Turkey approved the constitutional reforms proposed by Turkish Premier Recep Erdogan and the ruling party Justice and Development. The Central Electoral Commission of Turkey reports that 57.92% of all the voters supported the draft constitutional reforms at the September 12 referendum. 42.07% voted against the initiative.

On the other hand, the Kurdish population of Turkey’s south-eastern regions listened to the calls by the Kurdish party Peace and Democracy and boycotted the referendum. Specifically, 70% of the voters boycotted the referendum in Diyarbakir, 80% in Şırnak and 93% in Hakkâri. No one participated in the voting in the villages of Sekerveren and Bozcali, Diyarbakir province. As a result of the boycott, the overwhelming majority of voters actually said “yes” to the reforms. In Diyarbakir, 94% voted for the reforms, whereas in Tunceli (Dersim), which is mostly populated by Alevis, 80% voted against Erdogan’s initiative. The leader of the Democratic People's Party comes from Tunceli. The party called for “no” to the constitutional reforms.

The day before the referendum saw mass arrests of the boycotters. On the referendum day the boycotters numbered 200, most of them being members of the Peace and Democracy Party.

Immediately after the first results were announced, Premier Recep Erdogan hurried to the Istanbul office of the ruling party and made a statement. He stressed that democracy gained victory in Turkey and thanked those who voted for the reforms. According to him, both the ones that aid “yes” and the ones that said “no” won.

NEWS.am reminds readers that the Turkish Parliament approved the ruling party’s draft constitutional reforms this May. Although Erdogan’s supporters constitute a parliamentary majority, two of most important points were not approved. The Republican People's Party appealed the draft reforms at the Constitutional Court after Parliament approved them. After considering the appeal, the Constitutional Court partly put the statute to a referendum, as it found the amendments concerning the structure of the Constitutional Court and of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors as violating law.

The Nationalist Movement and the Peace and Democracy Party were strongly against the draft reforms as well. Moreover, the Kurdish party called for boycotting the referendum as the draft did not guarantee democratization in Turkey and the settlement of the Kurdish problem.