Ulus ötesi seçmen katılımının göçmenler üzerindeki etkileri: Strasbourg Türkleri örneği

There have been initiatives such as emancipation of dual nationality, formation of transnational districts or granting of external voting rights, taken by many countries for a couple of decades in order to include non-resident citizens in the political life in the country of origin. Regarding citizens of Turkey, they enfranchised the right to participate in the elections in Turkey in 2012, precisely participation by going to vote at the ballot boxes installed in the electoral offices in their countries of residence. Having voted for the first time in 2014, they have therefore had the opportunity to exercise this right six times to date, during the presidential elections in 2014, general elections in June and November in 2015, constitutional referendum in 2017 and finally, general, and presidential elections, having taken place together in 2018. This development, i.e. transnational electoral participation of Turkish emigrants has drawn attention in terms of their electoral motivations as well as their political and ideological leanings towards Turkey. It is clear that political participation of Turks living abroad has also drawn curiosity of researchers, of the media, of political actors as well as public opinion in Turkey and in the countries of residence. In the light of such information, this research aims specifically to understand and explain the influences of transnational electoral participation on emigrant groups. Political science and sociology can be considered as the disciplines most interested in the political participation of non-resident Turks. There are many researchers focusing on the political motivations of Turkish emigrants as well as the reasons why they vote for this or that party, or this or that person. However, influences of the electoral participation of emigrants, as a transnational activity, have not been specifically problematized until today in the literature. Research in this area has attempted to design a general framework of the electoral motivations and behaviors of Turks dispersed around the world. More specific research in terms of the field is focused particularly on the Turks of Germany, the largest non-resident Turkish population in Turkey. More rarely, similar research answer to same questions through the Turks of the Netherlands, Austria, or Belgium. However, still, the literature on the influences of the political engagements and electoral participation of Turkish emigrants from France is noticeably limited. Strasbourg, a French city offers us an optimum base for this research since it houses a large Turkish population, well scattered ethnically, religiously, and culturally speaking, as well as it has attracted a visible importance by Turkey for the last decades. In the city, there are many religious, cultural and political associations - as subdivisions of Turkish political parties - as well as a very impressive diplomatic mission which reflects the strong existence of Turkey in the region and the importance attributed by Turkey to Strasbourg and to the Turkish population residing in the city. Likewise, the largest mosque in Europe, Eyüp Sultan Camisi, a large campus of DITIB, the Yunus Emre Institutes as well as some major international organizations such as the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament are located in Strasbourg. Therefore, the Turkish population in Strasbourg gives us this opportunity to make relevant observations on such a question from a sociology-politics perspective. In this context, we carried out nine semi-structured interviews with ten Franco-Turks, who have in-depth knowledge of the Turkish communities in Strasbourg. The interlocutors were chosen among the presidents, vice-presidents, or spokespersons of associations whose activities are based on politics in Turkey, or religious and cultural associations whose members are mainly - if not exclusively - from Turkey. It would be relevant to emphasize that with regard to the Turkish communities of Strasbourg, what is political is visibly intertwined with what is religious or cultural. In other words, associations, cafes, grocery stores or even restaurants are frequented by the populations who use the terms "us" and "them" to refer to the groups to which they belong or not. This is how terms with strictly political connotations were born, such as the mosque of the MHPli, the mosque of Milli Görüş... So, it would not be wrong to say at this stage that regardless of their areas of activity, the Turkish associations transplanted to France have clearly visible political positions in terms of Turkish politics. Finally, apart from the heads or representants of these associations, we conducted an interview with a young lawyer issue from Turkish immigration to France, who works to provide legal services mainly to the Turks of Strasbourg. Some of the interviews, which lasted between 45 minutes and 2 hours, are carried out via computer platforms such as WhatsApp or facetime, while the rest were organized in Strasbourg, during the researcher's visit to Strasbourg between 11.02.2022 - 21.02. 2022. The data collected during the interviews were analyzed and represented in four main parts. First of all, it would be useful to understand the reason why Strasbourg Turks vote in elections in Turkey in order to examine the influences of external voting on these communities. It was found in this research that the main motivations of a significant part of Strasbourg Turks to go to the polls are based on nostalgic and emotional attachments to Turkey. The sense of belonging in Turkey and self- identification as a Turk despite having spent a long time in France play the role of driving force in electoral motivations. As observed in various previous studies, the rhetoric of "Greater Turkey" and "strong leader" also remains decisive among the Turks of Strasbourg. It should be emphasized that, with the exception of one interlocutor, transnational electoral participation is not really appreciated by our sample since it risks cornering