Five million young voters will cast their votes for the first time in Turkey's next presidential and parliamentary elections.

They will make up almost a tenth of the voters and could decide the elections, which have to take place in June 2023 at the latest.

Because they are dissatisfied with the state of their country and want fundamental changes.

Rainer Herman

Editor in Politics.

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In a comprehensive and representative survey of Turkish young people between the ages of 15 and 24, 63 percent stated that they did not see Turkey's future positively, and 35 percent were "completely hopeless".

72 percent even want to leave Turkey if they could.

This was the result of the survey of 3,243 young people in 28 of the 81 Turkish provinces, which Professor Ali Caglar from Hacettepe University in Ankara conducted and led from May 20 to September 10, 2021 on behalf of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Due to the economic crisis, dissatisfaction is likely to have increased further since then.

Ali Caglar sums up the study, in which the respondents personally answered a hundred questions in interviews, that Turkish youth have little hope for a future in their country.

They also have little trust in the existing parties.

24 percent would vote for the opposition CHP and 10 percent for President Erdogan's AKP.

However, 45 percent cannot decide on a party.

The issues of justice, freedom and security are particularly important to the younger generation, says Caglar.

The generation that only knows the rule of the sole governing AKP is primarily concerned about the human rights situation.

66 percent state that human rights are not respected in Turkey.

Confidence in the Turkish judiciary is correspondingly low.

Only twelve percent trust her.

Unemployment as the biggest problem

The young people surveyed said the biggest problems were unemployment (87 percent) and the unequal distribution of income and assets (83 percent).

63 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the government's performance.

Their trust in the presidential system (19 percent) and in the religious authorities (17 percent) is low.

The mostly state-affiliated media (seven percent) that are no longer a public voice, as well as the political parties and politicians (each four percent) received even lower values.

It is therefore not surprising that 98 percent use and inform themselves about social media.

However, they trust science (70 percent), the army (62 percent) and the police (48 percent).

When asked which politicians they admire the most, 20 percent answered “none”.

Only the chairmen of the well-known parties were specified on the list.

Of these, Recep Tayyip Erdogan received the most votes with 17 percent.

He is followed by Mansur Yavas (CHP), the Mayor of Ankara, with 16 percent, although he was not on the list.

There is a large gap to Meral Aksener (Iyi Parti) with nine percent and the imprisoned former HDP leader Salahattin Demirtas with eight percent, who were on the list.

In Istanbul, Yavas even came first with 28 percent, followed by Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu (nine percent) and Aksener and Erdogan (eight percent each).

It is true that 51 percent of young people do not trust the EU.

However, 42 percent would like Turkey to become a member of the EU.

They cite climate change (29 percent), armed conflicts (26 percent) and economic crises (23 percent) as the most pressing global problems.

In Turkey itself, 80 percent are calling for a correction to Turkey's refugee policy, and 57 percent want to send Syrian refugees back.

Today's Turkish youth is more educated than the older generations.

93 percent have completed secondary school, 57 percent are studying, and 56 percent speak a foreign language.

As the level of education increases, the importance of religion decreases for individuals.

Only 30 percent of those questioned state that they are very religious.

On the other hand, 57 percent say they believe in God but are not very religious.

Seven percent identify themselves as deists, four percent as atheists.

In general, the importance of religion is rated higher in central and eastern Anatolia than in the west of the country and especially in Istanbul.

The results when it comes to the question of political ideology are surprising.

Erdogan had set the goal of raising pious youth.

He failed with that.

With 21 percent, the supporters of the doctrine of the founder of the state Atatürk are in first place by a large margin.

19 percent describe themselves as apolitical.

Turkish nationalism (11 percent), Turanism (nine percent) and political Islam (seven percent) follow at a distance.

This is reflected in the question of which values ​​are important to a person.

Family, honesty, ethical behavior, animal rights, education and environmental protection each accounted for more than 90 percent, while religion is a value in itself for only 73 percent and being Turkish for 72 percent.

Gender behavior is also changing, with 80 percent saying women and men are equal in all aspects of life;

the rest are divided equally between those who consider men and women to be superior.

Leisure time behavior is also changing.

80 percent have been to the theater at least once, 33 percent have attended an opera or concert at least once, and 71 percent read books.

Even if the younger generation doesn't have high hopes, they do stand for change, says Caglar. He advises politicians to listen to young people more than they have done in the past.