MAINZ, Germany – Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has sent phone text messages calling on citizens living Germany to vote in next month’s Turkish elections, enraging many Kurds who are complaining about a loss of privacy.
“No time, no problem,“ reads the message in Turkish. “Bring your Turkish ID card with your ID number, your driver’s license or your passport to vote from May 8 to May 31 between 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. AK Party.”
Even many Kurds who are not originally from Turkey have received the short text messages (SMS) over the last several days.
Many recipients ask themselves how the AKP, supported by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who was in the German city of Karlsruhe this month rallying Turkish citizens to vote, could obtain the phone numbers.
Others question the legality of obtaining phone numbers and sending the text messages, ahead of the crucial June 7 parliamentary polls.
“This is just annoying! The AKP is trying to influence the outcome of the elections by all available means,“ complained Devran Alkan, who has roots in Erzurum in eastern Turkey, or Northern Kurdistan as the Kurds call it.
“Firstly, Erdogan campaigns for them, like in Karlsruhe, even though he has to stay neutral as president of Turkey. And then they send all these text messages to people here in Germany,” Alkan added. “I don’t even know where they got my number from!”
Customers of all big German telecommunication providers, mostly with Kurdish or Turkish names, have received the message.
Rojin Murad, whose parents once fled from Turkey, said: “This move by the AKP is intolerable! I have already filed a complaint at the Federal Network Agency. It is not acceptable that private data is abused for propaganda purposes. I am not even a citizen of Turkey, I can’t vote in that country!”
The incident has even attracted the attention of German politicians. On his official Facebook page Tobias Huch, from the German Liberal Party (FDP), has posted instructions on how to file a complaint.
“Firstly, this act by the AKP is definitely illegal,“ Huch told Rudaw. “This is clearly a violation of Germany’s Federal Privacy Act,” said Huch, who is a supporter of Kurdish independence and has traveled to the Kurdistan Region to visit the frontlines against ISIS and help start a charity that provides clean water for some of the 1.4 million refugees in Kurdistan.
“This is a very lousy way of campaigning,” Huch said. “This clearly shows the AKP’s panic from loss of autocracy.”
The June 7 election is hugely important: Erdogan is pushing for a sweeping victory for his former AKP party to realize his wishes of changing Turkey’s parliamentary system to a presidential one and concentrating greater power in the presidency.
The pro-Kurdish HDP party, which is fighting for at least the 10 percent of votes required to win a seat in parliament, has vowed to stand in Erdogan’s way.
Anya Delen, vice chairperson of the “Kurdische Jugend Deutschland” organization that represents Kurdish youth in German-speaking countries across Europe, agreed that the AKP is going full throttle because it fears votes going to the HDP.
“These enormous efforts by the AKP and the empty AKP booths in Kurdish cities just reflect their fears of the rising HDP. However, this is not an excuse for unfair and dishonest methods at campaigning. We strongly condemn this action by Mr. Erdogan’s party,” Delen told Rudaw.
Statements by telecommunication provider Vodafone and the Federal Network Agency denied any complicity in the SMS campaign.
“Vodafone did not provide the sender any phone numbers,” Vodafone spokesman Peter Volkendorf said. “We also do not manage and separate our customer files by nationality,” he explained.
The Federal Network Agency has said it will examine the incident and try to find out how the targeted message was sent.
In his speech to supporters gathered to hear him in Karlsruhe ten days ago, Erdogan said: “(You) are our power outside the country. For us you are no migrant workers, you are our strength in foreign countries.”
Germany hosts a large number of migrant workers and ethnic Turks, whose votes are hugely important to the AKP.
Alkan, from Erzurum, has not taken the AKP message sitting down; he has written back: “I will vote for HDP.“
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