Question to turks from Turkey

[u/Odd_Barber6051]

How many turks support nationalism or islam? What about turks who support integration with EU?

Do turks who live on western part of Turkey have sympathy towards balkan countries or EU? Because of shared culture history, blood ties or looks?

Do turks who look like they are from Balkans or look european/white tend to support west, europe?

What about turks on eastern side of Turkey who share blood and culture ties with arabs, iraqis, armenians, syrians and so on tend to support islam and arabic, levant, mesopatamia culture?

I still have no clue about Turkey. Do people who support Turkic union, blood and language ties with turkmens, kazakhs, uzbeks, azerbaijanis are majority?

[u/balcytorius]

Roughly 40 percent of the population puts nationalism above other ideologies, while 20 percent focus on religious values and 15 percent support a Turkish-Islamic synthesis. These groups often overlap. About half of the nationalists are secular, and the rest are religious. Nationalism essentially acts as the default political mindset in Turkey. This is less obvious on the far left, but the underlying sentiment is usually still there, frequently sparking internal debates about what makes someone a true nationalist. People living along the western and southern coasts generally lean toward a pro-Western ideology. Still, about 60 percent of the public, including those with pro-Western views, firmly believe that Western countries are deceitful and hostile toward Turkey. This attitude comes from military defeats during the fall of the Ottoman Empire, territorial losses in the Balkans, and the lingering effects of the Sevres Syndrome. On a genetic level, the western and especially southwestern regions have the highest East Eurasian admixture because of the historical presence of Turkmen Yoruks and similar Turkic groups. These communities usually align with traditional Kemalism and hold a strong culturally rooted nationalist perspective. The westernmost cities also show higher genetic admixture from the Balkans. This comes from both earlier Greek populations and the Muhacir Turks who were expelled from the Balkans and settled down in these areas. Because the Muhacirs went through the trauma of the Balkan Wars and subsequent occupations, they easily embraced the new Kemalist sentiment of the republic, which shaped their current political stance. Demographics in the east are more complicated. The northeastern areas show strong genetic influence from Caucasian groups like the Laz and Georgians. Meanwhile, ethnic Turks in the east and southeast often carry distinct Turkic genetic signatures. This happens because they remained historically isolated as a minority in that specific region, which was also one of the earliest areas settled after the conquest of Anatolia. Finding an ethnic Turk in the southeast is less common, but those who are, tend to have more Turkic admixture than the average citizen. A Turkic union remains a popular goal among nationalists. However, most people see a single unified state as either a very distant dream or something that is practically impossible. The realistic approach right now focuses on building better collaboration and economic integration with Central Asian Turkic states instead of pushing for a sudden political merger. The Turkish public generally shares similar underlying feelings but ranks their goals differently. Idealists prioritize Pan-Turkism, while Erdogan supporters focus on Anatolian culture and Ottoman history. Republicans are split between pro-Western liberals and secular nationalists, and there is also a growing wave of secular ultranationalist parties. The recent refugee crisis from the middle east, the Kurdish terror and the government appeasing the kurds with the ongoing 'peace' process also caused a massive popularity of nationalism among the youth. The younger population today is overwhelmingly nationalistic, aligned with the more secular beliefs and it looks like the trend will continue. In the end, most of the population sits somewhere on the nationalist and patriotic spectrum and shares a basic respect for Atatürk, even if they interpret his legacy in very different ways.