A recent opinion poll shows that most of Turkey’s people believe the country is moving in the wrong direction.
The survey, which was conducted by Metropoll institute, asked participants if they believe Turkey is moving on the right path or not.
According to the poll, which surveyed 1,545 adults between January 1 and 21, 54.6 percent of respondents believed the country was on the wrong path, compared to 33.3 percent thinking the opposite and 12.1 percent saying they do not know.
The figures show an increase in the number of Turkish citizens saying the country was heading in the wrong direction and a decline in the number of those thinking the opposite, compared with the statistics recorded two years ago.
In 2013, 38.8 percent of participants in the Metropoll survey said the country was on the wrong track, compared to 49.2 backing the government’s policies and 12 percent saying they do not know.
The results indicate a change in public opinion concerning the policies of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
AKP has been somehow successful in the recent decade concerning boosting Turkey’s economy, resolving the country’s domestic issues and improving its relations with neighbors. Analysts, however, believe that the party has made serious mistakes over the past two years, especially regarding the ongoing crisis in Syria.
Turkey has time and again been accused of supporting the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) and backing the Takfiri ISIL terrorist group in the Arab country.
Ankara has also come under fire for not doing enough to halt the advance of the ISIL as well as its perceived reluctance to crack down on militants using its territory to travel into Syria.
In October 2014, a reporter working for Britain’s Sky News obtained data showing that the Turkish government had stamped passports of foreign militants seeking to cross the Turkey border into Syria to join the ISIL terrorists.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has recently estimated that some 500-700 Turkish nationals have joined the ISIL militants.
