Turkey remains popular for middle eastern nations, TESEV study finds

Turkey is one of the most popular countries for residents of Middle Eastern nations, with 78 percent of people in the region saying they support the country's policies, a recent study by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) has found. TESEV on Thursday released the results of its survey titled "Perceptions about Turkey in the Middle East," conducted on 2,323 people in 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. In response to a question asking participants to choose between a list of countries in terms of having positive opinions about that country, Turkey was ranked first by 78 percent of them. Seventy-seven percent also said that despite its increasingly tense relations with Israel, Turkey contributes positively to regional peace. Seventy-five percent of respondents said Turkey should contribute to finding a solution to the situation of Palestine, while 61 percent of them said they saw Turkey as a model for their country. Twenty-two percent said they did not believe Turkey could be a good model for Middle Eastern nations, while 13 percent were undecided. Turkey was followed by the United Arab Emirates (70 percent), Palestine (66 percent), China (65 percent), Saudi Arabia and Lebanon (64 percent) and Egypt (62 percent) in terms of positive sentiment felt toward a country. The results also indicate that Turkey still remains a trusted country for intermediating between third countries. The survey also found that Turkey is seen as much an economic power as a political power in the region. Syria is the least trusting of Turkey among the 16 countries where the survey was conducted, with 44 percent saying they had a positive sentiment toward Turkey, while only 30 percent said they were pleased with Turkey's reaction to regional development in the past year. Only 31 percent said Turkey could be a model for Syria to look to, but 58 percent said they believed Turkey had important contributions to make to peace in the Middle East.The majority of the participants answered Saudi Arabia, in response to a question on which country they believed was the most economically potent in the region, and Turkey, when the question was asked on which will be the strongest economy in 10 years.