Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Turkish respondents in the Pew Global Attitudes Project survey name the United States as the country that poses the "greatest threat" to Turkey in the future, despite the fact that the US guarantees Turkish security as a NATO ally and has urged the EU to accept Turkish membership.
Even more damningly, Turkey was the only country among the Middle Eastern publics surveyed by Pew in which a majority thus branded the United States.
And not only are Turks expressing far greater negativity towards Western political entities, their attitudes towards Western values indicate similar disdain. The Pew survey found that Turkish respondents register more unfavorable opinions of American democracy, business, culture, science and technology:
- 81% of Turks say they "dislike American ideas about democracy" (up 31 points since 2002);
- 83% dislike "American ways of doing business" (up 24 points);
- 68% dislike "American music, movies and television" (up 22 points), and;
- 51% say that they do not admire the United States for its "technological and scientific advances" (up 27 points since 2002, when a majority of 67% did in fact praise such achievements).
Dr. Emre Erdogan, a political scientist and partner of Infakto Research Workshop, a major polling firm based in Istanbul, says that Turkish views of the US have deteriorated largely because of security, not religious, concerns.
"This sudden and rapid decrease in positive attitudes towards the US is an outcome of the invasion [of Iraq]," Erdogan said, adding that polls in Turkey show that the public thinks that the invasion has "led to increasing terrorist threats toward Turkey".
Erdogan says that until recently even Turks who disliked the US government tended to appreciate Americans and their culture. Now he sees an "emerging antipathy towards the Americans and the US lifestyle".
Turkey is also the Middle Eastern country where public opinion toward the United States has slipped furthest in recent years. Fewer than one in ten Turks (9%) have a positive view of the United States, a drop of 21 points from the already low level in Pew's 2002 survey. More than four out of five (83%) say their attitude is unfavourable, including 75% who feel 'very unfavourable' towards the US.
The declining support among Turks for the EU and NATO is consistent with such convictions. The ratio of Turks who see membership in the EU as a "good thing" fell from 73% in 2004 to 54% in 2006, according to the German Marshall Fund. And the number saying that NATO is essential for Turkey's security fell from a narrow majority in 2004 (53%) to 44% in 2006.
