A recent survey conducted in Turkey revealed that citizens believe Israel and the U.S. pose the biggest threats to their country, Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reported on Wednesday.
The poll was conducted by İstanbul’s Kadir Has University which surveyed 1,000 people in April across Turkish cities. When asked which country they see as the biggest threat to Turkey, 42.6 percent of respondents said Israel while 35.3 percent said the U.S. The countries received 37.1 and 41.7 percent disapproval rates, respectively, during the same survey in 2013. Following Israel and the U.S. was Syria with 22.1 percent and Armenia with 20.3 percent.
Although Turkey is a candidate for membership to the European Union, 10.2 percent of respondents said EU countries are a threat to Turkey, according to the report. The figure dropped slightly from 12.8 percent in 2013. When respondents were asked if they want Turkey to become an EU member, 42.4 percent said yes and over 20 percent were undecided. The figure marked a decline from 2013 when 47.5 percent supported EU membership.
The survey also revealed that 8.7 percent believe that no country poses a threat to Turkey and 38.9 percent said “Turkey has no friends.” The latter belief is almost unchanged from the same survey in 2013, in which the figure stood at 38.6 percent.
When asked which countries they considered friendly toward Turkey, Azerbaijan ranked first among respondents with 37.5 percent, followed by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) at 8.9 percent, and Bosnia and Herzegovina at 6 percent.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
