Brawls broke out between voters for Turkish elections in Amsterdam | Interior

According to the police, it is ‘very restless’ in and around the Rai in Amsterdam. Several police units are present at Europaplein ‘to restore peace’.

Images circulating on Twitter show dozens of people fighting each other. The police bar the passage at the RAI. No one is allowed to continue in the direction of the polling station. Groups of Turkish voters discuss on Europe Square, where a police helicopter is still circulating in the air. None of the groups of men in the square want to tell what was going on. “We do not provide any information. There is nothing going on.” And: “We don’t talk anymore. Just ask the police.”

An employee of the Turkish consulate in Amsterdam, which organizes the elections in the RAI, said on Sunday evening that he was ‘not able to talk’ about what happened.

A week ago, people also started fighting with each other at the Rai. Then it was a large group of men. Just like today, according to the images that are circulating. No one was arrested at the time.

The reason for the brawl is still unclear, although there have been tensions between supporters of incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and those of the opposition for some time. This year it consists of six parties that have united, hoping to break Erdogan’s power after years.

The votes abroad are important to Erdogan. During the last elections in 2018, the votes of Turks living abroad were decisive. Nearly 75 percent of Turks living abroad voted for Erdogan.

In the Netherlands, about 250,000 Turkish-Dutch citizens are entitled to vote. Research by think tank Clingendael shows that 44 percent of the community does not vote. Those who do go could cast their vote in Deventer, The Hague and Amsterdam until today.

After voting, the ballots will go to Ankara and will be counted on May 14 – the day on which voting can take place in Turkey itself.