Turkey falls into parts on ‘national pride map’

ISTANBUL

The poll also shows that Turkish society is ‘the most religious’ of Europe. Some 85 percent of Turkish citizens define themselves as religious, according to the survey. The survey finds that 29 percent of Turkish people perform prayers regularly.

A recent survey conducted by Bahçeşehir University under the auspices of the 2012 World Values has shown that Turkish citizens’ feelings of national pride show significant regional variations.

Survey results showed that when asked whether they were proud of being a Turk, some 10 percent of Turkish society declined to be called a Turk. In the largely Kurdish populated southeast region only 23 percent said they were proud of being a Turk, the survey said. Bahçeşehir University prepared the survey after interviews were held with 2,205 people in 64 cities across Turkey and 152 districts between 2011 and 2012.

However, nearly three out of every four Turks said they were proud to be identified as a Turk.

Central Anatolia led the category of proud Turks with nearly 85 percent of survey participants, Turkey’s Mediterranean region followed with slightly more than 80 percent.

Some 71 percent of respondents said they were proud of being a Turk in the Aegean and Marmara regions with only Izmir and Istanbul singled out. Some 78 percent of Istanbulites and 72 percent of Izmirians said they took pride in being a Turk.

The same poll also showed that Turkish society is “the most religious and rightist” of Europe. Some 85 percent of Turkish citizens define themselves as religious, according to the survey. The same survey study had found this statistics to be 83 percent in 2006, 80 percent in 2001, 78 percent in 1996 and 75 percent in 1990.

Prof. Yılmaz Esmer, the head of the team that conducted the survey, said there was a regular conservatism rise in Turkey.

Esmer said Turkish society was the most religious in Europe and one of the most religious societies in the world.
The survey finds that 29 percent of Turkish people perform prayers five times a day and fasts during Ramadan as the Quran orders.

Esmer says religion loses its effect as a societies education level increases. Some 61 percent of unschooled participants said they perform what the Quran requires, while only 14 percent of university graduates said they practice daily religious regulations. There are significant regional variations, while the most religious part of Turkish society was found in the eastern and southeastern part of Turkey, western Turkey seems to be less religious, Esmer said.

On the other hand only 32 percent of the Czech Republic and Sweden define themselves as religious, while 42 percent of French society answered yes to this question.

The survey also shows the extent to which discrimination is internalized by Turkish women. Some 71 percent of Turkish women said “a woman should always obey to her husband and follow his advice.”
Esmer said the big domestic violence problem in Turkey is what created this feeling and now it was not only a “man’s problem,” since Turkish women agreed that “they had to obey their husbands.”

Still, trust in the ruling Justice and Development Party ballooned from 29 percent in 2001 to 62 percent in 2012.

The AKP government is seen to be more trustworthy than the Turkish Parliament which has gained the trust of 58 percent of society.

Trust in the European Union on the other hand continues in a dramatic decline as only 39 percent of Turks trust in the EU.

In contrast, support for the Turkish military has steadily declined from a high of 94 percent in 1996 to 78 percent this year.