Türkiye Monitor: September 2020 Study

The September 2020 Türkiye Monitor, prepared by Aksoy Araştırma, has been released, with the economy leading September's agenda. While 65.9% of participants said the economy was performing poorly, 87.1% stated that prices had “risen sharply”. The research also shows that a substantial proportion of the public believe exchange rate rises are pushing up domestic prices. Another striking finding is that 75.4% of voters think politics is failing to deliver solutions… Just 8% believe the media are completely independent!

The September 2020 results of the ‘Türkiye Monitor’, released regularly each month by Aksoy Araştırma, show that the economy is at the forefront of the public agenda. Commenting on the report, Aksoy Araştırma President Ertan Aksoy said: “Once again this month, Türkiye Monitor contains information that can guide Turkish politics on many issues. To summarise a few key findings briefly, the pressure of the economic crisis on voters has increased further. Even among AKP voters, whose party affiliation is strong, criticism of the economy has reached significant levels.” Stating that the economy, alongside politics, was the most important item on Türkiye's agenda, Ertan Aksoy said that rising exchange rates and inflation were the issues most discussed by the public.

The Türkiye Monitor study shows that 75.4% of the public believe politicians cannot deliver solutions

Responses to the question “To what extent do you think politicians offer solutions to society's problems?” reveal an erosion of public trust in politics. While 23.1% of participants said politicians “offer no solutions at all”, the proportion in the 0–4 group indicating that “solutions are not being provided” reached 62.3%.

Among CHP voters, 35.1%, and among HDP voters, 34.3%, stated that politicians “offer no solutions at all”, while the most positive responses by party came from AK Parti and MHP voters. The overall average score for politicians' ability to deliver solutions was 3.5 out of 10; AK Parti voters gave an average of 4.8 and MHP voters an average of 4.4.

The “Economic Situation” section of the September Türkiye Monitor points to a markedly negative picture. In response to “How do you view the economic situation?”, 34% of participants gave a score of “zero”, describing the situation as “terrible”. Participants were asked to rate the economic situation from 0 to 10. The total giving a score between 0 and 5 reached a high 76.2%. In other words, 76.2% of the public described the state of the economy as poor.

While 3.1% described the current economic situation as excellent, 23.7% gave a score between 6 and 10, indicating that they generally considered it good. The breakdown by party preference shows dissatisfaction with the current state of the economy among voters of all parties, with the exception of some AK Parti voters. HDP voters had the highest proportion describing the situation as very poor.

A large proportion of the public are concerned about exchange rates

A substantial proportion of survey participants stated that exchange rates affect prices. In response to “How much do you think changes in exchange rates affect your purchasing power?”, a significant share of the public said that domestic prices rise as exchange rates increase. By party, 31.5% of AK Parti voters, 66.3% of CHP voters, 51.9% of HDP voters, 36.3% of MHP voters and 62% of İYİ Parti voters believed rising exchange rates affected prices “a great deal”.

87.1% say prices have risen

Inflation was another main theme in the September Türkiye Monitor's assessment of public opinion. In response to “To what extent do you think the prices of products you use in daily life have changed?”, 58.2% answered “risen sharply”. The proportion giving a score of 6–10, indicating that prices had increased, was particularly high: 87.1%…

HDP voters were the group most likely to say that product prices had risen sharply, at 76.9%, followed by CHP voters at 68.3%. AK Parti voters perceived a smaller increase in prices compared with voters of other parties. Nevertheless, the average score among AKP voters was 7.9. In addition, 47.6% of AK Parti voters gave a score of 10, stating that prices had risen sharply.

Just 8% believe the media are “completely independent”

The study measured the public's perception of media independence across Türkiye at 3.3 out of 10. This suggests that society has come to view media independence as below the midpoint of 5. While 35.6% of participants believed the media were not independent at all, only 8% considered them completely independent.

Among voters supporting parties outside the political mainstream, 63.2% believed the media were not independent at all. The second group most likely to believe the media were not independent at all comprised İyi Parti, HDP and CHP voters. AK Parti voters made up a large majority of those who considered the media independent, although their average media independence score was only 5.3.

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