With a fortnight to go until Turkey’s presidential referendum, political atmosphere has so polarized that a yes campaigner shot dead a perceived naysayer with a pump-rifle after swearing at him.

According to Gazete Manifesto online news outlet, 44-year-old V.Ç. stopped by a local foundation building in Sivas’s Şenbağlar village and shouted: ” Is there any son of a bitch here who will vote No?”

Hüseyin Eser, a 62-year-old Istanbul taxi driver who was visiting his hometown Şenbağlar reacted to V.Ç. by asking him to calm down.

V.Ç. took two shots at Eser with his rifle targeting the latter’s hands and heart respectively.

While Eser succumbed to his wounds, V.Ç. was detained by gendarmerie.

Meanwhile, Doğan news agency said the two had had a separate argument prior to the incident and V.Ç. was drunk when he dropped by the foundation. Doğan did not mention about the murder’s relations to the referendum at all.

The referendum, scheduled to take place on April 16, is set to introduce a shift from parliamentary power to the executive presidency and to give more power to Turkey’s already autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (turkeypurge. com) March 31, 2017