Voting ban abroad leaves German Turks disgruntled
Source: Reuters
By Douwe Miedema BERLIN, July 19 (Reuters) - Turks in Germany say their homeland is robbing millions of citizens of a basic right by not letting anyone vote outside the country. Turkey has set up polling stations on its land borders and at airports ahead of Sunday's parliamentary election, but unlike most Western countries does not let citizens abroad vote at embassies, by mail or electronically. "Flying to Turkey from here, some pocket money, a hotel room, that'll cost you 1,000 euros ($1,400). Who has got 1,000 euros to spend here? Many people are unemployed," says Mehmet Cumhur, who sits outside a cafe in Berlin. He is one of Germany's 2.7 million people of Turkish origin -- the world's largest Turkish migrant community, most of whom still have Turkish citizenship. Sunday's poll is seen as a key decision on Turkey's direction at a time of deep divisions in the Muslim but secular country. The ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party hopes it will end a standoff between the government and the powerful secular elite. Some 200,000 Turks live in Berlin's Kreuzberg area and other parts of Germany's capital, the largest number in any city outside Turkey. Plans to make it easier to vote from abroad have foundered despite years of promises by Turkish authorities, the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD) group says. "People are very upset, because it has been promised so often, but nothing has happened," said Cumali Kangal, who sits on the board of TGD. "If they want to vote, which is their right, they need to fly to Turkey, or drive there." Some 200,000 Turkish migrants have already voted at Turkey's border, the Essen-based Centre for Studies on Turkey said, and some 400,000 are expected to do so in total -- only a fraction of the 6.5 million Turkish passport holders living abroad. The Turkish embassy in Berlin said voting abroad was impossible for technical reasons this time round, but would be possible "soon". Germany is home to the second-largest Islamic population in Western Europe after France.
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