| On 3rd December 2003, results of a survey held by a group of academician with 2,183 persons in 12 cities about the main foreign policy problems of Turkey has been published in Radikal. Research has been assessed as an important input to determine the social attitudes and choices in Turkey.
According to results of the research, general attitudes of the Turkish public towards the neigbour countries are as follows: Turkish public has negative convictions about Armenia by 71 percent and about Israil and Greece by 63 percent. This ratio shows that general attitudes of Turkish public towards external world are negative. This also overlaps with the threat perceptions from the coutries of the region. 74 percent of the Turkish public thinks that neighbour countries have territorial pretentions on Turkey. This result shows that “enemy culture” has a wide social base and society has adopted the description of “Turkey surrounded with the enemies” with a confidential culture.
Despite of anxiety towards neigbour countries, Turkish public thinks that Iran can not export her regime to Turkey (77%). Opinion of the public about the development of the relations with the Armenia which is the main country has the most negative convictions from the Turkish public in the region, is “yes” by 44.7 percent, “no” by 43.5 percent. By the research Turkish public has accepted the idea of Armenian genocide allegations must be freely discussible in Turkey by 61 percent. Inspite of historical and current oversensitivity of the subject, society has adopted a position in favour of freedom of expression. |
Akgün Medya