In May 2023, parliamentary and presidential elections will be held in Turkey again after five years. These will be held in the light – or rather, in the shadow – of the recent earthquakes.
The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 and the aftershocks affected Syria as well as Turkey and have so far claimed the lives of around 50,000 people. Historic cities like Antakya were almost obliterated.
Politicising the earthquake
While some speak of a tragic fate, others hold politics responsible. For example, many on social media criticise that the earthquake tax introduced after the 1999 Izmit earthquake did not reach the right places: construction in the earthquake-prone regions was still inadequate. Video footage shows that a large part of the buildings collapsed like card houses. The earthquake has traumatised Turkish society. This trauma will also have an effect on the elections, many are sure.
Germany as a constituency
As in all elections in Turkey, Turkish[1] voters in Germany play a major role. There are about 1.5 million people living in Germany who have Turkish citizenship and are therefore entitled to vote if they are at least 18 years old. Thus, these voters constitute a comprehensive and relevant constituency for Turkish politicians.
The fact that the turnout of this group of voters is not insignificant has been shown time and again in the past: In the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2018, 64.8 per cent of voters living in Germany voted for the ruling AKP party and President Erdoğan, while the result in Turkey was 52.6 per cent. This means that the approval of the government’s course among voters in Germany was more than ten percent higher than that of voters in Turkey.
Criticism of the Union and adherence to the Turkish passport
Many politicians in Germany were dismayed by this. On the one hand, politicians from the CDU/CSU in particular emphasised that the failed integration of a large part of people of Turkish origin in Germany could be deduced from this election result. On the other hand, they used this as an argument to once again vehemently oppose dual citizenship. As the Union’s criticism suggests, the voting behaviour of people with Turkish citizenship in Germany has always been a controversial issue.
In Turkey, too, criticism has been voiced repeatedly in the past, especially by members of the opposition, against the fact that people living in Germany can influence the election even though they do not have to live with the political decisions in their everyday lives. This argument is indeed difficult to refute because it has a true core.
Ultimately, however, it also makes it clear that citizenship is an issue that cannot be understood on a factual level alone. There are many reasons why people hold on to their passports, sometimes pragmatic, sometimes emotional. Then there are also those who do not have to decide at all because they have German citizenship in addition to Turkish citizenship anyway.
People with Turkish and German citizenship
Of the approximately 1.5 million people in Germany with a Turkish passport, about 300,000, i.e. less than a fifth, also hold a German passport. They have the privilege of being able to vote both in Germany and in Turkey. Especially those people with dual citizenship have always been a thorn in the side of the CDU/CSU. They have repeatedly pleaded for the abolition of dual citizenship and regard any reforms in favour of extending it as critical. Linked to this is the demand that people should choose a passport, and thus also a country.
Legal Situation
In recent years, the legal situation has developed in favour of an extension of dual citizenship, much to the chagrin of the Union. For example, it was initially the case that people who accepted German citizenship had to relinquish their other citizenship in return. The exception has always been children who have both a German and a foreign, in this case Turkish, parent. These children were entitled to both citizenships by birthright. Since late 2014, this has also applied to children of foreign parents who have lived in Germany for at least eight years. The reform of the citizenship law could make dual citizenship even more common.
Heterogeneous identities of people of origin from Turkey in Germany
As already indicated, there are many different reasons why people hold on to their Turkish passport. Sometimes they are emotional, because the passport is linked to identity and reflects the longing for a life in Turkey. Sometimes financial and bureaucratic hurdles prevent people from exchanging their Turkish passport for a German one. The diverse perspectives reflect the diversity of the diaspora of people from Turkey, which, like all (post)migrant communities, cannot be pigeonholed.
For many people that have an origin from Turkey, Turkey is a place with which they associate very different things. People with origin from Turkey are not only Turks, but also Kurds, Yezidis, Greeks, Armenians, etc., who do not always associate (only) positive things with Turkey. Even though many people in this diaspora know the feeling of being perceived as different in both Germany and Turkey, they often feel connected to both countries.
Double bond or dichotomy?
From the perspective of a person with a Turkish mother, German father and dual citizenship, I can say for my part that connection and dichotomy often go hand in hand. The search for identity and a sense of belonging often begins within one’s own four walls. There were phases in my life when I felt more „German“ and phases when I felt more „Turkish“ – often depending on the environment in which I moved and what expectations were placed on me.
For a long time, I had a romanticised idea of Turkey as the country I travelled to with my family during the summer holidays. For me, Turkey was above all the small town on the Aegean coast where I had spent numerous summers in my childhood and youth. Every year I counted the days until the summer holidays.
A political voice
When I think of Turkey today, often the first image that pops into my head is my grandpa sitting on the veranda of the summer house at 2am, embracing us after a 30-hour car journey. I have a very emotional attachment to Turkey because it is the country where my mother spent her childhood and youth. All the touching and bizarre stories of her student days take place in Istanbul and not in Cologne.
I know that a passport is not important for expressing my sense of belonging, but it is important for giving me a political voice. It is a privilege that I don’t have to live with the political decisions, but I am very grateful to be able to have this quiet voice. Because I do care about what happens in Turkey. I also care about what happens in Germany. I will always move between Turkey and Germany – somewhere in the middle, sometimes more here, sometimes more there – without committing myself definitively. My passports reflect this.
[1] „Turkish“ in this context does not refer to ethnicity or nationality, but citizenship.
This article was also published in German
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- markus-winkler-cO3mYlCBxzU-unsplash: Markus Winkler on unsplash
