
Gaziantep, Turkey — Hatim al-Abdullah, a dual Syrian-Turkish citizen, voted for the first time in Turkey’s elections in May, which returned longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a five-year presidential term.
“I voted for Erdogan also to protect my family,” al-Abdullah, 25, told Al Jazeera in Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, in the hope that his parents and three siblings will have a future in their adoptive home.