Is calm transition possible after Turkey's referendum?
With a thin win in major cities and allegations of voter fraud and illegal maneuvering, how long can Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stifle a budding movement resisting the referendum outcome?
ISTANBUL — During the night of April 15 until dawn the next day, the city did not sleep much. Sitting on the terrace of a Karakoy commercial district high-rise, my friends and I could see lights on all night in most of the neighborhood. On social media, hundreds of people complained about being sleepless and anxious as the referendum on constitutional changes approached.
When the call for morning prayer began around dawn, my first phone call came from friends in Sirnak, a war-torn city in southeast Turkey close to the Iraqi border. Its pro-Kurdish local government had been replaced months earlier by the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Local election observers had been removed under the emergency law, accused of supporting terrorism.
