Turks living in Europe head toward Bosnia for rally Turks living in Europe are arriving in Sarajevo to attend what is perceived as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s pre-election rally for the Turkish diaspora in Europe on Sunday.

The gathering is part of Erdogan’s official working visit to Bosnia, during which he will meet with state officials. Germany and The Netherlands have previously banned Erdogan’s campaigning on their territory but Bosnia has agreed to host the rally.

Enes Kuloğlu, 19, told Deutsche Welle he was happy to go to Sarajevo and attend the sixth congress of the Union of European Turkish Democrats, and to “see his President Erdogan.”

Kuloğlu, a student from Duesseldorf, headed to Bosnia in one of the two buses that left from Krefeld.

„Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only country in Europe that appreciates democratic values,” he said.

“It is not like Germany which maintains an undemocratic attitude toward the AKP, many of its politicians and President Erdogan himself by banning campaigning on its territory,” he said.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party is seen in the EU as oppressing freedom of expression at home and gearing the country towards a dictatorship.

But his supporters don’t see it this way.

Kuloğlu will vote on June 24 for the incubent president because “Turkey’s development can only continue under the leadership of the AKP and Erdogan. It came with the AKP, it will continue with the AKP,” he said.

The June election will be the first after the referendum on changes in the Constitution last year which created a basis for granting more power to the president.

“European Turks,” as they are referred to in German media, overwhelmingly support the AKP and Erdogan is counting on their votes. Last year’s referendum showed that 63 percent of the 1.4 million Turks living in Germany and eligible for voting in Turkey have favoured Erdogan.