Turkish poll shows support for US president at below 1 per cent

TRT 1 television, Ankara
11 Mar 05

The view that anti-Americanism is spreading in Turkey has been on the
agenda lately. Even if the voices coming from the US side say the
opposite, a survey conducted by the International Strategic Research
Organization reveals that a majority of the Turkish people define the
United States as an ally. The survey also shows that the Turkish
people’s views on the United States are directly related to the
policies of the US administration.

The survey was conducted on 1,250 persons in four large cities of
Turkey from 10 February to 1 March. The questions were on Turkish-US
relations. Accordingly, 74 per cent of those polled said Turkey and
the United States were allies, and only 6 per cent considered the
United States an enemy. Some 74 per cent listed the existence of the
terrorist PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] in northern Iraq as the
primary problem between Turkey and the United States. Nine per cent
said the US policy regarding the Kurds was the primary problem, and 3
per cent said the Armenian question was the main problem.

Fifty-eight per cent of those polled said they were not enemies of
the United States, while 16 per cent said they were. Some 12 per cent
said they were partial enemies of the United States, which raises to
28 per cent the ratio of those who felt hostility towards the United
States. Fourteen per cent replied that they did not know.

What lies beneath this growing anti-Americanism? A large majority of
the Turkish people do not approve of the policies of George Bush.
Less than one per cent support Bush. On the other hand, 49 per cent
said that they used to support Clinton’s policies when he was
president. This shows that the Turkish people’s views on the United
States are directly related to the US administrations’ policies.