:00:00. > :00:20.welcome to HARDtalk with me, saying that the Dally. Pain in Ankara at
:00:21. > :00:23.the office of the Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim. In this exclusive
:00:24. > :00:29.interview I asked him whether Turkey is becoming more authoritarian after
:00:30. > :00:32.the recent controversial and closely fought referendum. Can the
:00:33. > :00:53.government bring together a divided nation? Prime Minister Binali
:00:54. > :00:58.Yildirim, welcome to HARDtalk Thank you very much, you am most welcome
:00:59. > :01:02.to this beautiful country, Turkey. Thank you. What is your response to
:01:03. > :01:10.critics who say the recent referendum has turned Turkey into a
:01:11. > :01:14.dictatorship, that there will be one party rule and president of the
:01:15. > :03:01.gamble be like a latter-day Ottoman sultan? -- Erdogan.
:03:02. > :03:09.All right, so you kind of address to one aspect of the criticisms, which
:03:10. > :03:15.is that you had somehow rigged the vote, the party had, so that it
:03:16. > :03:19.would be in your favour. You said how you refute those allegations.
:03:20. > :03:24.But looking at the substance of what the constitutional chases -- changes
:03:25. > :03:28.will bring, the argument is that it will concentrate too much power in
:03:29. > :03:31.the hands of the presidency. That was the finding of the Venice
:03:32. > :03:36.commission of the European Union, which looks into standards of
:03:37. > :03:40.democracy, and what it said exactly was that Turkey's constitutional
:03:41. > :03:44.changes means there would be an excessive concentration of executive
:03:45. > :03:48.power in the hands of the President and a weakening of Parliamentary
:03:49. > :04:57.control of that power. That is the case, isn't it? I tell you what
:04:58. > :05:01.exactly the concern is. The President will now have the power to
:05:02. > :05:06.choose Cabinet ministers without parliamentary approval. Also senior
:05:07. > :05:10.judges to the Constitutional Court. He can issue presidential decrees,
:05:11. > :05:14.devolves -- dissolve parliament unilaterally, have control over the
:05:15. > :05:17.state bureaucracy. So a lot of people in Turkey said yes, we needed
:05:18. > :05:22.to have the Constitution change because the one we were working from
:05:23. > :05:26.was from the military imposed when the 1980s, but they are saying we
:05:27. > :05:30.don't want these kind of change is however so that is the point. Yes,
:05:31. > :06:13.you had to change the Constitution but you've just given the President
:06:14. > :06:19.too much power. But at the Parliament is controlled by the
:06:20. > :06:25.ruling party, that effectively would give President Erdogan, from that
:06:26. > :06:30.party, six judges and it would give the majority party in the Parliament
:06:31. > :06:34.the right to choose seven judges so it means effectively their executive
:06:35. > :07:01.would control the judiciary, so you don't have the separation of powers.
:07:02. > :07:05.Europe but the fact that it doesn't look good but Turkey, that the
:07:06. > :07:10.president Erdogan were to win the next elections in 2019 and the one
:07:11. > :07:16.after that, he could have been in power for three decades and people
:07:17. > :07:19.say, "Look, that's not really good for democracy." It would make Turkey
:07:20. > :07:56.at very best and authoritarian democracy. All right. There was also
:07:57. > :08:00.concerned about the manner in which the referendum was conducted. First
:08:01. > :08:05.of all, there have been allegations that there was vote rigging and
:08:06. > :08:11.electoral fraud by the opposition CHP and also international observers
:08:12. > :08:14.from the OSCE, the organisation for Security cooperation of Europe said
:08:15. > :08:19.there were voting irregularities. There was also concerned about the
:08:20. > :08:22.government using its privileged position during the campaign to put
:08:23. > :08:27.all the posters up over the place saving vote yes, and depicting
:08:28. > :08:32.people who wanted to vote no as terrorists, and that was a climate
:08:33. > :09:05.that wasn't conducive to a level playing field, as the Council of
:09:06. > :09:09.Europe said. But the opposition CHP say they will not accept the results
:09:10. > :09:12.of the referendum, they are going to appeal to the Constitutional courts
:09:13. > :10:00.and take it as far as the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary.
