Turks see ISIL as biggest threat on Syrian border: survey

ISTANBUL

AP photo

The majority of Turks see the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as the greatest threat on the Syrian border, with many believing Syria’s north should be controlled by Kurds, a recent survey by the Metropoll Research Center shows.

At least 40 percent of the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP), 61.2 percent of the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP), 41.8 percent of the Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) and 75.4 percent of the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) voters think ISIL is the biggest threat on the Syrian border, according to a recent survey conducted by the Metropoll Research Center, a polling company whose estimates over Turkey’s last general election results were the most accurate. The survey was conducted with more than 2,000 voters between July 7 and July 12, with the aim of discovering the public’s opinion on Turkey’s Syrian policy and its Syrian goals.

Some 34.9 percent of the AKP’s, 49.4 percent of the CHP’s, 32.4 percent of the MHP’s and 81.4 percent of the HDP’s voters think that northern Syria should be in hands of the Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK). It also showed at least 20 percent of the AKP’s voters think Syria’s north should be in hands of ISIL. 

More than 60 percent of the AKP’s voters think that Turkey will be worse off in a military intervention in Syria, while 87.2 percent of the CHP’s voters, 74.8 percent of the MHP’s voters and 84.3 percent of the HDP’s voters think Turkish military intervention in Syria will be to Turkey’s detriment.

At least 67 percent of the entire respondents of the survey, regardless of their political party preference, think a Turkish military intervention in Syria is not right, while 23.6 percent saying they find Turkish military action in Syria is reasonable. 

More than 68 percent of both CHP and HDP voters think several state organizations in Turkey provide support to radical Islamist terrorist organizations, with only 31.9 percent of the AKP’s voters and 56 percent of the MHP’s voters agreeing, the survey shows.

The survey reveals that the majority of the respondents, excluding the AKP’s voters, see Turkey’s foreign policy toward Syria as not lasting, with more than 75 percent of the voters of the CHP, MHP and HDP each thinking Turkey’s Syrian policy has not been successful. At least 58 percent of the AKP’s voters, on the other hand, think Turkey’s Syrian policy has been suitable from the start.