‘Somebody Loves Me, I Wonder Who?’

The 2010 findings on Turkey in the German Marshall Fund's annual Transatlantic Trends survey suggested that the attitudes of Turks deviated significantly from those of citizens of the United States and European Union. Such figures had led to a flurry of commentary debating whether Turkey was drifting away from the West. While there was no question that current public opinion had been shifting away from the United States and European Union, it was useful to put such figures into some kind of context before making hasty inferences about where Turkey may be headed. Most importantly, it was important to recognize that Turkish attitudes toward the EU were largely responsive, and that the government appeared more capable of shaping or bypassing public opinion than was often appreciated. It was also important to note that the sense in Turkey of an Atlantic community was gradually eroding.