Pro-Kurd party rallies against boosting Erdogan powers

Turkey's pro-Kurdish party Thursday launched its campaign for a "No" vote in April's referendum on whether to give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan more powers as its two leaders remained imprisoned. Hundreds of people turned out for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) event in Istanbul where the party's spokesman described the proposal as "the greatest scourge in the history of our Republic". Turkey is to vote April 16 on changing the constitution to give Erdogan an executive presidency along the lines of that in France or in the United States.