Civil society leaders today condemned PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail's congratulatory message to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for winning a referendum to grant him more executive powers.

Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen said the message was "quite unnecessary" as the Erdogan leadership is not democratic.

"Turkey under Erdogan can hardly be described as 'democratic'. How many journalists, cartoonists, academicians, writers, judges and politicians are under politically-motivated detention in Turkey right now?" he asked in a tweet.

This was echoed by Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) executive director Cynthia Gabriel.

"Indeed a very questionable position for an opposition leader to take," Cynthia said in a tweet...