The findings of a German Marshall Fund (GMF) annual survey were revealed Wednesday in Ankara with the results showing a major drop in public support for Turkey's European Union membership. It also showed that participants in the survey strongly distrust international organizations and more than 90 percent of respondents perceive the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) as a terrorist organization.
The GMF survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,018 participants in 16 provinces in Turkey. It found while a wide range of participants have unfavorable views about other Western countries, also showing that Turks generally distrusted international institutions with 39 percent of respondents trusting the EU and 51.9 percent distrusting the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In addition, the results further revealed that the participants perceive NATO membership as essential to the country.
Esen Çağlar from TEPAV gave the opening remarks and stressed the significance of the survey. Continuing on with the event, Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı, the GMF Ankara office director, said that the survey captured Turkish citizens' perspectives on the government's policies. Ünlühisarcıklı said that because the survey was conducted shortly after the June 7 elections, the results were highly based on individuals' political identities. He further added that if the same survey were to be conducted now, the results would differ greatly.
Emre Erdoğan, the founding director of the Istanbul-based independent research organization Infakto Research Workshop claimed Turks' view of Western countries, which were unfavorable according to the survey, would not change due to the education system in Turkey.
Despite a drop in support for EU membership, the recently conducted survey revealed that it was still viewed favorable by 41 percent of respondents. This number in 2014 was 45 percent while holding a favorable opinion for EU membership during the same year was 53 percent. According to the 2015 survey, 44 percent of respondents think that EU membership would be beneficial. When the perspective on international organizations was asked, 25 percent of respondents said that they trusted the World Bank and 16 percent trusted the IMF. The most trusted institutions were the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) at 44 percent and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at 39 percent.
In regard to participants' opinion of other countries, the survey revealed that they had generally unfavorable opinions of other countries except those with which there are close ethnic ties such as Azerbaijan, which 63 percent of respondents viewed favorably. While the EU and Germany received favorable views from around 40 percent of respondents, the U.S. was only seen favorably by 23 percent of survey participants. However, despite voicing low support for the U.S., participants still perceive the U.S. as Turkey's most important strategic partners.
Though the participants were divided over the importance of NATO, 38 percent believed that it is still essential. Ünlühisarcıklı said that if the survey had been conducted after Ankara gave the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS access to İncirlik Air Base and after the Russian fighter jet's violation of Turkish airspace, the percentage would be higher. Regarding the survey participants' perspective on ISIS, it showed that a broad consensus is against the terrorist organization. In the survey, 91 percent of respondents said that ISIS was a terrorist organization and 82 percent of them said that it was a threat to Turkey.
Furthermore, regarding the view of Iran, 46 percent of respondents said that Iran is a competitor with Turkey in the region rather than a threat to the country. Finally, in regard to the increasing refugee crisis, the Turkish Perceptions survey indicated a negative attitude toward immigrants in Turkey with 81 percent of respondents believing that immigrants have not integrated well into Turkish society and 73 percent said that the existing refuges should be asked to go back home.
