Turks in Germany alienated from politics: Survey

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN (AA) - Turkish immigrants are increasingly losing interest in German politics and more than 40 percent of them are still undecided ahead of general elections in Germany on September 24, according to a survey released Monday.

The survey conducted for the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD), one of the most influential Turkish diaspora organizations in Europe, showed growing alienation from Germany’s political parties among the country’s three million-strong Turkish community.

41 percent of the respondents said they have not decided yet which party to vote for, while 15 percent of them said they would not cast ballots, stay away from the voting.

Social Democrat Party (SPD) has remained the most popular party among Turkish immigrants, with 22 percent of the respondents voicing support for the party.

The poll found that only 7 percent of respondents were considering to vote for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc CDU/CSU.

UETD’s president Zafer Sirakaya said their survey has revealed that the majority of Turkish immigrants feel their interests are not represented by the mainstream political parties at the German parliament.

He called on political parties to promote political inclusion of immigrants.

“Political parties should include Turkish immigrants in political life, with representatives who did not cut their ties to their community, who did not become stranger to their own community,” he said at a press conference in Berlin.

UETD’s survey was carried out by the research institute IFF International, and it was conducted by telephone among a random sample of 1,000 Turkish immigrants in Germany.

Germany is home to three million Turkish immigrants, and nearly half of them hold German citizenship. Around one million ethnic Turks are eligible to vote on September 24 elections.