Many do not want them as neighbors, and more than half do not want members of non-Muslim minorities to join the army, the intelligence services, the police or the judiciary. In short, they do not trust them. Foreigners are not particularly welcome, either.Similar results were obtained in previous surveys. What struck me in this particular opinion poll was the level of ignorance: Three-quarters of those questioned admitted knowing nothing about their compatriots of Jewish, Greek and Armenian origin or indeed about atheists. Sixty percent professed to know a lot or a bit about Alevis and 70 percent about Kurds, but how unbiased their knowledge is has, of course, not been tested.
Intolerance and racism are usually only acknowledged when Turks are on the receiving end in foreign countries -- which sadly happens all too often. Discrimination at home, however, is often ignored.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg has just expressed his concerns about minority rights in Turkey in a well-documented report based on a recent field visit.
It lists a long series of issues and incidents that raise legitimate concerns about equal treatment of all citizens, from the dismissal in 2007 of the mayor of the Sur district in Diyarbakır for providing multilingual services to the inquiry launched against a Kurdish children's choir for singing a Kurdish anthem, not forgetting the widespread discrimination against Roma citizens.
From this list, the CNN-Turk Web site chose to highlight one paragraph which suggested that the compulsory daily oath read in schools, which starts with Atatürk's famous saying “‘Happy is the person who says ‘I am a Turk',” risked fostering discrimination.
“They even meddle with ‘ne mutlu Türküm diyene!'” its headline screamed. “They” presumably referred to interfering foreigners who do not understand Turkey and should be viewed with suspicion. The headline itself seemed to confirm some of the intolerance highlighted in the report.
Also included in the Council of Europe document was the Turkish government's response, which argues that Atatürk's famous saying refers to a bond of citizenship, without any reference to ethnic, linguistic or religious origin.
This may well have been what Turkey's founder intended, but is it really how the message is understood today? The poll results indicate that this all-encompassing approach has somehow been lost along the way.
State policies as well as media organizations that have fueled a sense of fear have led to this state of affairs.
I do not know how Turkish citizens of non-Muslim minorities experience these prejudices in their daily life. As a foreigner, I have found over the years that many Turks have very distorted perceptions of how non-Turks, particularly Western women, live. Upon closer acquaintance, however, many of these misperceptions fade.
My conservative neighbors openly expressed concerns that my presence would disturb the peace in the building when I first moved in. They clearly expected all-night partying and a stream of male visitors. Since they realized that my lifestyle did not correspond to their fears, they have been perfectly friendly.
Despite alarming polls and frequent incidents such as the recent tension that erupted during a football match between Bursa and Diyarbakır, I believe that intolerance can be overcome. Better information and broader exposure to people of different communities are needed to challenge false perceptions.
The government, with its recent “democratic opening,” is making a valiant effort to turn the tide and acknowledge the diversity of Turkey's makeup. But a vast education campaign is still needed to correct years of disinformation. It will be a while until all Turkish citizens, whatever their origins, feel confident enough not to view their compatriots and foreigners as potential threats.
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