Polls in Turkey show ruling Islamist party trailing in lead up to elections

By ICEJ News

29 Jul 2010

A poll of voters attitudes in Turkey conducted by the Sonar Arastirma company  show the ruling Islamist AKP Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan trailing in advance of next year's elections by a slight margin. The poll shows that the AKP enjoys the support of 31.1% of Turkish voters, as opposed to the 33.5% popularity enjoyed by the secular Republican People’s Party. What is perhaps more significant is that the numbers are little changed from Sonar Arastirma's last poll, taken before the May 31 Mavi Marmara flotilla incident off the coast of Gaza. "There is a sense among some elements of the population that AKP has overreached on foreign policy," said Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "I am not talking about the kind of die-hard nationalist secularists, but that important 'middle' or 'center' who aren't Islamists or militant nationalist secularists. They aren't all that unhappy with the general thrust of Turkish foreign policy, but they are starting to ask questions about AKP's foreign policy activism."

Print    Tell a friend