POLLS IN TURKEY SHOW SUPPORT FOR RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC PLURALISM

ArmRadio.am
20.03.2007 12:48

Most Turks believe the state should help preserve different religious
and ethnic groups in the face of rising nationalism, according to a
poll published Monday.

The poll by the Konda institution published in the Milliyet daily
showed that 66.4 percent believe the state should support efforts
to protect ethnic differences as opposed to 33.6 percent who say it
should not, the Turkish Daily News reports.

A total of 76.4 percent said the state should be involved in efforts
to preserve different religious groups while 23.6 percent said it
should not.

The poll, conducted among 48,000 people countrywide in October, comes
at a time of intense debate over surging nationalism following the
murder of an ethnic Armenian journalist by a suspected ultranationalist
grouping.

Turkey is home to tiny minorities of Jews, Armenians and Greeks,
as well as a sizeable Kurdish community in the Southeast, where
separatist rebels have waged a bloody 22-year campaign for self-rule.

Improving the freedoms of its Kurdish and non-Muslim minorities is
one of the key elements in Turkey’s troubled accession talks with
the European Union.

Last year, the EU partly froze Turkey’s membership talks over its
failure to grant trade privileges to Cyprus, an EU member it does
not recognize.