emigrants in the political reality of the country of origin as long as the emigrant populations are not represented in the Turkish parliament. On the other hand, the democratic thirst caused by not being able to vote because of being abroad and not having been interested in French politics are among the main findings in terms of the electoral motivations of the Turks of Strasbourg. By obtaining external voting rights in 2012, the Turks of Strasbourg finally had the opportunity to quench this thirst. Given that the capacity of Turkish politics in a transnational space is quite limited, therefore the rather pragmatic motivations are visibly less extensive among the Turks of Strasbourg. However, the transformations and improvements observed during the round trips to Turkey play a more or less decisive role in the electoral motivations of the latter. For young Franco-Turks or French people from Turkish immigration, the right to vote externally creates a new model of attachment to the country of origin. It is important to emphasize that the role of families in the formation of the political culture of young people is essential in the context of the Turks of Strasbourg. Pages followed on social media, TV channels being watched at home, families' opinions on Turkey build the fundament of the image of Turkey for young Turks. Therefore, it is found that the groups with visibly limited knowledge of the history, sociology, economy or geography of Turkey, but who follow the political news of Turkey very closely, but not that of France, show up. This reveals a new mode of identification and attachment linked to the country of politics, which we examine under the name of the concept of politically Turkishness. This concept refers to the fact that the sociological trajectories of the Turks of Strasbourg, including the younger generations who are becoming more and more French regarding language, social life, culture, are mainly formed in the transnational social space through their political attachment to Turkey. In addition, electoral participation as a transnational activity exerts influence on the Turks of Strasbourg through three main axes. First, with this development would have transformed the relations between the groups originating from Turkey residing in Strasbourg. Nowadays, it would be obviously difficult to speak of an iconographic roof capable of bringing together the different socially determined groups originating from Turkey. This therefore causes the disappearance of the diasporic appearance of this population. On the other hand, electoral motivations can also trigger hostile feelings against other groups in Strasbourg. Beyond limiting the interaction between them, the feelings of hostility risk provoking the consideration of another group as a dangerous threat. Pre-election periods witness incidents of arguing and bickering where tension between different groups rises. However, these incidents caused by feelings of hostility are not temporary and fade in the short term. Focusing on the underlying reasons, the wide variety of images that Turkey evokes in different groups can be observed. On the other hand, the feeling of exclusion and inequality among a part of the Turks of Strasbourg - especially the opponents of the current government - deepen even more the cleavages already existing between different groups and that the negative feelings towards other groups are fed more. Finally, the external vote gives rise to the birth of a new concept called dediasporization which means, beyond a simple detachment from other groups originating from the same country, the perception of other groups of a prospect of hostility by fueling intimacy. The unifying power of the external vote remains much more modest compared to the separative power of the latter. Another observation on the influences of transnational electoral participation would be on the way Turkey perceives the Turks of Strasbourg. For example, the latter, which were previously considered as financial resources or lobbying instruments to be used against the countries of residence by Turkey, became important voting resources once the latter obtained the right to vote. Consequently, visits by politicians, parliaments and ministers are becoming more and more frequent. This paves the way for the Turks of Strasbourg to be able to express themselves to the Turkish authorities, even if the former are aware that this consideration is generally to win votes. Likewise, external voting also means that Turks abroad become politically and electorally visible. The visibility of votes of the Turks of Strasbourg obviously has repercussions with regard to Turkish society in Turkey. First, vote of non-resident citizens is not found legitimate by non-migrant Turks, nor appreciated, as mentioned by our interlocutors. Beyond that, the political preferences of the Strasbourg Turks living in France, which is a democratic and secular country, but who are rather inclined in their great majority towards the conservative and autocratic parties in Turkey cause on the other hand the negative attitude of their non-migrant compatriots. The interlocutors observed during their visits to Turkey these negative attitudes due to the electoral participation of Turkish emigrants. Last but not least, influence of transnational electoral participation on the Strasbourg Turks emerges at the level of relations between France and the Strasbourg Turks. First, it would be relevant to discuss the relationship between French institutions and the Turks of Strasbourg. Being part of nationalist and conservative political currents in their great majority, the Turks of Strasbourg are found politically incompatible with the founding French values based on, secularity and republicanism. Therefore, France is taking steps to reduce the risks of resistance against integration that may be caused by being stuck in the political reality of Turkey. On the other hand, incidents were observed where the Strasbourg Turks were stereotyped and their electoral behaviors towards Turkey were negatively evaluated by French society.