(AFP) “I voted for Erdogan because he deserves to be re-elected,” says Esra Kose, 45, who like the majority of Turkish voters in Germany backs the incumbent president.
Kose, who has lived for nearly two decades in Europe’s top economy and wears a Muslim headscarf, cast her ballot for Turkey’s ruling AKP party in Essen, in the western industrial region of the Ruhr.
It is the Turkish leader’s biggest stronghold in Germany, where the second round of voting began Saturday and lasts until late Tuesday, five days before the run-off election in Turkey.
In the first round in early May, Recep Tayyip Erdogan won more than 75 percent of the vote in Essen, around 10 points above the average of 65 percent in Germany, which has the largest Turkish community abroad with its 1.5 million voters.
