The Council of Europe rejects the vote for the referendum in Turkey, won by President Erdogan with a difference of 1,25 million votes and a narrow majority (51,2%). And they don't subside the objections of the opposition the day after the victory claimed by the presidential front.
“There is a suspicion that up to 2,5 million votes may have been manipulated,” one of the Council of Europe's mission observers, Austrian Alev Korun told Austrian public radio Orf. His statements correspond to the denunciation of the Turkish opposition, which already on Sunday, immediately after the polls closed, had contested the existence of at least 2,5 million ballots that did not have the electoral stamp; and had accused the YSK Central Election Commission of not respecting the law because it had decided to consider the ballots valid. Given that the yes won with a gap of 1,25 million votes, the denunciation could reverse the result, but the central electoral commission has already said that it has considered valid, even in the past, ballots without the electoral stamp. So much so that the opposition (the Kurdish HDP party) has already announced that it is ready to present an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Korun, spokesman for the Austrian Green party, acknowledged that there is little chance that the Turkish opposition's appeal will lead to any results. The Austrian politician, who moved to Turkey to follow the referendum vote as part of the joint mission of the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said she did not witness any irregularities during the vote ; but that you have news of the fact that in the regions where the Kurdish minority is concentrated, the work of the observers has been hindered. For example, two of her colleagues were prevented from entering polling stations in the city of Diyarbakir by the Turkish police.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was congratulated by telephone from America by US President Donald Trump who congratulated the result of the referendum and sought his support for Assad on the American response to the gas attack. The tycoon thanked Erdogan for his support for US action and the two leaders "agreed on the importance of holding Assad accountable".
Germany instead asked Turkey to engage in a "respectful dialogue of all political and civil parties" after the results of the referendum showed "how deeply Turkish society is divided".
While the controversies continue to rage, a few minutes ago the news arrived of a plane crash involving a helicopter carrying at least 12 people including members of the security forces and judges of the electoral commission. The aircraft crashed in the southeastern Turkish province of Tunceli "due to bad weather conditions". This was announced by the local prefecture.
According to authorities, there were seven policemen, a non-commissioned officer, a judge and three other Commission staff members on board. According to what was communicated by the prefecture, the Skorsky helicopter signal was lost about 10 minutes after its departure, at 11.40 local time on Tuesday morning (10.40 in Italy). A military team of rescuers was sent to the scene and at the moment there is no news of any survivors.
