Turkish Electors To Play Important Role In Elections To Be Held In Germany

ANTALYA (A.A) - 17.05.2002 - Prof. Dr. Faruk Sen, the Director of Turkish Studies Centre (TAM) said on Friday that the Turkish electors whose number is nearly half a million, will play an important role in the general elections that will be held in Germany in September.
A symposium on Turkish-German Economic Relations which is organized by TAM and Robinson Club started in Kemer town of southern Antalya province the same day.
Speaking in the opening of the symposium, TAM Director Prof. Dr. Faruk Sen said that 2,6 million Turks live in Germany and that Turkish people are recently very interested in German citizenship.
''Totally 600,000 Turks became German citizens till the end of 2001. We expect this number to increase to 700,000 until the general elections that will be held on September 22. 470,000 of the Turks who became German citizens have the right to elect. This shows that the electors of Turkish origin can determine the fate of the elections,'' Sen said.
Noting that annually 20,000 people return to Turkey from Germany, and 60,000 people go to Germany from Turkey annually to unite their families, Sen said that 175,000 Turks get retirement pay from Germany.
Robinson Club's Director of Turkey and Germany regions Dieter Schenk said that 43 million German tourists came to Turkey since 1985 and the German people want to come back to Turkey again.
Schenk said that they believe 45,000-70,000 German citizens live in Turkey, adding that German people and his company are happy in Turkey.