Arab world favors Turkey, sees as model, study reveals

A new piece of research has found that Arab views of Turkey have become more positive in recent years, as one poll conducted in the Middle East showed that Turkey ranked second in Arab respondents’ opinions after Saudi Arabia, with 75 percent of respondents having very favorable or favorable views of Turkey. The survey, designed by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) and conducted July 24-29, 2009 by telephone in Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria, and face-to-face in Iraq, involved more than 2,000 people. The number of respondents who perceived Turkey very favorably or favorably was particularly high in Syria, the Palestinian territories and Jordan. “In the Palestinian territories, Turkey was the most positively regarded country, and in Syria it was the highest after Syria itself,” noted Meliha Altunisik, head of the international relations department at Middle East Technical University (ODTU). Altunisik noted that the survey also demonstrated that the public in these seven countries perceived Turkey as a major actor whose opinions are listened to and which has influence. “There is also clear support for Turkey’s third party roles and for Turkey ‘to play a bigger role in the Arab world’ -- Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese respondents being the most supportive of this idea. According to the survey, Turkey was also seen as a successful example of the coherence of Islam and democracy and thus considered as a ‘model’ for the Arab world. There seems to be a widespread support for Turkey’s EU membership,” she also stated in her TESEV-supported report, “Turkey: Arab Perspectives.” The survey was conducted after the Gaza incursion and the Davos incident, when Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s popularity peaked. Moderating a panel called “Turkey and the Arab world: Rediscovering each other?” one of the authors of that survey, Mensur Akgun, said yesterday that they plan to repeat the survey soon and include Iran.