Israel Matzav

Poll: Turks don't like Israel (or anyone else)

I keep getting comments from people who identify themselves as Turks, and even as Turkish Jews, who claim that it's not true that Turkey hates Israel or Jews, that Erdogan (who has been elected twice) doesn't represent Turkey, etc. Sad to say, those commenters are wrong (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

A new survey conducted in Turkey by SETA demonstrated that 74% of Turks don’t like the Armenians, 71% dislike Israel and the Jews, 69% dislike the Greeks, 64% dislike Americans, 54% the Europeans and Russians and the list goes on. The only favored group seems to be the Azerbaijan’s Turks. These figures reflect on how the public opinion has been shaped during the nine year rule of the AKP government, and PM Erdogan’s hostile rhetoric.

Prominent Turkish journalist Ertugrul Ozkok of Hurriyet, wrote in his column that these findings, and the hostility and sometimes the violence towards ‘all others’ are both astonishing and alarming, and added that “it is time to gather the best sociologists and psychologists in the country and ask the question, ‘Why don’t we (Turks) like anybody?’”

Yavuz Bulent Bakiler of the pro-AKP daily Turkiye responded to Ozkok’s article by justifying the negative sentiments towards all foreign peoples. He asked, “How can we love the Jews? Their biblical ideal is even depicted on their flag. They want to build the ‘Great Israel’ that will cover all the area between Euphrates and Nile. The Jews are oppressing our brethren in Palestine… How can our nation love the Jews?”

Bakiler also asked, “Which sensible Turk could trust America’s friendship?” and asserted that had America wanted, with one word to (Kurdish) Talabani and Barzani, it could have ended their savagery. “How can we love Americans?” he asked. He also criticized Europeans for supporting the PKK terror, for stirring up the Alevi issue in Turkey and wrote, “They are the ones that are hostile towards Turks”.

Maybe it's time for the rest of us to come out in open support of the Kurds.

Labels: Armenia, Europe, Israel, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, United States

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:35 PM