Referendum result is a significant success says Bahçeli

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli said late Sunday that the referendum results were "an important success" as Turkey leaned 'Yes' in the polls.

Nationalist Action Party head Bahçeli said in a statement that Turkish voters chose of their free will to move the country from a parliamentary to a presidential system of government.

Bahçeli called the outcome "a very important success; a win that makes neglect and denial impossible."

He says Turkey rejected international "pressure, blackmail, imposition, force and threats by the whole world to put the 'no' choice forward."

"The Turkish people have gone to the polls with a great dignity and decided on shifting to the presidential system of their own free will. This is a very significant achievement and cannot be ignored or rejected," Devlet Bahçeli said in a statement.

Bahçeli said everybody "should respect and approve" the result in which Turkish citizens voted Yes to moving to an executive presidency.

"The great Turkish nation, the sole owner of sovereignty, has given the final word about the future of its country, clinging to its independence and future. Everybody should respect and approve it," he added.

Bahçeli congratulated the Turkish people and Turkey's political parties on the Yes result and said: "A new era in our state and political life has started as the national will pointed to Yes."