Turkish votes in EU: source of support for ruling party

Turkey is in the throes of a diplomatic crisis with The Netherlands and Germany after top ministers were blocked from holding rallies to tout for support in a referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.

The votes of Turks resident abroad have provided rich pickings for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the past.

An overwhelming majority of the vote typically goes to the AKP, co-founded by Erdogan.

But ministers are also aware that expatriate turnout hovers at around 40 per cent -- much lower than the national average -- and getting these votes out could be crucial in tipping the balance.

In the latest 2015 November parliamentary elections, there were 2.9 million Turks registered to vote abroad, of whom 40 percent voted.

Of those, over 56 per cent of the votes went to the AKP.

The key battleground is Germany, where almost half of the expatriate Turkish vote is concentrated but there are significant communities in several other EU countries.

Here are snapshots of European countries with the largest numbers of Turkish voters, with data from the last legislative polls in November 2015.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)