. >> kadir: yes. >> anthony: i remember him well, running up hill.. >> anthony: he would like that? >> kadir: yeah, he'd like. >> anthony: first cigarette in two years for you, man. ♪ ♪ [ helicopter ] ♪ ♪ >>> a group of u.s. navy ships is headed toward the korean peninsula, a direct response to north korean missile tests. we'll be live with the latest. >>> also this hour, deadly air strikes target the same town that was hit by chemical weapons in syria less than a day after the u.s. bombed a syrian air base. hello everyone. we're coming to you live from beirut, lebanon. welcome to all of our viewers in the united states and all around the world. >> and i'm hannah vaughan jones for you live in london. you're watching cnn newsroom.

this referendum and what it means, i'm joined by steven cook of the council on foreign relations, and kadirun, the executive director of the foundation for political, economic and social research, a washington think tank focused on turkey and us-turkey relations. welcome to both of you. steven cook, you wrote a scathing response that's provocatively entitled western peace in turkey. do you think this is a threat to turkish democracy? >> it is certainly the end of the modern turkish state founded in the mid 1920s. we're moving on to something else with president erdogan's accumulation of power, that may be something new but has echoes in turkey's past. president erdogan set things up so he has so much power he rules like a sultan. >> brown: what do you see as that kind of power for president odor wan? >> this is an historic referendum. for the first time in modern turkish history, the civilians are decidin deciding the form of government. >> brown: so you see it as a positive step potentially? >> yes. >> brown: because this was needed? >> this was needed because you had two elected heads of