World Public Opinion: Why Turks Feel Threatened by the US

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Why Turks Feel Threatened by the US

Which Middle Eastern public has the largest percentage of people naming the United States as the country that poses the greatest threat? The answer, according to the most recent Pew Global Attitudes Project survey, is Turkey, a NATO ally and a country that is generally touted as the type of secular, multi-party democracy the United States should foster in the Middle East.Turkey is also the Middle Eastern country where public opinion toward the United States has slipped furthest in recent years. Fewer than one in 10 Turks (9%) have a positive view of the United States, a drop of 21 points from the already low level in Pew’s 2002 survey. More than four out of five (83%) say their attitude is unfavorable, including 75 percent who feel very unfavorably. That’s one of the highest negative percentages among the eight Middle Eastern countries surveyed by Pew in 2007, second only to the Palestinian public with 86 percent unfavorable.