On Jan. 12, Kadir Has University in Istanbul published the results of its fifth annual survey that investigated the views of Turkish citizens on the most pressing issues that are on the country’s agenda. The Survey of Social-Political Trends in Turkey 2015 was conducted in December, with the participation of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and older from 26 cities around the country.
To better understand the results of the survey, it is important to note that about half of the participants voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the last elections, followed by partisans of the Republican People's Party (CHP) (25%), Nationalist Action Party (MHP) (12.8%) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) (11.1%). In terms of the participants’ self-definition on the political spectrum, 20.7% defined themselves as conservative, 16.3% as nationalist, 14.7% as religious, 9.4% as social democrat, 7.3% as socialist and 2.9% as ultranationalist. About 65.7% defined themselves as ethnically Turkish and 11.1% as Kurdish, while 1.1% of the respondents were Alevis and 0.9% were Arabs.