Findings of the Transatlantic Trends Survey Presented at TEPAV The survey reveals that more of the Turkish respondents thought that EU membership would be good for Turkey
ANKARA- Findings of the 2014 Transatlantic Trends survey conducted by the GMF (The German Marshall Fund of the United States) was presented at TEPAV. The survey reveals that the rate of respondents from Turkey who believe that EU membership would be a good thing for their country has increased.
GMF Ankara Director Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı presented the findings of the survey with a meeting held at TEPAV on 10 September 2014. The 13th Transatlantic Trends survey suggests that the rate of Turks who think that EU membership would be a good thing for Turkey increased by 8 percentage points to 53 percent. For the first time since this question was first asked in 2010, a majority of Turks thought that EU membership would be a good thing for Turkey.
The rate of Turks who think that the NATO is essential for the country’s security reached 49 percent; up 10 percentage points since 2013 and 19 percentage points since 2010. For the first time since 2009, the majority of Turks don’t deem the NATO essential for the security of Turkey.
With an increase of 14 percentage points, the rate of respondents from Turkey who believe they were affected by the global economic crisis reached 76 percent. The rate declined by 2 percentage points compared to 2009, when this question was asked for the first time after the global economic crisis.
Following the presentation of survey findings, a panel session was held with the moderation of Bozkurt Aran, Director of the TEPAV Multilateral Trade Studies Center. The panelists were Ambassador Stefano Manservisi, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, Mr. Lawrence C. Mandel, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the United States of America, and Prof. Dr. Ali Resul Usul, Director of Strategic Research Center, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ambassador Stefano Manservisi said, “Here (in the report) I read a certain number of things to do, a homework, which could be done also in the European Union and Europe. I believe we should do it together.” Manservisi, giving kudos to Turkey for hosting Syrian refugees, said, “we could work more together to turn what has been managed so far as a policy toward guests into a policy about integration.”
Assessing the survey findings, Mr. Lawrence C. Mandel, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the United States of America said that it was understandable that Turks preferred that Turkey acted alone whereas it was not possible in the modern world which had increasingly became interdependent. Mendel stressed that although Turkey and the US did not share the same borders, the perceptions of threat for the both countries were similar for Turkey’s borders included Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The Transatlantic Trends, a public survey that measures broad public opinion in the United States and Europe, is a project of the German Marshall Fund and the Compagnia di San Paolo, with additional support from the Barrow Cadbury Trust, the BBVA Foundation and the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The survey was conducted by the TNS Opinion June 2 and June 25, 2014 in the USA, Turkey, Russia, and EU member states France, Greece, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Please click here for the Transatlantic Trends 2014 report
