Zaman Online
INTERNATIONAL 03.26.2005 Saturday – ISTANBUL 09:39
Government Success in EU, not in Iraq
By Zaman
Published: Saturday 26, 2005
zaman.com
Fifty percent of Turks believe that “they are surrounded by enemies”.
According to a survey distributed by the Metropoll Strategic and Social
Researches Center, 38.9 percent of participants sees the US as “the enemy”
and 14.7 percent view it as Greece.
According to the results of the survey, Germany with 7.8 percent and
Azerbaijan with 7.7 percent were equal first as friends of Turkey. 75
percent of participants thought positively about the European Union (EU),
and 53 percent were positive about Palestine. Those countries that are
perceived negatively include Israel, Armenia, the US and Greece. The
Metropoll Company completed in March 2005 work relating to Turkish Foreign
Policy. The survey administered by conducting face-to-face interviews in the
city centers of Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Izmir,
Konya, Malatya, Samsun, Tekirdag, and Trabzon to total of 2,642 people.
The survey results have revealed interesting discoveries with regard to
Turkey’s EU bid, with US, Russian, Iraq, and Cyprus policies. The
government’s foreign policy performance was viewed by 73.5 percent as
successful; while the policies pursued in regard to the EU received the most
support with 78.1 percent. This was followed by the policies regarding
neighboring countries at 61.7 percent, the Turkish Republics with 56.8
percent, the US 55.9 percent, the Middle East and Islamic counties with 55.7
percent. According to survey results, the only foreign policy issue that the
government was found to be unsuccessful, is Iraq. Metropoll has interpreted
the results as the public expect the government to execute policy peacefully
but; more actively. As 45.9 percent of the participants think that Turkey
would not gain full membership of EU, 38.2 believe it is the other way
around. While 66.3 percent of the participants claimed that in Turkey’
present condition it is not ready for EU membership. While 43.8 percent
oppose the recognition of Greeks in Cyprus, 42.9 are in favor, while 68.4
percent of the participants are against Turkey’s withdrawal of troops from
Cyprus. The only party that dominated those electorates that is in favor of
a troop withdrawal from Cyprus, is DEHAP (Democratic People’s Party) with
46.5 percent.
Ankara