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.
One of last year's most striking findings is the change in perception of the most serious problem on Turkey’s agenda. While the respondents had cited unemployment as the most serious problem in the previous four years, in 2015 “terrorism” was No. 1 in all geographical regions where the survey was conducted, with 39.3% (compared to 13.9% in 2014); 16.3% of respondents considered "unemployment" to be the second-most pressing issue, which was considerably higher in 2014 with 33%. These were followed by corruption (8.3%), foreign policy questions (6.1%), Kurdish problem (5.2%), crisis in Syria, inequality, judiciary system, parallel structure and education.
The increase in people’s anxiety about terrorism is not surprising given the recent escalation in the conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the media’s focus on it. Government officials might not like the results of the survey that suggest that 45.8% of participants found the government’s performance in the fight against the PKK unsuccessful. On the other hand, 28% found it successful, while 26.2% of respondents thought it was neither successful nor unsuccessful. Unsurprisingly, AKP supporters found the fight against the PKK more successful than the opposition voters.
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