Turkish Community in France Indifferent to Politics

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Turkish community in France, the second largest Turkish community in Europe after Germany, has little influence and fewer rights when compared to Turks living in other foreign countries. While the number of Turkish-origin politicians is gradually increasing in countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria where the number of Turks are fewer, no Turkish candidate has ever declared candidacy in French national elections so far. The Turkish community in France is very indifferent to political participation in the spring's presidential and general elections. Second and third-generation Turkish-origin French citizens need to register their names with electoral lists so they can vote in the 2007 general and presidential elections. This issue particularly interests young voters; however, some French municipality officials said that Turks were less interested in voting when compared to other foreigners living in the country. The biggest problem of the Turks living in France is that they are isolated, said Montfermeil Mayor Xavier Lemonie. 90 percent of which are workers, was very inexperienced in political participation. Approximately 100,000 Turkish immigrants out of 500,000 have French citizenship in France, says Zaman.