Poll On Who Turkey Sees As Biggest Threat--And It't Not Israel

According to a poll, most Turks do not see Israel as their biggest threat:

Some 43 percent of Turks perceive the United States as the country’s biggest threat, followed by Israel, according to a broad survey carried out in December.

“This the highest ratio ever on the external threat question among our surveys,” Professor Özer Sencar, chairman of Ankara-based MetroPOLL Strategic and Social Research Center, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Wednesday.


“The U.S. foreign politics since the Iraqi invasion, the hood incident [the U.S. detention of Turkish soldiers during the Iraq war], the war in Afghanistan, repeated Armenian bills in the U.S. Congress and the negative statements that Turkish leaders make about the U.S. and Israel play a major role in this perception,” Sencar said.

The Ankara-based MetroPOLL survey company, which is affiliated with the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, surveyed 1,504 people in 31 provinces in December.

The survey asked “From which country does the biggest threat come?” with 43 percent of Turks saying the U.S., followed by 24 percent who indicated Israel, 3 percent for Iran, 2.3 percent for Greece, 2.1 for Iraq, 1.7 for Russia and 1 percent for Armenia. Some 1.3 of participants said no country posed a threat to Turkey, while 18.9 said they had no idea.

More importantly, it appears that Erdogan's party--which seemed to be trailing the opposition during the summer--is now back in the lead heading into the June elections:

A separate part of the MetroPOLL survey on domestic politics indicated that while main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu had won over many people, the AKP still appeared on course for a majority victory in June elections.

According to the results, if elections were to take place today, the AKP would win 45.3 percent of the votes, while the CHP would take second with 30.7 percent.

I wrote during the summer how the CHP was much friendlier towards Israel--and took a stand against Turkey's involvement in the Mavi Marmara incident--based on an interview CHP chariman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu gave to Turkey's Daily News:

Remarks of Kılıçdaroğlu on the Mavi Marmara humanitarian aid ship assault are quite interesting. The CHP holds the government party responsible because of the deaths on board. And the CHP asserts that the ship was sent to the area despite Israeli warnings and the government knew it. Kılıçdaroğlu claims some dark forces were involved in the crisis and the AKP aimed to change political agenda in the country. He asked the release of information that has been held so far.

Kılıçdaroğlu kept on criticizing the government on the Hamas issue as well. Of the AKP siding with Hamas is a deadly mistake, Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Hamas is not a political organization and regarded as a terrorist organization in the West. It is not our policy to intervene in some other’s internal issues and support one particular party against others, he added.

Of course, there are still 6 months till the election, but CHP had the lead against Erdogan and his party--and lost it.

Over the next 6 months, Erdogan is likely to be even more anti-Israel between now and June, believing that given those poll results, the issue resonates with the people.

Technorati Tag: Turkey and Erdogan.