'Conservative, religious, nationalist' bloc to dominate Turkey's future

A recent poll conducted by Kadir Has University (KHAS) shows that there has been a huge consolidation on the right-wing of Turkish politics, with grassroots support for the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) leadership reaching very high levels, according to Hasan Bülent Kahraman. 

Nearly 60 to 70 percent of society is made up of conservative, religious, and nationalist voters, and it will be this bloc's ideology that will continue to dominate Turkey for the foreseeable future, said Kahraman, who is the vice president of KHAS.

What did you find particularly striking in this year's poll?

One of the most important findings is that Turkey, once again, can be regarded as a society divided into two groups: One is the conservative, religious and nationalist group which has around 60 percent of people and may even go up to 70 percent. This is a huge figure.

In the 1970s Turkey was considered a society where 70 percent were on the right of center and 30 percent were on the left of center. This was the amount of votes that parties on the moderate right and moderate left could get in elections. We are once again back to that point.

Why do you say we have gone back to the 1970s? What changed in the years in between?

The right was not so consolidated during those years in between. Now there is a huge consolidation of the right. The support for the AKP's Kurdish policy, foreign policy, and other policies has reached huge figures, and that was not the case in previous surveys. By contrast, the main opposition Republican People's Party [CHP] has turned out to be a party of Kemalist/Republican people, more than a party of social democrats.

Another striking finding is that...