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  • "Friends"?

    Perhaps not.



    POLITICS: U.S. VIEWED AS TURKEY'S "GREATEST THREAT"
    By Jonathan Bell

    IPS, Italy

    Sept 7 2007

    WASHINGTON, Sep 7 (IPS) - Nearly two-thirds of the Turkish public
    named the United States as their country's greatest future threat,
    a recent Pew Global Attitudes Project survey has revealed -- the
    highest percentage of any Middle Eastern or Islamic country polled.

    The survey, which was also conducted in Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon,
    Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco and Israel, asked an open ended question:
    "What country or groups pose the greatest threat to (survey country)
    in the future?" Turkey was the only country in which a majority
    of respondents pointed to the U.S. Turkey, a U.S. NATO ally and
    recipient of U.S. and NATO security guarantees, also harbours the
    second most negative attitudes towards the U.S., with 83 percent
    holding an "unfavourable" opinion of it -- up 29 percent since 2002,
    the biggest drop in public opinion of the U.S. in recent years.

    Eighty-six percent of Palestinians express an unfavourable opinion
    of the U.S., the most negative response from a Middle Eastern country.

    Dr. Emre Erdogan, a political scientist and founding partner of
    Infakto Research Workshop, says that this is "a result of intensifying
    terrorist activities of the PKK" -- an armed militant group founded
    in the 1970s also known as the Kurdistan Workers Party -- which has
    found increasing support since the Iraq war began.

    The Turkish people "perceive the U.S. as responsible for the worsening
    situation," said Erdogan in a World Public Opinion (WPO)/Programme
    on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) analysis of the Pew results.

    The "increasing terrorist and political activity of the PKK" is seen
    to be "under direct supervision of the Northern Iraq Administration
    and the U.S.", and the Turkish media "continuously present evidence
    for this [U.S.-PKK] collaboration," said Erdogan.

    According to a 2005 Infakto poll, 71 percent of Turks think that
    "the West has helped separatist groups in Turkey gain strength",
    and a Pew 2007 survey found that 79 percent of Turks oppose "U.S.-led
    efforts to fight terrorism".

    "[T]his intolerance and antipathy towards the PKK became converted
    to the perception of the U.S. as the major enemy of the country,"
    Erdogan said. "Before the invasion of Iraq, the worst enemy of the
    country was stated as Greece or Armenia... rather than the U.S."

    The 2005 Infakto poll also found that 66 percent think that "Western
    countries want to divide and break Turkey like they divided and broke
    the Ottoman Empire in the past," an idea that Steven Kull, director
    of PIPA and editor for WPO, found "surprising".

    "[The] Turks are very concerned that the Kurds are going to leave and
    want to gain independence," Kull told IPS, but the suggestion that
    "the U.S. is intentionally seeking to divide [Turkey] surprised
    me...the U.S. has a commitment to protect Turkey from aggression,
    and has never threatened to [directly] attack Turkey, unlike Greece,
    which is why I find this particularly striking."

    Dissatisfaction with U.S. foreign policy is not only prevalent in
    Turkey. A January 2007 Gallup poll of U.S. citizens found that 56
    percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the current role of the
    U.S. in the world -- up from the 51 percent who shared that view in
    2006 -- and not only do majorities of U.S. citizens see the world
    as more dangerous, but large numbers attribute that to the George
    W. Bush administration's foreign policy.

    A Chicago Council on Global Affairs poll found that 69 percent of
    U.S. citizens support Washington's involvement in world affairs,
    reflecting the trend of greater support for U.S. involvement since
    the attacks of 9/11, but a February 2007 Gallup poll showed that
    only 15 percent of U.S. citizens believe the U.S. should take "the
    leading role" in solving international problems -- 58 percent said
    the U.S. should "take a major role but not the leading role."

    The Pew survey found that 81 percent of Turks dislike "American ideas
    about democracy", 83 percent dislike "American ways of doing business",
    and 68 percent dislike "American music, movies and television",
    statistics that have all increased by at least 22 percent in the last
    five years.

    Erdogan commented that, before, Turks might dislike the U.S. government
    but they still appreciated its culture, whereas now there is an
    "emerging antipathy" towards U.S. citizens and their life style,
    with 77 percent saying they held unfavourable views of U.S. citizens.
    General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

  • #2
    hm...perhaps they are finally on to me..hahahahahaha! What can I say....

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Joseph View Post
      Perhaps not.

      Dissatisfaction with U.S. foreign policy is not only prevalent in
      Turkey. A January 2007 Gallup poll of U.S. citizens found that 56
      percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the current role of the
      U.S. in the world -- up from the 51 percent who shared that view in
      2006 -- and not only do majorities of U.S. citizens see the world
      as more dangerous, but large numbers attribute that to the George
      W. Bush administration's foreign policy.
      58% of Europeans polled said that the current US role in World affairs is undesirable. Over 2/3rds believed George Bush to be primarily responsible for this, but almost 2/3rds also believed that any successor to George Bush would not improve things. June 2007 pole by US/Italian researchers.
      Plenipotentiary meow!

      Comment

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