Im in ankara at the office of the prime minister, Binali Yildirim. In this exclusive interview i asked him whether turkey is becoming more authoritarian after the recent controversial and closely fought referendum. Can the government bring together a divided nation . Prime minister Binali Yildirim, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you very much you are most welcome to this beautiful country, turkey. Thank you. What is your response to critics who say the recent referendum has turned turkey into a dictatorship, that there will be one party rule and president erdogan will be like a latter day Ottoman Sultan . Alright, so you kind of addressed one aspect of the criticisms, which is that you had somehow rigged the vote, the ak parti had, so that it would be in yourfavour. You said how you refute those allegations. But looking at the substance of what the constitutional changes will bring, the argument is that it will concentrate too much power in the hands of the presidency. That was the finding of the Venice Commission of the european union, which looks into standards of democracy, and what it said exactly was that turkeys constitutional changes means there would be an excessive concentration of Executive Power in the hands of the president and a weakening of parliamentary control of that power. That is the case, isnt it . I tell you what exactly the concern is. The president will now have the power to choose Cabinet Ministers without parliamentary approval. Also seniorjudges to the constitutional court. He can issue president ial decrees, dissolve parliament unilaterally, have control over the state bureaucracy. So a lot of people in turkey said, yes, we needed to have the constitution changed because the one we were working from was from the military imposed one in the 1980s, but they are saying we dont want these kind of change is however so that is the point. Yes, you had to change the constitution but youve just given the president too much power. But at the parliament is controlled by the ruling party, the ak parti, that effectively would give president erdogan, from the ak parti, sixjudges and it would give the Majority Party in the parliament the right to choose seven judges so it means effectively their executive would control the judiciary, so you dont have the separation of powers. Yes, but the fact is that it doesnt look good but turkey, that if president erdogan were to win the next elections in 2019 and the one after that, he could have been in power for three decades and people say, look, thats not really good for democracy. It would make turkey, at very best, an authoritarian democracy. Alright. There was also concern about the manner in which the referendum was conducted. First of all, there have been allegations that there was vote rigging and electoral fraud by the Opposition Chp and also International Observers from the osce, the organisation for Security Cooperation in europe said there were voting irregularities. There was also concerned about the government using its privileged position during the campaign to put all the posters up over the place saying, vote yes, and depicting people who wanted to vote no as terrorists, and that was a climate that wasnt conducive to a level playing field, as the Council Of Europe said. But the Opposition Chp say they will not accept the results of the referendum, they are going to appeal to the constitutional courts and take it as far as the European Court of human rights, if necessary. But nevertheless, it was a very close result and youre being urged to form the broadest possible National Consensus to try to bring together the two parts of the country, those who voted yes, those who voted no. How are you going to do that . Just over a million, about 1. 3 million. But do you accept that it is really necessary for the government to avoid any further divisions at this very difficult time for turkey in the aftermath of the failed Coup Lastjuly . For example, youve extended the state of emergency, there are Tens Of Thousands of people, academics, politicians, members of the military who are still in detention, and, you know, the criticism here, prime minister, is that there is an understanding there was going to be a limited purge after the failed coup but now youve gone beyond that. What do you say to that criticism . But you need a proportionate response. The criticism is that the response has been disproportionate. Another question on the referendum, president erdogan says he would like to see a referendum on turkey joining the european union. If there were such a vote, what would the turkish people vote . When the Referendum Results came out on the constitutional changes, President Trump congratulated president erdogan. And also weve seen how President Trump now in syria has fired around 60 Cruise Missiles at Bashar Al Assads military base. You deal a lot, obviously, with the americans when it comes to syria. Are you seeing a shift in President Trumps white house that perhaps there could be a move towards regime change, getting tougher with bashar al assad, than the Previous Obama Administration . You are