Few youth trust in Turkey's institutions, research says

Faith in the country’s institutions is low in Turkey, where three out of every 10 young people surveyed in a recent poll answered "none" when asked which of a group of institutions they trust most.

The most trusted institutions, according to the survey by a Turkish university, were the country’s military and police, which scored 20.9 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively.

Some 32.7 percent of respondents answered "none" to the question "Which of the following institutions do you trust most?" The options given were military, police, Parliament, the judiciary, local administrations, media, other and none.

Parliament, the judiciary and local administrations respectively received the most trust from 13.7 percent, 10.3 percent and 3.3 percent of those interviewed, while the media was seen as the least trustworthy institution by Turkey’s youth. Only six out of every 1,000 respondents said they trusted the media most.

"Such figures show that young people believe Turkish institutions’ level of [development and functioning] is insufficient," Mahmut Paksoy, the vice rector of Istanbul Kültür University, said Wednesday at a press meeting at the university’s Ataköy campus to announce the research results.

According to Paksoy, the figures could also be read as a call for institutions to be less politicized and more transparent and to properly prove the value of their presence in people’s everyday lives.

The "Turkey’s Youth Research" survey was conducted by Istanbul Kültür University in cooperation with KONDA, a prominent Turkish research and consulting firm. The topics covered included youth’s values and priorities, their future expectations, their trust in Turkish institutions and their opinions about Turkey’s relations with the European Union and the Middle East.

As part of the survey, 2,366 young people between the ages of 15 and 30 were interviewed face-to-face for at least 30 minutes, according to KONDA general director Bekir Ağrıdır. The interviews took place on April 9 and 10 in 35 different Turkish provinces, including 134 districts and 200 neighborhoods and villages.

Turkey must reinforce relations with Muslim countries

Asked about Turkey’s relations with Middle East and EU countries, 70 percent of respondents said they believed Turkey "must" reinforce its cooperation with Middle East and Muslim countries. About 46 percent of those interviewed said they agreed that "Turkey must definitely join the European Union."

Some 21.7 percent said the statement about EU accession was "neither wrong nor right" while 24.3 percent said it was "wrong."

According to the research, the majority of Turkish youth is conservative, with seven in 10 saying that customs from the past must be preserved without change.

The statement "Customs from the past must be preserved without being modified" was "right" or "absolutely right" according to 66 percent of respondents, while 53.2 percent said they agreed with the statement "I fit into all the everyday life norms of society."

"In terms of values, education level and religious orientation are two of the factors that differentiate young people the most," Tülay Bozkurt, a social psychologist and professor at Istanbul Kültür University, said at the press conference. The research showed that young people tend to have paternalist attitudes, she said, referring to the fact that only about 40 percent of those interviewed said they thought the expression "Spare the rod and spoil the child" was "right."

"[The figures] show there is a mentality among young people that there should be intervention in the life of other people if necessary, for the sake of the latter party’s own good," Bozkurt said.

She added that the research results also showed Turkish youth’s conservatism had shifted from being traditional to being more religious.

About half of the youth surveyed – 46 percent – said a "future guarantee [of a job]" was the most important factor for them to be happy at work. The majority of the people choosing this alternative had not started working yet, according to Ağrıdır.

"This shows our youth are still concerned with job security; this is worrying," said Bozkurt.

Humane working conditions and an enjoyable work environment followed after job security, with 26 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

Additionally, some 58.6 percent of those surveyed said they had no idol.

"This shows a majority of the youth has no role model. This is a worrying fact for the society," Bozkurt said.

The results of the research show there is an urgent need to try to understand young people’s attitudes and address potential problems, the professor said.

Answering a journalist’s question on the political orientation of the interviewed youth, Ağırdır said: "We did not ask young people directly on the political beliefs with which they are affiliated. About 25 percent said they had no interest in politics."

He said, however, that the picture regarding young people’s political orientation in Turkey did not differ much from that of the country overall.

"[I believe] political orientation lies at the heart of [young people’s] polarization in Turkey. It creates diversity," Bozkurt said.

The research also included findings on young people’s lifestyles, their attitudes toward consumption, their Internet and television use, their values and expectations on education and their thoughts on their future.


/Hurriyet Daily News/