In his election victory last month, Turkish President Erdogan won an overwhelming majority among Turkish-German diaspora voters. That support, and the reaction to it among German media and political parties, highlights the growing role that Turkish-Germans and Kurdish-Germans have begun to play in German domestic politics.
During the final stages of Turkey’s elections, many observers pointed to distant moments from the country’s history to explain its contemporary political conflicts. One more recent event was particularly crucial to reinforcing the social polarization tearing at Turkish society today: the military coup of September 1980.
EU officials are still digesting the result of Turkey’s general election, which saw the presidential race head to a second-round runoff. While President Erdogan’s antagonism toward Europe has won him few friends in Brussels, many are also wondering if the runoff might present a case of “better the devil you know.”
