Who Are The Turks? II
81.9 percent of the nation would object to a coup d’état, a poll conducted late last year by Infacto Research Workshop on behalf of Bogazici University and the Open Society Institute shows. 81.9 percent said they opposed military coups and oppressive regimes, while 12.3 percent said they would support a coup; 5.8 percent were undecided.
POLITICAL VIEWS:
43.9 percent defined themselves as the “new right,” defined as pro-democracy and pro-Western sentiment. Of respondents identified as Justice and Development Party (AK Party) supporters, 66.2 percent said they were “modern right-wingers”.
34.9 said they were rightists and 14.9 percent leftists.
21.14 said they represented a hybrid ideology unifying values of both the left and the right.
23.2 percent said they were “traditional rightists,” defined as skeptical of democracy and the West. Of respondents identified as Justice and Development Party (AK Party) supporters, 44 percent said they were “traditional right-wingers”.
23.4 percent said they were of the “traditional left,” also defined as skeptical of democracy and the West. [JW: That means almost half the population is skeptical of democracy and the West.]
Only two per thousand defined themselves as “modern leftists.
RELIGIOUS VIEWS:
37.3 percent said they were “traditionally religious”.
62.7 percent said they were “modern religious”.
VIEWS ON THE EU:
Support for Turkish entry to the European Union was 57.4 percent.
Most respondents who identified as upper class and Republican People’s Party (CHP) supporters said they opposed EU membership.
Tee hee, I note that the bit about headscarves and good character has been dropped by Zaman, in much the same way the bit about the coups and the anti-EU upper class were dropped by Hurriyet. I couldn’t find the full survey on the web, but I’d bet that by partially obscuring bits of it you can present any picture you wish. ((the figures match, this has to be the same survey).
Why are there no percentages attached to the finding that “Most respondents who identified as upper class and Republican People’s Party (CHP) supporters said they opposed EU membership”?
Anyhow, especially given the recent controversy concerning how much power elected people have, it would be interesting to see how ‘democracy’ is viewed. It turns out that there’s a poll I can selectively quote from too. I quote from here:
83% believe that government leaders should pay attention to public opinion polls when making an important decision to help them get a sense of the public’s views. However Turks are unique in that a slight majority (53%) also says that elections are the only time when the views of the people should have influence, rather than leaders paying attention to the views of the people between elections (43%); they are the only public to take this position. (emphasis mine)