Turkish public support for the country’s European Union membership has risen to 58 percent, according to a January survey by MetroPoll, a leading Turkish polling firm.
Approval among the public for EU accession stands at the highest level in five years, Özer Sencar, the head of MetroPoll said in a Twitter post on Sunday.
In 2005, when Turkey began talks on EU membership, 76 percent of the public was in favour of accession, but since then, support has declined.
Approval has risen by 4.7 percentage points since December 2019, according to the MetroPoll survey, based on nationwide telephone interviews.
Support was greatest among those voting for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) at 89 percent, it said.
The Turkish government says it wants to re-energise membership talks with the 27-member bloc, undercut by alleged human rights abuses and a territorial dispute with members Greece and Cyprus, which intensified last year.
EU accession is a priority for Turkey and the country sees its future in Europe, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in early January during a videoconference call with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
Ahval