:10:01. > :10:11.But nevertheless, it was a very close result and you are being urged
:10:12. > :10:14.to form the broadest possible national consensus to try to bring
:10:15. > :10:19.together the two parts of the country, those who voted yes, those
:10:20. > :10:39.who voted no. How are you going to do that?
:10:40. > :11:53.Just over a million, about 1.3 million.
:11:54. > :12:00.But do you accept that it is really necessary for the government to
:12:01. > :12:05.avoid any further divisions at this very difficult time for Turkey in
:12:06. > :12:09.the aftermath of the failed coup last July? Example, you've extended
:12:10. > :12:14.the state of emergency, there are tens of thousands of people,
:12:15. > :12:20.academics, politicians, members of the military who are still in
:12:21. > :12:24.detention, and, you know, the criticism here, Prime Minister, is
:12:25. > :12:28.that there is an understanding there was going to be a limited purge
:12:29. > :12:31.after the failed coup but now you've gone beyond that. What do you say to
:12:32. > :13:34.that criticism? The criticism is that the response
:13:35. > :15:15.has been disproportionate. Another question on the referendum,
:15:16. > :15:20.President Erdogan says he would like to see a referendum on Turkey
:15:21. > :15:22.joining the European Union. If there were such a vote what with the
:15:23. > :17:23.Turkish people vote? When the referendum results came out
:17:24. > :17:29.on the constitutional changes, President Trump congratulated
:17:30. > :17:36.President Erdogan. And also we've seen how President Trump now in
:17:37. > :17:40.Syria has fired around 60 cruise missiles at Bashar al-Assad's
:17:41. > :17:44.military base. You deal a lot obviously with the Americans when it
:17:45. > :17:49.comes to Syria. Are you seen a shift in President Trump's White House
:17:50. > :17:53.that perhaps there could be a move towards regime change, getting
:17:54. > :19:43.tougher with Bashar al-Assad than the previous Obama administration?
:19:44. > :19:51.You are urging the US to be tougher on Bashar al-Assad, to try to remove
:19:52. > :21:20.him one way or another. Is that what President Erdogan tells him?
:21:21. > :21:27.Finally, presidential elections are due in 2019. If President Erdogan
:21:28. > :21:31.wins, what's going to happen to you? You'll be out of a job, you would be
:21:32. > :21:36.Prime Minister. The post has been abolished. What are you going to do?
:21:37. > :21:46.I am going to come to you when to ask... What, come with me? To help!
:21:47. > :21:59.Will you be out of a job? It's funny, the opposition party chairman
:22:00. > :22:06.was campaigning and campaigning for... Because I don't want him to
:22:07. > :22:12.be business. So this campaigning he used very strongly this argument and
:22:13. > :22:16.I told them, don't think about me, think about the future of this
:22:17. > :22:27.country. I can find something to do. Could you become vice president? I
:22:28. > :22:37.have no long-term plan in my life. I am right now taking responsibility
:22:38. > :22:45.of governing this country, together with the president, until the next
:22:46. > :22:51.election. Then after let's see what is going to happen. God knows what's
:22:52. > :22:57.going to happen? President Erdogan hasn't given you a clue?
:22:58. > :23:15.We are friends, many, many long-time, since 1970s. We worked
:23:16. > :23:20.together, we go together, we did a lot together. So at the end we will
:23:21. > :23:26.be together as well. It sounds like... One way or another. One way
:23:27. > :23:30.or another Binali Yildirim won't disappear from the political scene,
:23:31. > :23:37.by the sounds of it? There is a timeframe. You can't go forever. If
:23:38. > :23:49.the people need you, you have to be there. If not, better to be away.
:23:50. > :23:56.It's not my decision. The people, if they want to see me in politics, if
:23:57. > :24:04.they say it is useful for the people, for the country, I will be
:24:05. > :24:11.at their disposal of my people. Otherwise I am not disturbing
:24:12. > :24:14.anyone. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, thank you very much indeed
:24:15. > :24:41.for coming on HARDtalk you're welcome.
:24:42. > :24:47.As we've been discovering of late, spring can offer up a quite wide
:24:48. > :24:52.variety of conditions and sometimes we try to cram it all into one day.