Beginning 2017, the Center for American Progress set out to study Turkey’s rising nationalist sentiment and improve scholarly understanding of the dynamics of religion, ethnicity, history, grievance, class resentment, and insecurity that have fueled it. By learning more about the constituent parts of and justifications behind Turkey’s current brand of populist nationalism, CAP’s project aims to shed light on the domestic imperatives that could shape Turkey’s trajectory over the coming years – including its place in the Western clutural, political, and security architecture.
CAP worked with the polling firm Metropoll to conduct a initial round of focus groups in Turkey in laute September 2017. The focus groups included a group of older AKP voters, and a group of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) voters. CAP used these groups to hone questions for a nationawide poll of Turkish citizens, fielded in November 2017. The resulting nationally representative survey shed light on the current state of Turkish politics and Turk’s self-perception. The results of the poll are summarized in the companion report "Is Turkey Experiencing a New Nationalism?"
This additional report presents further reflections and analyses based on observations from the focus groups; further cross-tabulation of the polling data; and the author’s own research.
