Binali Yildirim, Turkish Prime Minister HARDtalk

welcome to HARDtalk with me, saying that the Dally. Pain in Ankara at

the office of the Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim. In this exclusive

interview I asked him whether Turkey is becoming more authoritarian after

the recent controversial and closely fought referendum. Can the

government bring together a divided nation? Prime Minister Binali

Yildirim, welcome to HARDtalk Thank you very much, you am most welcome

to this beautiful country, Turkey. Thank you. What is your response to

critics who say the recent referendum has turned Turkey into a

dictatorship, that there will be one party rule and president of the

gamble be like a latter-day Ottoman sultan? -- Erdogan.

All right, so you kind of address to one aspect of the criticisms, which

is that you had somehow rigged the vote, the party had, so that it

would be in your favour. You said how you refute those allegations.

But looking at the substance of what the constitutional chases -- changes

will bring, the argument is that it will concentrate too much power in

the hands of the presidency. That was the finding of the Venice

commission of the European Union, which looks into standards of

democracy, and what it said exactly was that Turkey's constitutional

changes means there would be an excessive concentration of executive

power in the hands of the President and a weakening of Parliamentary

control of that power. That is the case, isn't it? I tell you what

exactly the concern is. The President will now have the power to

choose Cabinet ministers without parliamentary approval. Also senior

judges to the Constitutional Court. He can issue presidential decrees,

devolves -- dissolve parliament unilaterally, have control over the

state bureaucracy. So a lot of people in Turkey said yes, we needed

to have the Constitution change because the one we were working from

was from the military imposed when the 1980s, but they are saying we

don't want these kind of change is however so that is the point. Yes,

you had to change the Constitution but you've just given the President

too much power. But at the Parliament is controlled by the

ruling party, that effectively would give President Erdogan, from that

party, six judges and it would give the majority party in the Parliament

the right to choose seven judges so it means effectively their executive

would control the judiciary, so you don't have the separation of powers.

Europe but the fact that it doesn't look good but Turkey, that the

president Erdogan were to win the next elections in 2019 and the one

after that, he could have been in power for three decades and people

say, "Look, that's not really good for democracy." It would make Turkey

at very best and authoritarian democracy. All right. There was also

concerned about the manner in which the referendum was conducted. First

of all, there have been allegations that there was vote rigging and

electoral fraud by the opposition CHP and also international observers

from the OSCE, the organisation for Security cooperation of Europe said

there were voting irregularities. There was also concerned about the

government using its privileged position during the campaign to put

all the posters up over the place saving vote yes, and depicting

people who wanted to vote no as terrorists, and that was a climate

that wasn't conducive to a level playing field, as the Council of

Europe said. But the opposition CHP say they will not accept the results

of the referendum, they are going to appeal to the Constitutional courts

and take it as far as the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary.

But nevertheless, it was a very close result and you are being urged

to form the broadest possible national consensus to try to bring

together the two parts of the country, those who voted yes, those

who voted no. How are you going to do that?

Just over a million, about 1.3 million.

But do you accept that it is really necessary for the government to

avoid any further divisions at this very difficult time for Turkey in

the aftermath of the failed coup last July? Example, you've extended

the state of emergency, there are tens of thousands of people,

academics, politicians, members of the military who are still in

detention, and, you know, the criticism here, Prime Minister, is

that there is an understanding there was going to be a limited purge

after the failed coup but now you've gone beyond that. What do you say to

that criticism? The criticism is that the response

has been disproportionate. Another question on the referendum,

President Erdogan says he would like to see a referendum on Turkey

joining the European Union. If there were such a vote what with the

Turkish people vote? When the referendum results came out

on the constitutional changes, President Trump congratulated

President Erdogan. And also we've seen how President Trump now in

Syria has fired around 60 cruise missiles at Bashar al-Assad's

military base. You deal a lot obviously with the Americans when it

comes to Syria. Are you seen a shift in President Trump's White House

that perhaps there could be a move towards regime change, getting

tougher with Bashar al-Assad than the previous Obama administration?

You are urging the US to be tougher on Bashar al-Assad, to try to remove

him one way or another. Is that what President Erdogan tells him?

Finally, presidential elections are due in 2019. If President Erdogan

wins, what's going to happen to you? You'll be out of a job, you would be

Prime Minister. The post has been abolished. What are you going to do?

I am going to come to you when to ask... What, come with me? To help!

Will you be out of a job? It's funny, the opposition party chairman

was campaigning and campaigning for... Because I don't want him to

be business. So this campaigning he used very strongly this argument and

I told them, don't think about me, think about the future of this

country. I can find something to do. Could you become vice president? I

have no long-term plan in my life. I am right now taking responsibility

of governing this country, together with the president, until the next

election. Then after let's see what is going to happen. God knows what's

going to happen? President Erdogan hasn't given you a clue?

We are friends, many, many long-time, since 1970s. We worked

together, we go together, we did a lot together. So at the end we will

be together as well. It sounds like... One way or another. One way

or another Binali Yildirim won't disappear from the political scene,

by the sounds of it? There is a timeframe. You can't go forever. If

the people need you, you have to be there. If not, better to be away.

It's not my decision. The people, if they want to see me in politics, if

they say it is useful for the people, for the country, I will be

at their disposal of my people. Otherwise I am not disturbing

anyone. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, thank you very much indeed

for coming on HARDtalk you're welcome.

As we've been discovering of late, spring can offer up a quite wide

variety of conditions and sometimes we try to cram it all into one day.