Turks abroad begin voting in elections

ANKARA

Turks living abroad on Thursday began casting votes at Turkish foreign missions and customs gates to participate in Turkey's presidential and general elections, with Germany, Austria, and France among first countries in Europe where the process began.

Election Day in Turkey is on June 24.

In Germany, which has Europe's largest Turkish diaspora, 1.4 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots at consulates and other election centers across the country, until June 19.

On Thursday morning, crowds and long lines in front of Turkish consulates in Cologne, Dusseldorf and Berlin suggested a high turnout.

Voting will be held from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time on weekdays and weekends at the foreign missions.

Mustafa Yeneroglu, a senior lawmaker with dual Turkish-German citizenship, casted his vote in Cologne, where he grew up and completed his university education.

“All political parties have made extraordinary efforts for a successful organization of elections here and for a greater turnout of voters,” Yeneroglu told reporters.

In March last year, more than 697,000 Turkish immigrants in Germany went to the polls in Turkey’s constitutional referendum, the voter turnout was 49 percent.

Ali Kemal Aydin, Turkey’s ambassador to Germany, said they have done everything to ensure orderly and peaceful conduct of elections, and thanked German authorities for their cooperation.

Out of Turkey’s more than three million voters overseas, nearly half of them live in Germany.

In France, for nearly 340,000 Turkish citizens voting began on Thursday at the consulate general in Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes and Strasbourg.

In Austria, more than 105,000 eligible voters are to cast their ballots at the consulate generals in Vienna, Bregenz, and Salzburg.

Turkish citizens living abroad and traveling to Turkey this month can also cast their votes at custom gates until 5 p.m. local time on June 24.

*Ayhan Simsek contributed to this story from Berlin