The Turkish public dislikes the United States more than any other nation in the world, while leading global actors such as the European Union, Russia, Iran, China and Israel are also falling from favor with a majority of Turks, according to a global survey released on Wednesday.

The 47-country survey found that only 9 percent of the Turkish people have a favorable opinion of the US, while 83 percent responded negatively. The Pew Global Attitudes Project documented that only 2 percent of those surveyed in Turkey had a favorable opinion about US President George W. Bush’s foreign policy, while 88 percent responded in the negative. The project has documented wide anti-American sentiment since it was launched in 2002 but found those attitudes deepening this year. In 2002, 52 percent of Turks supported the US compared to this year’s 9 percent.

Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut, speaking to the United States’ PBS television station on the results of the survey, said respondents in Turkey holding a favorable opinion of the US amounted to 12 percent, a figure they did not expect would go down.

The Pew survey found that 81 percent of Turkish respondents were critical of “American Ideas about Democracy,” while 83 percent had a negative view of “American Ways of Doing Business.” A full 22 percent expressed positive views of US movies and music.

The survey also showed that support for the European Union was steadily decreasing among Turks. The Pew survey found that only 27 percent of respondents in Turkey were positive about the European Union, compared to 58 percent in 2004. Russia’s image has also been slipping in Turkey, with a majority stating a negative opinion of Russia. Only 10 percent expressed support for President Vladimir Putin’s policies. Turkish support for China was extremely low, and the favorable view of Iran slipped to 28 percent this year after totaling 53 percent in 2006. Only 4 percent of those surveyed in Turkey expressed a positive view of Israel. When it came to terrorist Osama bin Laden, only one place — the Palestinian territories — viewed him favorably, with 57 percent saying they had confidence in him. In Turkey that number was 5 percent. A total of 931 individuals from Turkey participated in the survey conducted in April and May. Is the average Turkish individual in today’s world more readily influenced by nationalist and neo-nationalist movements? The answer is “yes” according to Ömer Laçiner, editor in chief of the socialist monthly Birikim, which has put considerable effort into understanding nationalism since the 1970s. But this affirmation applies not only to Turkey, but to all countries of the world. Indeed, the summary of findings for the complete survey report presented by Pew found that the United States’ image is plummeting in many corners of the globe, but China and other large powers are falling from favor as well.

”Turkey is going through a strange period,” Laçiner told Today’s Zaman in a telephone interview. “The process of globalization, or whatever one might choose to call it, being in the global arena in competition, leads people to question the values they have taken as authentic characteristics of their own nation.” For example, a person who believes their nation is “the most” hospitable in the world might, in the global world, find herself in a society so open to guests and strangers to an extent not even acceptable in her own society. “You are not ‘the most’ something of the world anymore,” Laçiner explains. “This is the most important reason for the rise in nationalism along with the increased speed of globalization. Now people have points of reference.” More exposure to realities of an increasingly global world blurs the line dividing black and white, friend and foe. “Say, you say maintain Germans are hostile to us, but then you find groups that are extremely friendly to Turkey.” The realization that the home nation, like other nations of the world, is not a solid unit in itself creates a need to keep our usual and old perceptions of the world as we once knew it; thus people turn to nationalism to cling onto. In this sense, this rise of nationalism across the globe could be its last. Laçiner also emphasized that nationalist groups in all countries played into each other’s hands, as deeds of nationalists damaging to another nation are usually used by nationalists of a given country as proof of how the “enemy” nation really is.

But how can such a notion diffuse through to the individual? The answer is survival. “Circumstances defining how a person gets by, once subject only to domestic dynamics, are now influenced by international dynamics. Something that might happen abroad, such as a new invention or the downsizing of a global company, could simply ruin the livelihood of an individual. People are grappling with insecurity.” In such an environment, nationalism, both in Turkey and elsewhere, is the resonance of such fears.”

He underlines that these fears are irrational almost all the time. Currently, they are crystallized in the person of the United States, Laçiner says, asserting that this could be another country at a different time. One example is a recent survey simultaneously conducted in Greece and Turkey which found that for 2.9 percent of Turks, the 3-million-strong Armenia is a threat for Turkey with a population of 70 million.

Once the world finds more constructive and humanistic ways to deal with such insecurities and cope with the realities of the neo-liberal globe, nationalism could become an ancient notion, Laçiner suggested.

Etyen Mahçupyan, editor in chief of the bilingual weekly Agos, agreed. “There has to be a reason to love a given country. It is a chaotic, complica ted world in which there is little concern for moral values. It is a psychological need,” he said. According to Mahçupyan, the decreasing approval of foreign countries in the hearts of the Turkish people and others is not entirely ungrounded. “These survey results do not reflect a human aversion, rather sensitivity about foreign policies.”

“We are talking about nation-states after their interests, not individuals. If a state is represented by its foreign policy, then dislike is understandable.” Mahçupyan, similar to Laçiner, says the many states of the international system cannot respond to the complexities of the world today. “It is not the rise of xenophobia, but an alienation from the system of states.”

Ferhat Kentel, an instructor in the sociology department of İstanbul Bilgi University, agreed that clinging on to nationalism is a reaction to increasing doubt, insecurity and a lack of confidence about the future of the world. He said this finding was confirmed by a recent study his university conducted on nationalism. The research found an overwhelming feeling of insecurity towards the future in its subjects. Kentel maintained that in a world where everything was increasingly being perceived as a risk by the individual, nationalism functioned to accommodate the perception of being threatened.

“The hegemonic powers of a society profiting from a web of interest relations in this chaotic world employ the language of nationalism, something that serves as a tool to perpetuate the current structure,” Kentel explained. “We, the ordinary people, repeat their language, but I doubt we mean the same thing.”

Global warming increasingly perceived as major threat

The survey also found global warming and other environmental problems are seen as the top threat in many places, ahead of nuclear proliferation, AIDS and other dangers. The United States’ favorable ratings declined in 26 of the 33 countries for which a comparison was available, with negative views particularly strong in the Middle East. Overall, majorities in 25 of the 47 countries reported favorable images of the United States. A majority of those surveyed expressed unease with China’s growing military and economic influence; however, public opinion in China was positive in South Asia and Africa.

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=115357