Turkey falls to 146th in Global Peace Index

ISTANBUL

Turkey fell one place to 146th out of 163 countries in the Global Peace Index, the list’s maker, the Sydney-based Institute of Economics and Peace, announced June 1.

“Turkey remains the most significant outlier in Europe; in 2017 it falls another place in the global ranking, to 146th, as its scores for number of deaths from internal conflict, Political Terror Scale and the impact of terrorism deteriorate significantly,” the report stated. 

The report also stated that the political situation had been worsening in Turkey over the last few years.

“The political situation had been worsening in Turkey over the last few years but the situation came to a head in July 2016, when parts of the military attempted a coup, resulting in a government crackdown on alleged conspirators," it stated.

The report also said the number of countries seeing a record number of deaths from terrorism had risen to 23. 

“More countries are dealing with historically high levels of terrorism than ever before. The number of countries experiencing record number of deaths from terrorism in 2015 jumped to 23, including Denmark, Sweden, France and Turkey. The number of countries that experienced over 100 deaths from terrorism rose from 12 in 2007 to 26 in 2015,” stated in the report.

Still, the report found that the world became 0.28 percent more peaceful over the past year.

Syria is the least peaceful country in the world for the fifth year running. Before the outbreak of civil war there, it was the 65th least peaceful. Its fall has been the starkest of the past decade.

The other four most violent countries are Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen, and the combined Middle East and North Africa was the least peaceful region in the world.

Iceland remained the most peaceful country in the world, a spot it has occupied since 2008.  New Zealand, Portugal, Austria and Denmark rounded out the top five for the most peaceful countries in the world.