Turkish Neocons? Attitudes Towards East and West in Turkish Public Opinion
Posted: 22 Feb 2011 Last revised: 8 Feb 2012
Date Written: February 8, 2012
Abstract
Since Turkey's aid flotilla to Gaza, many foreign policy pundits and analysts have suggested that Turkey may be turning East in its foreign policy. While this East/West dichotomy is pervasive in discussing Turkey's foreign policy, few have bothered to empirically analyze public perceptions to see if Turks perceive this dichotomy. We analyze the Pew Global Attitudes Project surveys for Turkey from 2004 to 2009, and find little evidence to support an East/West divide in foreign policy attitudes. Rather, the main division seems to be between isolationists and internationalists. Qualitative evidence and the analyses of several major Turkish scholars back up this conclusion.
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