What do the Turks want?

The choices of citizens of a country on various issues are important parts of the inputs that governments receive during their decision-making process, so governments try to gauge the perceptions of the public more or less accurately. In democratic societies, public opinion becomes even more significant and effects the policy choices of governments. Therefore, it is important to know what a certain society wishes at any moment in time.

It is often argued that Turkey is a complicated country, and the game of guessing its future direction is frustrating to many Turkey-watchers as its political agenda changes so often. One way to understand the direction of a country is to conduct regular public opinion surveys to keep track of the changing preferences of its citizens. With this in mind, let us look at the results of "Social and Political Trends Survey - Turkey," which was released on Tuesday by Kadir Has University. It has data from 1,000 people in 26 cities across the country, gathered over the last four years. The full results can be accessed on the university's website.

Although the survey looks into several issues, ranging from the most important topics on Turkish citizens' agenda to the success of the government's policies, as well as public perceptions about confidence in institutions, the role of the military in political life, the Kurdish issue, the social, political and ethnic spectrum of the citizens, and the support for political parties if an election were held today, I would like to draw your attention to a part of the survey related to the country's international connections.

What fascinates me most in these kinds of surveys is the remarkable consistency of Turkish public opinion to prefer Turkey to act alone in international...