Berlin, May 29, (dpa/GNA) – Hundreds of people in Germany, which has a large expatriate Turkish population, celebrated the victory of incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Turkish presidential election, with spontaneous car parades and marches.
On Sunday evening, honking cars decorated with Turkish flags, drove through the streets of cities including the capital Berlin, Duisburg in the west of the country and the northern port of Hamburg. According to the police, the celebrations remained mostly peaceful.
In Mannheim in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg, however, there were some clashes. Police officers were pelted with objects and some participants in the motorcades clashed with pedestrians. No one was injured.
In Duisburg, the police said celebrations involved several hundred cars and several hundred people on foot. Except for a few fireworks being set off, it remained peaceful, according to a police spokesman.
There were also motorcades in Hamburg, with long lines of honking cars forming in front of the Turkish consulate near the Dammtor railway station.
On the lawn in front of the consulate alone, about 1,000 flag-waving Erdogan supporters celebrated the president’s victory.
Other celebrations and parades with hundreds of people were reported in Berlin, the financial hub of Frankfurt and the Bavarian capital Munich.
In the western city of Essen, according to the police, there was a smaller demonstration in front of the consulate there.
An estimated 3 million people in Germany have Turkish roots, with Turkish people the nation’s largest immigrant group, due to the “guest worker” policy adopted by the German government in the 1950s.
GNA