Schengen area. -- visa free. You don't have those concerns yet that

this may never happen. President Erdogan says it didn't get that the

whole deal may unravel. Where are we at without? -- with that?

I want to know really whether Turkey may renege on this deal with Europe

and if so could that happen soon? That Turkey says, we are not happy,

we are going to just allow the refugees to go into Europe.

But you've got a long wait, sorry, you've got a long way to go on this.

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, said at this rate Turkey

won't join the EU until the year 3000. It has a long way to go.

He did not, but OK, you bring up the recent EU referendum campaign in the

UK and it was the Brexit campaign, not the Remain campaign, that

brought up the issue of Turkey and the accusation was their worst share

-- scare tactics to say many Turks would join the EU to discourage

people from remaining EU. The vice president of the all-party

parliamentary group in the UK said, she is a Turkish Cypriots, I was

appalled that leading Brexit campaigners, including Boris

Johnson, the Conservative MP and former Mayor of London, used

negative posters across the country to stoke fear that 78 million Turks

were joining the EU and were potentially coming to the UK. How

did you feel about that? So, you said you were disappointed

in Boris Johnson in particular, because of his Turkish

great-grandfather. What would you say to him?

I just want to ask you also, Prime Minister...

On the Syrian refugees we are hearing reports in the press that

they may be offered Turkish citizenship. Is that right?

So, you could have, in theory, 3 million new citizens in Turkey of

Syrian origin? Let's talk about the potential

referendum in Turkey to try to change the Constitution to give the

presidency more power. We know that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was

the first elected President in Turkey. The Constitution at the

moment as US Prime Minister, and you have a government and so on, but the

concern is that there will be constitutional changes in this

referendum whenever it happens, which will strengthen the president

and weaken your position. Is that something you support?

But the fear is that you can't be your own man, that you cannot really

be an effective minister if these changes happen, and of course you

don't have a full majority, 60%, in the Parliament in order to vote

these changes through, so you will have to make deals and we will have

to see what kind of changes will be made to the Constitution. The fear

is that you may not be able to stand up to a very powerful president who

has dominated the Turkish political scene for a decade as Prime Minister

and now was president. You are not worried that would lead

to an authoritarian system that you would leave behind for your

successes? Briefly on There were checks and balances,

though, with all respect Prime Minister. Some of those would give

the President much greater powers over appointing the judiciary and

the government, setting the date of elections. That is the fear, that it

would concentrate too much power without checks and balances.

One of the things the Europeans are looking at, and the international

community indeed, is your campaign against the Kurdish militants is not

wider than that, that you are somehow waging a hidden war against

ordinary Kurdish civilians. We know the PKK is seen as a terror

organisation by the international community, but can you guarantee you

are not trying to attack ordinary Kurds under the guise of this

campaign? You are also opposed to the DUI D,

who are the Syrian Kurds who are fighting against Bashar Al-Assad,

and they are supported by key countries like the United States,

yet you are opposed to them, which puts you on the other side of the

international community. You are the Prime Minister who has said you want

more friends and fewer enemies. Prime Minister, thank you very much

indeed for coming on HARDtalk. I think you could be forgiven

for wanting a little bit more from this summer, more warm

weather, more dry weather.