Erdogan's continuing power spells trouble

Bengaluru

TURKS head to the polls on April 16 to decide in a referendum whether to change their political system into a presidential one or retain the parliamentary system with the president as nominal head of state and the prime minister as chief executive.

If successful, the referendum will change the rules of the domestic political game, allowing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to exercise unbridled power possibly for more than a decade. Failure could introduce unprecedented viciousness in the conduct of the country's politics with Mr Erdogan lashing out at his opponents, both Turks and Kurds.

Either way, the referendum will affect Turkey's relations with the EU and the US. Europeans, highly critical towards Mr Erdogan's actions in t…