Turkey’s Views of the European Union in 2011

Turkish public opinion seemed to have changed, with an increasing number of survey respondents saying that joining the EU would be a good thing. Transatlantic Trends had also discovered that the Turkish public had become less enthusiastic about going it alone in conducting foreign policy. Public opinion was changed by domestic and national events of the time, and it was anything but stable. Changes in the media coverage of foreign affairs and the European treatment of Muslims and Turks would have a major influence on how the Turkish public wiould respond to the next Transatlantic Trends survey. The Turkish attitudes toward the EU would become more relevant when and if any genuine progress took place in the negotiations between the EU and Turkey.