German Marshall Fund: Turks attitude towards NATO, Russia, Iran and China grew coolerSeptember 7, 2007 - 20:02 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The giant research conducted by German Marshall Fund revealed that Turkish people who started to look at the external world with suspicion in recent years isolated themselves from the world even more in 2007. The annual survey of the Fund of the U.S. also showed that 58 per cent of Europeans, including 74% of Turkish people regarded U.S. leadership in world affairs as "undesirable" and only 36% thought it "desirable". The Transatlantic Tendencies 2007 survey applied by German Marshall Fund to a thousand people in 12 countries including Turkey has revealed that Turks get more and more isolated from the world day by day. Although Turkish public has a status of candidate for EU membership, Turks' hopes for accession to EU fell from 54% to 40% in 2006. Turks' feeling of warmth towards EU is measured as 26 degrees this year against 52 degrees of 2004. Turks' attitude towards NATO, Russia, Iran and China grew cooler. Attitude towards Palestinians warmed from 7% to 42%. German Marshall Fund authorities stated that Turks have moved away from the international political issues and became introvert; and linked the opposition to the U.S. in Turkey to the issues of "continuation of PKK problem, Bush administration and Iraqi war." According to the authorities, the reasons for the cooler attitude towards Europe are the difficulty of EU negotiations and the existence of anti-Turkey leaders, APA reports. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. Aliyev says no need for mediators in Armenia-Azerbaijan process Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that Baku and Yerevan do not mediators in the process of normalizing relations. Aram I supports Karekin II’s “patriotic position” Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I has expressed support for the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. |