Majority Of Turkish People Do Not Trust NATO: Survey

A whopping majority of Turkish people do not trust NATO, according to a recent survey conducted ahead of the bloc’s upcoming summit in Brussels. The poll was conducted with 2,477 participants between June 7-8 by Areda Survey.

Some 90.3% of the participants believe NATO would not stand beside Turkey in case of a potential dispute, while 51.7% said they believe the bloc exploits Turkey for its own interests.

In response to a question about whether they think NATO protects Turkey’s interests, 84.6% said no, while 15.4% said yes.

Meanwhile, 55.7% said they do not trust NATO at all in terms of standing beside it in case of an invasion of Turkey.

Turkey joined the military alliance of 29 North American and European countries in 1952. The country has also been providing permanent naval assistance to NATO missions in the Aegean Sea while leading regional initiatives, including the Standing NATO Maritime Group’s (SNMG) activities in the Black Sea region.

Turkey also hosts many NATO initiatives. There is a NATO headquarters in Turkey’s western Izmir province, an air base in the southern Adana province, another one in Diyarbakır and a NATO Rapid Deployable Corps in Istanbul. It also hosts the AN/TPY-2 radar in eastern Malatya province as part of the organization’s missile shield project.

Apart from all these, in 2018 alone, Turkey contributed $101 million (TL 863 million) to the common funding of NATO.

But despite the country’s commitment to the organization, it has not received the support it expects. — (AGENCY)