Turkish Public Opinion and the EU Membership: between Support and Mistrust

FEUTURE Online Paper No. 26 The support for EU memberhip is very volatile among Turkish public opinion. Over the years it has been going through different ups and downs, although it has been consistently low for the last five years. This papers analyzes the changes in the Turkish public’s support level to the EU membership and links them to the developments in Turkey-EU relations. The paper also demonstrates that two other major indicators are more stable indicators of Turkish public opinion and the EU: the level of trust to the EU and the eventuality of Turkish membership. The paper finishes with a discussion on the interplay between political discourses and the public opinion in Turkey and how the lack of trust is being utilized for political gains.This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 692976. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein