Ebru Ş. Canan-Sokullu ve Burcu Ertunç
This research note examines Turkish public opinion on NATO, the impact of political party preferences on this opinion, the circumstances under which Turkish public opinion gives support to NATO and issues related to use of force. According to the Transatlantic Trends Surveys (TTS) (2004-2010), public opinion in nine EU countries, in the USA and Turkey on NATO, and on the issue of use of military force to support a NATO ally has been diverse. Cross-country and longitudinal results show that Turks’ support for NATO for national security has gradually decreased since 2004 (in 2004, 67 percent of Turks believed that NATO was essential, whereas in 2010 this opinion shrunk to 41 percent point level). Even more, Turks are the most critical of NATO among other countries in the study.
This study examines public opinion on NATO considering the domestic political party preferences and relates mass public attitudes to political discourse on NATO in Turkey. The results show that MHP supporters are the fiercest anti-NATO group, AKP supporters are rather moderately against NATO. Those who support CHP have adopted consistently negative attitudes to NATO over time.
This study finds out that Turks are the largest supporters of military operations to intervene in an internal conflict in another country (85 %). In comparison with public opinion in other countries, Turks support the use of national armed forces to ensure the supply of oil at the highest level (77 %). Yet, they have the most critical attitudes towards use of Turkish military forces to defend a NATO ally that has been attacked (69 %). These results enable us to comment on the recent NATO operation on Libya, which officially initiated to stop an internal conflict in Libya, yet has called into mind the question whether the real purpose of the operation for Western powers is to get a more secure access to rich energy supplies in the country. Given the purpose of the operation and keeping in mind the findings of this analysis, it would not be wrong to expect that Turks, without even the support of other NATO allies, would support intervention in Libya, presumably due to the energy and oil needs and to the fact of growing internal instability and conflict therein.
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