Nearly half of the voting members of the Turkish diaspora in Türkiye1.4 million live in Germany. In yesterday’s elections, ca. 730 000 of them, setting a new attendance record. As in 2018, so yesterday they gave Tayyip Erdogan V 65%.

The numbers are such that in the event of a draw in the second round, citizens of Turkish origin in Germany could even decide the outcome of the match.

In the last two decades, his AKP Tayyip Erdogan systematically worked on the organization of the diaspora, and the Turkish leadership has always attached particular importance to the Turkish minority in Germany. On an emotional level, the current president has succeeded in instilling in expatriate Turks unprecedented confidence and pride in their country.

Turkey developed economically, and its infrastructure now resembled the country they came to as immigrants.

Its foreign policy, human rights and rule of law concerns are obviously not equally relevant to the daily lives of Germans. What’s more, Tayyip Erdogan has succeeded in previous years in giving the diaspora a sense of “homeland,” an identity they felt they lacked, judging by frequent complaints that Germany treats them like second-class citizens.

“The German political class has never given Turks in Germany a sense of belonging to German society,” the sociologist told Deutsche Welle. Zabina Meyer from the University of Bamberg.

Indeed, Turks live in Germany, who, although they arrived in the country decades ago, still do not have the right to vote at their place of residence, but they do in Turkey – and this is valuable for them. Of particular importance to immigrants is legislation that now allows them to buy out their military service.

Of course, what is interesting is that the Turkish minority, when it votes in German elections, mostly chooses the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens, parties that have traditionally had more penetration into the working class.

On the other hand, Mr. Kemal Kilicdaroglu he lacks the infrastructure to do so abroad and now leads a coalition of smaller parties lacking ideological coherence. It is therefore even more difficult to appeal to expatriates with a unified voice, and as the stakes in the elections have become “yes or no to Tayyip Erdogan”, the electoral behavior of Germans of Turkish origin was quite expected.

MONKEY BEE