Poll: Turks overwhelmingly support democracy as answer to Kurdish issue

6 October 2013 /TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL – About 90 percent of the Turkish public believe the Kurdish question cannot be settled through military means but by democratization, and that expanding cultural rights and negotiating are the answers that will finally produce a settlement for Turkey’s decades-long problem with separatist terrorism, according to a recent survey conducted by pollster MetroPOLL.

The results of MetroPOLL’s research come from two surveys: one conducted in 31 provinces on Sept. 21-27 among 1,208 individuals via telephone and another one on Sept. 5-13 only in Ankara among 1,800 individuals. The poll conducted in Ankara focused specifically on voting patterns of the respondents. The research team was led by Professor Özer Sencar and included academics İhsan Dağı, Doğu Ergil, Sıtkı Yıldız and Vahap Coşkun.

The most outstanding finding of the poll was that a majority of the respondents say democratizing reforms are the only viable way to solve the decades-long Kurdish issue. In response to a question on how the Kurdish issue can be solved permanently, 36 percent replied, “Through dialogue and negotiations,” while 50 percent said, “Democratizing reforms without talking directly to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK].” Only 8 percent agreed with “armed fight by the military” as a valid method. The researchers say this is a significant finding, indicating that nearly 90 percent of the population do not believe anymore in security-oriented approaches but supports negotiations and democratization reforms as viable options for a settlement. Even among Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supporters, the weight of those who supported fighting the PKK as the right way to deal with separatism was only 17 percent. – Read more: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-328300-poll-turks-overwhelmingly-support-democracy-as-answer-to-kurdish-issue.html