TURKISH PUBLIC MOSTLY AGAINST ESTABLISHING RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA, SAYS SOCIOLOGIST

Tert
Oct 19 2009
Armenia

The Armenian public is split because of the issue of establishing
Armenian-Turkish relations: part is for relations, the other part
is against, said Armenian Sociological Association president and
sociologist Gevorg Poghosyan, while speaking with journalists today.

According to him, there is a split in the Turkish public, too, where,
however, a major part of the public is against the relations.

Poghosyan said this opposing voice in Turkey is gradually decreasing.

According to preliminary sociological inquiries, 70% of Turkish
public was against the establishment of Armenian-Turkish relations,
but according to latest data, this percentage has been reduced to
53-54 per cent.

In answer to Tert.am’s question why such a change took place in
Turkish public, Poghosyan supposed that probably in Turkey, too,
much work is being carried out.

In Armenia, the Armenian Sociological Association carried out 20-25
sociological surveys among 1,000 Yerevan residents and found out that
approximately 52% of the Armenian public is against signing of the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols, and 40% is against opening the border.

Continuing, the sociologist stated that both in Armenia and Turkey
there is great internal resistance to the Armenian-Turkish process and
neither public welcomes that process. Poghosyan found it surprising
that, before launching such a big campaign, Armenia’s current governing
leadership didn’t conduct any surveys to gauge the public’s opinion,
or, if they did, why that information was not publicized.