With less than two months left until the April 16 referendum on the constitutional amendment package, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began a tour of Turkey, noting yesterday at an awards ceremony in Ankara that the president, Parliament and the judiciary will all be subject to supervision under the new system. In addition to President Erdoğan's remarks, presidential spokesman İbrahim Kalın told members of the press during a briefing that the president plans to inform the people about how the proposed system will enhance Turkey's future.

During his speech at an awards ceremony held by the Turkish Contractors' Union, President Erdoğan criticized the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) for their irrelevant remarks about the proposed changes, saying: "The main opposition aims to distort the minds of citizens through misinformation that is irrelevant to the constitutional amendment package itself." Reminding the large crowd of attendees at the awards ceremony that the terrorists in the Qandil Mountains [the headquarters of the terrorist PKK organization] are urging people to vote "no," Erdoğan called on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the CHP and pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) voters to head to a "historic referendum on April 16 to place the fundamental building blocks of Turkey's new system in unity."

Reiterating that the constitutional amendment package has nothing to do with regime change, the president said: "The greatest guarantor of the proposed system is the nation.Receiving more than 50 percent popular support means that one's aspirations to embrace the entire nation have the support of our people and convey one's aspiration to embrace the entire nation with a unified program, plan, project and pluralist understanding."

Furthermore, President Erdoğan underlined that the greatest benefit of the new presidential system is that it protects the presidential term in a five-year span, offering stability for the country: "Formerly the president could be held responsible of treason alone. Now, [with the proposed system], along with Parliament and the judiciary, they [the president] will also be subject inspection."

Presidential spokesman Kalın told members of the press that "The constitutional amendment package also strongly protects one of democracy's fundamental principles: The separation of powers." Pointing out that the constitutional amendment package would end an era of coalition governments and begin a new era of a united Turkey, Kalın noted: "This system will protect political stability in the country, while enhancing reforms. …It will also allow Turkey to leap forward to its 2023 goals."