Mass brawl after provocation at Amsterdam polling station

Provocations at the polling station for the Turkish elections in Amsterdam led to a huge brawl on the last day of the elections. As a dispute between an observer of the Green Left Party (YSP) and an observer of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) turned into physical violence, a mass fight broke out between AKP-MHP supporters and volunteers of the opposition parties.

The police intervened with dogs in the incident, which took place a few minutes after the polls closed. After the brawl, in which some people were slightly injured, YSP volunteers were made to wait for hours by the police to leave the building. The police, who arrived at the scene with dozens of vehicles, considered the event to be a major incident. Last week there was also a big brawl in Amsterdam, but the incident on the last day of the elections was far more violent.

A YSP volunteer, who declined to be named for security reasons, told Target Platform that many provocations occurred on the final day of voting. The witness stated that there was a lot of provocative behavior during the day and that AKP and MHP volunteers wearing ‘Police Special Operations Department’ and ‘Osmanli Ocaklari’ (Ottoman Hearts) – a pro-Erdogan ultra-nationalist organization – T-shirts were intimidating throughout the day.

The YSP volunteer explained that tensions had risen mainly because of an irregularity: “A woman observer from the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) refused to give a ballot paper to someone who wanted to vote because he was not registered as a voter. Seeing this, an AKP observer called the man who intended to vote: ‘Come over here, let’s have a look’. When the TİP woman objected to his call, the man who insisted on voting insulted her. After a brief argument, the man was escorted out of the building.”

The ongoing election campaigns in Türkiye are also quite tense. A group of people threw stones at the campaign bus of Ekrem İmamoğlu, mayor of Istanbul and vice-presidential candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), as he was holding a speech at a rally in Erzurum. Several people, including children, were injured in the attack. As Türkiye heads to the polls on 14 May, opposition parties are urging voters to use common sense amid fears of further violence.