Although Turkish voters abroad ultimately played a marginal role in Turkey’s May 14 elections, President Erdogan has also sought to attract votes from the diaspora. That’s what headhunter and publicist Aylin Bilic at the BNR Big Five has to say. According to Bilic, half of Turks voted in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. “And 70 percent of them voted for Erdogan last time.”

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According to Bilic, this holds true to a lesser extent in the United States and the United Kingdom. “America has traditionally had more expats, so they will vote for Erdogan less. This also applies to the UK, but the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. Half of them voted and 70 percent of them voted for Erdogan last time.’

surprised

Erdogan has always acted as a protector of the Turkish community across Europe. Even so, Bilic said he was surprised by the way Erdogan has tried to tie up voters in the diaspora. He gave the example of a journalist who asked Erdogan if he could imagine that the Turkish population was annoyed that the diaspora voted. The president responded in the negative and then praised the Turks abroad who he said were victims of discrimination and exclusion and whose mosques were desecrated. “Well, that story literally went on for a few minutes and I can imagine that TV viewers here in Amsterdam Osdorp or Rotterdam South thought: oh, that guy, that’s my leader, I’m going to vote for him.”

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Expat

Incidentally, according to Bilic, the number of Turkish expatriates in Europe is still increasing because the brain drain from Turkey, the outflow of highly educated people that started under Erdogan, is still happening. A win by Erdogan’s challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu could turn things around. ‘There are many people, also in the Netherlands, who left because of him (Erdogan, ed.) and because of inflation. They only want their children here in Dutch schools (…) while for generations they have only studied and worked well in Turkey. It’s happening.’

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Also in the vicinity, Bilic sees a growing number of ‘native speakers’ from Turkey who have bought or rented houses in the area and are sending their children to school here. Not because of any intention to settle down permanently, but because the economic and political situation in Turkey under Erdogan was less than optimal. ‘Something is happening (…). But from a Turkish point of view, of course it makes a lot of sense to see how you can combat this brain drain.’