Protests broke out across Turkey as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a European observer mission to "know your place" after they criticised Sunday's constitutional referendum, according to Middle East Eye.

Speaking to a rally of supporters in Ankara on Monday he said that some European countries had opposed him winning the referendum more than members of the Turkish opposition.

"Know your place first," Erdogan told the monitors in an address to supporters outside his vast presidential palace in Ankara.

"We neither see, hear, nor know those politically motivated reports that you will draft,"  he said after the report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) monitors.

He said that Turkey could hold a referendum on its long-stalled EU membership bid following the criticism.

"For 54 years, what did they make us do at the EU's door? Wait!" Erdogan told supporters.

He added that he would be happy to sign into a law the reintroduction of the death penalty if "adopted by parliament" a move that would effectively end Turkey's EU membership bid.

Protests broke out on Monday evening in numerous cities across Turkey, as representatives from the European human rights organisation's observer mission warned that Sunday's referendum did not live up to standards set by the Council of Europe, citing an inadequate legal framework and late changes in ballot counting.

Turks on Sunday voted by a narrow 51.4% margin to change their constitution and grant President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers. The main opposition party has demanded the result be nullified, saying the voting was marred by irregularities.

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