Some 28,000 respondents described how they perceive the United Kingdom, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Russia, the US, Venezuela and the European Union. This selection is meaningful. Some of these actors are power centers of the international system. North Korea and Venezuela were chosen as anti-systemic countries. If a majority of public opinion believed these two countries’ actions to be acceptable, then a revision of the system would be an urgent matter. The most trusted countries in the world are Canada and Japan. The most disliked countries are Israel, Iran and North Korea. Most Russians think that Russia, and most French think that France, act positively. This important survey also has interesting data on Turkey. The survey does not ask how Turkey is perceived by others but how the selected 12 countries are perceived by Turkey. Accordingly, Turkey is not happy about any other country’s attitudes, political choices or impact. In other words, respondents from Turkey do not trust any actor playing an important role in the international system. Turkey especially dislikes Israel’s policies. Only 2 percent of Turks are favorable about Israel but 76 percent of them say they are opposed. It’s not surprising that the second “worst” actor is the US. Those in favor are 7 percent and those against are 69 percent. In third place is France. Only 9 percent of Turkish respondents have a good opinion of France while 69 percent do not approve of its policies. The same ratio for the UK is 21 percent and 54 percent, respectively.
On average, only 21 percent of Turkish respondents agree with the policies of these countries and 43 percent disagree. Unfortunately, Turkey harbors some of the most negative perceptions about other countries. The most positive country for Turkish public opinion is Japan with 51 percent of respondents. But in fact, this country is not that well known in Turkey. The most deplorable situation is about the European Union and the European countries. Even if Turkey is a candidate country, it has a very negative perception of the EU as a whole and distrust of France and the UK in particular. Thirty percent of Turkish respondents see the EU positively and 32 percent negatively. There are many reasons that explain this attitude. First of all, the European Union’s general attitude toward Turkey and the Cyprus issue must be mentioned. The law on the recognition of the Armenian “genocide” and French presidential candidate Sarkozy’s rhetoric also explain why France is so badly perceived in Turkey. The UK is not in that bad a situation thanks to its support for Turkey’s European Union membership process, but it’s still badly perceived by Turks because of its policies around the globe. We should also note that Turkey’s negative perception about everyone is unfortunately closely connected with the rise of nationalist, defensive and distrustful feelings across the country.
