Survey: ”Turkish opinion warming up to US and EU

A US-led survey studying the public opinions of 12 European countries, the US and Turkey on various international matters has revealed that Turkish opinion warmed up slightly toward the US and the EU in 2011, but a vast majority of Turks still have an unfavorable opinion of both world powers. The 2011 results of the annual survey of Transatlantic Trends, a traditional initiative of the US German Marshall Fund were announced yesterday revealing the changes in global public opinions within the last year regarding global issues. Separating from the EU countries and the US, Turks strongly resisted strong US leadership in the world, with figures staying below 10 percent since the survey was first conducted in 2002. The undesirability of US leadership hit bottom with 1 percent during the tenure of US ex-President George W. Bush, but the country's approval of US politics faced a steep increase in 2009, when Barack Obama was elected to office. Although the number of people who thought relations with the US were a good thing had increased from 2010's 25 percent to 27, those who believed relations were a bad thing had also increased by one point to 34 percent. In response to a similar question about Turkish sentiments toward the EU, Turks' very unfavorable opinion dropped to 32 percent from 36, but very favorable opinions also declined from 9 percent to 8 percent. However, the results pointed to a dramatic increase of 10 points in Turkish opinion toward the desirability of Turkish membership in the EU, reaching 48 percent, but still way below the 73 percent it hit in 2004.