urging the us to be tougher on bashar al assad, to try to remove him one way or another. Is that what president erdogan tells him . Finally, president ial elections are due in 2019. If president erdogan wins, whats going to happen to you . Youll be out of a job, you wont be prime minister, the post has been abolished. What are you going to do . I am going to come to you and ask. What, come with me . To help will you be out of a job . Its funny, the Opposition Party chairman was campaigning and campaigning for this. Because i dont want him to be this. So this campaigning he used very strongly this argument and i told them, dont think about me, think about the future of this country. I can find something to do. Could you become Vice President . I have no Long Term Plan in my life. I am right now taking responsibility of governing this country, together with the president , until the next election. Then after lets see what is going to happen. God knows, allah, whats going to happen . President erdogan hasnt given you a clue . No, he hasnt . We are friends, many, many long time, since 1970s. We worked together, we go together, we did a lot together. So at the end we will be together as well. It sounds like. One way or another. One way or another, Binali Yildirim wont disappear from the political scene, by the sounds of it . There is a timeframe. You cant go forever. If the people need you, you have to be there. If not, better to be away. Its not my decision. The people, if they want to see me in politics, if they say it is useful for the people, for the country, i will be at the disposal of my people. Otherwise i am not disturbing anyone. Prime minister Binali Yildirim, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. Youre welcome. Well, the Bank Holiday Weekend is upon us. Lets see what the weathers up to. Its looking a little bit mixed. A little breezy but reasonably warm i think for most of us and there is some rain on the way, but not everybodys going to get the rain. Lets see the weather map in the short term. Weather fronts are fairly close to the uk, but far enough to give us a dry start to the day. So this is what it looks like around 4 5am in the morning. Lots of clear spells around, temperatures in towns and cities around 6 9 degrees celsius, so not a particularly chilly start to the day. Saturday morning, dawns on a bright if not sunny note for most of us. There will be a little bit of cloud here and there, but the cloud breaks up through the morning and the best of the sunshine on saturday is expected across the southern half of the uk, especially the south coast. So looking out to sea, it might be clear blue skies. Temperatures at lunchtime, ipm there, 15 degrees in london. But for most of us, around 12 13 degrees, and just maybe one or two light, stray showers around, but thats pretty much it. Nice enough there in inverness as well, about 12 degrees with sunshine. The afternoons not going to change much. It will turn breezy across some of these western areas, maybe even later in the day in northern ireland. Around the coasts it could even touch gale force. How are we doing compared to the rest of europe on saturday . Fairly similar. 17 in paris. We are doing better than madrid. Madrid about 14 degrees. Rome will be sunny at 22. The real heat at the moment across greece, there, into the 30s. Back to the uk, saturday and into sunday, low pressure still out there in the atlantic. But starting to push Weather Fronts ever closer. So already, on sunday, the weather will be going downhill across south Western Parts of the uk. Quite strong winds as well notjust in the south west, but also in these sunnier spots too. Along the north sea coasts, really blustery winds. So feeling really quite chilly on the coast. Ahead of this Weather Front and the rain it could get up to 18 in london and possibly the mid or high teens in scotland as well. And then through the course of the evening, this is sunday evening, that rain will be slowly pushing further north and east. By the time we get to monday, you can see the Weather Front in the north and the chance of catching some showers across southern areas. So a bit of a mix. Certainly the best day of the weekend looks as if it will be sunday, with dry weather across the uk. And this is what the average temperature at this time of year. 16 in the south and 1a in the north, so thats roughly what were getting. Hello and welcome to bbc news. In the last few hours, the us military and south korean officials have confirmed that north korea fired a ballistic missile, which exploded shortly after launch. The failed test, reportedly from near an airfield in pukchang, came just hours after a special session at the Un Security Council in which the us pushed for tougher sanctions on the pyongyang regime. Barbara plett usher has this report from the Un Headquarters in new york. After weeks of mounting concern in washington about north korea, the Secretary Of State arrived at the United Nations to make his case. Un sanctions arent working, was the message. There needs to be a new campaign of pressure
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