Survey: Political Polarization in Turkey Deepens

• 02.03.2016, 17:52
•  Region,  World

Guardian/Uriel Sinai

Turkey has become increasingly polarized: party preferences have begun to define the relationships between people – a new study of Hurriyet on public opinion in Turkey on the issue conducted by the American Foundation of the German Marshall says.

According to the study, more than three quarters of Turks do not want to have neighbors whose political positions are greatly different from theirs. With such neighbors 73% of the respondents do not want to do business. About 83 percent of Turks do not want their children to marry those whose parents have a different political position, or they belong to a party that has too different from that of their own party. According to about 65 percent of the supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the most distant from their worldview Party is the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (PDP), while 61 percent of voters of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) could not find any "point of contact" with the ideology of the ruling party.

According to the survey, for the supporters of the Kurdish Party relations with the supporters of the Nationalist Movement Party are undesirable, 65% of them categorically do not share the political views of the NDP. Meanwhile, political views of the Kurdish party differ from the views of 44% of the respondents. 22 percent of survey participants do not agree with the political line of the ruling party, and 7% - with the policy the Nationalist Movement Party. Most Turks believe that their political position is the closest with the views of the Republican People's Party. The study notes that, regardless of political opinion, Turks generally read newspapers of Hurriyet and Posta. According to the study, only 73 percent of AKP voters see economic progress in Turkey and only in the families of 57 percent the well-being has increased in the recent years.

The study also showed that the social segment that feels most alienated from society, are citizens of Kurdish origin. Such a situation is satisfactory for the 44 percent of the voters of AKP, while only 22% of the CHP voters and 7% of NDP voters are not satisfied with the current political situation in Turkey.

It should be recalled that Turkey carries out a military operation against Kurdish rebels in the south-eastern provinces. However, many human rights organizations have noted that the victims of military operations and Ankara are civilians.