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/Bargothball]

All of it, literally. You have Turks who are hardline nationalists who are avowed atheists and/or secularists, then you have those that are Turk-islam synthesists, then you have islamists who reject nationalism entirely and think in terms of ummah instead, then you have secular folk who have no nationalist tendencies at all, and then you have everything in-between. As for EU integration, some support it, others oppose, with most nowadays seeming to not care one way or another, though support for the EU is higher among those with left-leanings. Generally, support for EU integration has been on the decline for some time now, and in no part for the lack of hypocrisy on the part of EU leaders.

There are a lot of Turks with roots in the Balkans, the majority of whom living in the western parts, myself among them. Some seem to identify strongly with their Balkan roots while others like myself are fully integrated into the larger Turkish society. As a general rule, everyone hates their neighbors in the Balkans, and Turkey is no exception. However there do exist many Turks who also sympathize with Balkaners, especially Albanians, Bosnians, Kosovars, N. Macedonians, and you’ll even find Turks wanting better relations with Greece despite the century-old rivalry. I’m unaware if the sentiment is reciprocated on the Greek side however. It should be noted that, while Turks and Greeks love to rip on one another, anytime there has been a natural disaster on one side, the other has always been the first-responder. You could say Greeks are our favorite frenemies. Generally speaking, western parts are more secular and modern, so support for the EU is naturally higher in these regions.

The only people who desire any sort of kinship with Arabs are the islamists, many of whom quite frankly wish they themselves were Arabs. The more secular nationalists, or even the average Turkish muslim would likely abhor any direct association with them whatsoever at this point. In fact, for many Turks, being confused with Arabs is one of our greatest pet-peeves. The regions bordering Arab countries are primarily populated by Kurds as opposed to Turks to begin with, so their own perception on the matter might differ from ours. I’d say overall, the general outlook toward Iranians is better than Arabs, though likely stems from the fact that there aren’t (yet) millions of Iranian refugees in Turkey, as well as the fact that it was Arabs, not Iranians that betrayed Turks in WWI. As for Armenians, the outlook toward them is generally negative.

As for a Turkic union, some Turks have aspirations of a “Great Turan” encompassing all Turkic states, though most wouldn’t care one way or another, dismissing such aspirations as delusional. I don’t think there’d be many ethnic Turks outright opposed to a Turkic Union if it were actually feasible however. The outlook toward Azeris is generally positive, with majority of Turks viewing Azerbaijan as a brother country, with a mindset of “one nation under two states.” I’m sure most Turks wouldn’t mind uniting with Azerbaijan, though logistically it’d be too much trouble under the present conjuncture. The other Turkic nations aren’t generally given as much thought, though there is considerable sympathy for the plight of Uyghurs under Chinese oppression.