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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (file photo)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (file photo)

The Turkish government is planning a referendum next spring on amending the constitution to bolster the powers of the president.

Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli told Turkish television on December 9 that the government would send its plan to parliament later the same day.

He said the 316 lawmakers of the ruling AK Party and 39 from the Nationalist Movement Party (NHP) would be enough to secure a two-thirds majority in the 550-seat legislature.

Canikli did not say exactly what the proposed amendments would entail, but he said the government wants the process completed before the country holds presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019.

Also on December 9, Turkish prosecutors ordered the arrests of 87 people connected to Istanbul University as part of the ongoing crackdown against supporters of self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government blames Gulen for a failed coup attempt in July that left some 240 people dead. Gulen, who lives in the United States, denies all involvement.

Ankara has jailed about 36,000 people and removed or suspended another 100,000 from government posts since the crackdown began.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Anadolu

Two pro-Russian activists have been detained in Belarus on suspicion of inciting ethnic discord.

Activists Dzmitry Alimkin and Yuriy Paulavets were detained on December 6, their relatives and friends say.

Alimkin's wife said on December 8 that police searched their apartment in the western city of Brest on December 6 and detained her husband on suspicion of inciting ethnic discord via the Internet.

Paulavets' friends said earlier that he was detained in Minsk on December 6 on similar charges.

Both Alimkin and Paulavets are known for their pro-Russia articles, criticizing Minsk for "pro-European policies" in online publications in Belarus and Russia.

Governments in the former Soviet republics have been concerned about Moscow's intentions following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and its involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have seized control of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

On December 8, a court in Kazakhstan sentenced a local man to five and a half years in prison for inciting separatism via the Internet.

With reporting by Nasha Niva and elaruspartisan.org

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"Watchdog" is a blog with a singular mission -- to monitor the latest developments concerning human rights, civil society, and press freedom. We'll pay particular attention to reports concerning countries in RFE/RL's broadcast region.

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