Almost 75 percent of youth in Turkey support EU membership: Research

Menekşe Tokyay / DUVAR 

Seventy-three percent of the Turkish youth population want Turkey to become a member of the European Union, research carried out by the German Marshall Fund (GMF) has shown.

The young population surveyed in March across 27 provinces were aged between 18 and 24.

The rate of those outside the age group that said they supported Turkey’s EU membership was 58 percent.

Around 76 percent of the young people surveyed thought positively about Europeans, while 60 percent of those surveyed and who were older thought positively about Europeans.

Sixty-one percent of the respondents said they would vote “yes” if there was a referendum on whether Turkey should join the EU, while the rate was 75 percent among young people, an increase from 69 percent last year.

“The fact that young people, among whom there are people who have never voted in their lives, think very positively about the EU holds significance on where they want to see [Turkey],” GMF’s senior researcher Kadri Taştan said.

A majority of the respondents said they believe Turkey will join the EU in the next 10-15 years.

Some 68.8 percent see Turkey as a part of Europe geographically, while 57.2 percent think Turkey is a part of the continent historically, 45.6 percent economically, 44.5 percent in terms of security and 31.1 percent see they are culturally close to Europe.

But half of those surveyed think the EU has no intentions to accept Turkey’s candidacy and that it is just wasting Ankara’s time. Forty-four percent of the respondents don’t think Turkey will ever become a member of the EU, up from 39.7 percent last year.

Around 60 percent of the respondents think the U.S. is the biggest threat to Turkey. Some 31 percent think Russia is the biggest threat.

Seventy-five percent of the respondents said the environment and climate policies should be prioritized even if leads to slowdown in economic growth and job losses.

Half of the respondents said businesses and factories should be given the most responsibility in fighting the climate crisis, while 36 percent said individuals should do their part in fighting the crisis. Only 31 percent of the respondents believe the Turkish government should take on the most responsibility in fighting climate change.

The survey was carried out across 27 provinces in Turkey in face-to-face interviews with 2,180 people in March.

(English version by Nihan Kalle)