Turkey favorable for Turkish people only

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Transatlantic Trends.

Turks have a favorable view of themselves but not of any other nation, and the world does not have a favorable opinion about Turks and Turkey, according to a recent survey.

Transatlantic Trends, an annual survey of public opinion made public yesterday, revealed that 85 percent of Turks had a favorable view of their own country, while many nations do not consider Turkey a favorable country. The second-most-favorable country for Turks was Japan, with an approval number of 54 percent. Japan was followed by Germany (48 percent) and South Korea (41 percent).

Two countries Turks have unfavorable opinions about do not come as much of a surprise: Israel, with an approval number of 9 percent and Greece with 17 percent, according to the survey. Other most-favorable countries for Turks are as follows: China (39 percent), EU countries (36 percent), Spain (35 percent), U.S. (34 percent), Russia (32 percent), Ireland (30 percent) and Italy (27 percent).

Turkey most favorable for Turks, Russians

Turkey’s favorability rating is not very high on either side of the Atlantic; the most favorable opinions about the country came from the Russians, with 61 percent. This is followed by the Dutch with 58 percent, Romanians with a rate of 56 percent and Belgians with 51 percent.

The results show that Italians are the most unfavorable people to Turkey with only 25 percent, while Italy’s approval rate in Turkey is not much different; 27 percent.

Italy is followed by the people of Sweden (30 percent), France (38 percent) and Slovakia (37 percent), Spain (40 percent), Portugal (42 percent), the United States and Poland (43 percent) and Germany (47 percent).

Americans and EU residents tended to have stable and comparable opinions of each other and of other countries in the world. Four in five Americans (84 percent) had a favorable opinion of their own country. A majority of Americans also had favorable views of Japan (68 percent), Germany (67 percent), Italy (63 percent) and Spain (53 percent).

Germany, on the other hand, tied with the U.S. as the most favorably country in the survey. It was rated favorably by 74 percent of EU respondents and 67 percent of Americans, as well as 71 percent of Russians.

The survey consisted of approximately 1,000 interviews in the U.S. Turkey, Russia and 12 European Union member states; Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The survey is a source of U.S. and European public opinion on a host of transatlantic issues, including common foreign policy challenges, support for NATO, the economy and the rise of other world powers.