Terrorism tops Turkish citizens’ list of concerns in 2015

Riada Ašimović Akyol

Jan 14, 2016

A person pays their respects at the Obelisk of Theodosius, the scene of the suicide bomb attack, at Sultanahmet square in Istanbul, Turkey January 13, 2016. Turkish authorities detained three Russian nationals suspected of links with Islamic State following a suicide bomb attack in Istanbul that killed 10 tourists, media reports said on Wednesday. A suicide bomber thought to have crossed recently from Syria killed nine German and one Peruvian tourists on Tuesday in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet Square, a — A person pays their respects at the Obelisk of Theodosius, the scene of the suicide bomb attack the day before, at Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul, Jan. 13, 2016. — REUTERS/Osman Orsal

On Jan. 12, Kadir Has University in Istanbul published the results of its fifth annual survey that investigated the views of Turkish citizens on the most pressing issues that are on the country’s agenda. The Survey of Social-Political Trends in Turkey 2015 was conducted in December, with the participation of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and older from 26 cities around the country.

To better understand the results of the survey, it is important to note that about half of the participants voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the last elections, followed by partisans of the Republican People's Party (CHP) (25%), Nationalist Action Party (MHP) (12.8%) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) (11.1%). In terms of the participants’ self-definition on the political spectrum, 20.7% defined themselves as conservative, 16.3% as nationalist, 14.7% as religious, 9.4% as social democrat, 7.3% as socialist and 2.9% as ultranationalist. About 65.7% defined themselves as ethnically Turkish and 11.1% as Kurdish, while 1.1% of the respondents were Alevis and 0.9% were Arabs.