ANKARA/ISTANBUL--A defiant Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the West's "crusader mentality" on Monday after European monitors criticised a referendum in which he won sweeping new powers.
Erdogan, whose narrow victory laid bare the nation's divisions, told flag-waving supporters that foreign election observers should "know their place" and Turkey did not "see, hear or acknowledge" criticism that the vote did not live up to international standards.
Sunday's vote ended all debate on forging a stronger presidency, said Erdogan, who argues that concentration of power is needed to prevent instability. Opponents accuse him of leading a drive toward one-man rule in Turkey, a NATO member that borders Iran, Iraq and Syria and whose stability is of vital importance to the United States and the European Union.
The main opposition party rejected the result and called for the vote to be annulled. Thousands of people marched through at least three neighbourhoods of Istanbul, some chanting "Thief, Erdogan," "no to the presidency" and "this is just the beginning" after calls on social media for protests in several cities.
Late on Monday, the cabinet extended a state of emergency by three months, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters. It was the third such extension since a failed coup attempt last July.
Election authorities said preliminary results showed 51.4 percent of voters had backed the biggest overhaul of Turkish politics since the founding of the modern republic. U.S. President Donald Trump called Erdogan to congratulate him on his referendum victory and to thank him for supporting a U.S. missile attack on Syria in response to a chemical attack by Syrian government forces on April 4, the White House said in a statement.
Trump and Erdogan also agreed on the importance of holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable for the chemical attack and discussed the campaign against the Islamic State, the statement said.
But the narrowness of his victory could add to volatility in a country that has lately survived an attempted coup, attacks by Islamists, a Kurdish insurgency, civil unrest and war across its Syrian border. The result laid bare the deep divide between the urban middle classes who see their future as part of a European mainstream and the pious rural poor who favour Erdogan's strong hand. Erdogan reiterated his readiness to restore the death penalty at several appearances on Monday, which would effectively end Turkey's decades-long quest to join the EU.
He said it was not important if the EU suspended Turkish accession talks. "The crusader mentality in the West and its servants at home have attacked us," Erdogan told a crowd as he arrived at Ankara airport, referring to the foreign monitors' assessment.
"We neither see, hear, nor acknowledge the political reports you'll prepare," he said later at the palace. "We'll continue on our path. Talk to the hand. This country has carried out the most democratic elections, not seen anywhere in the West."
