Politics continues to play a distinctive role not only in the polls but also in daily life. Prof. Dr. Behçet Yalın Özkara’s research on the Youtube channel academiclink showed that polarization became evident not only at the ideological level but also in social relations. 11 thousand 311 people in the survey, different party voters can establish with each other possible friendships were questioned.
Social Dialogue Alarms
The barriers established between political identities weaken the trust relationship between individuals. The data revealed by the research reveals that political polarization in Türkiye is not only in the political field but also in human relations. This point of view, not to understand the differences, is one of the biggest obstacles to the social reconciliation.
CHP voter
According to the results of the research, “CHP can make a sincere friendship with someone who voted,” said the rate of the AK Party voters at a high level of 76.9 percent, while the same question to the CHP voters’ positive response rate remained only 25.3 percent. In other words, only one out of every four CHP voters said that he could make close friends with a AK Party.
Perception is aware of the scissors are open
The other striking part of the study appeared in questions about how the participants define the other side. AK Party members, the CHP voters more “secular”, “ignorant” or “Kemalist” in relatively neutral expressions, while defining the CHP members for the AK Party people used more harsh adjectives: “ignorant”, “sheep”, “interest” definitions, such as the negative perception was observed to be more intense.
Ozkara: Disintegration is deepning
Prof. Dr. Dr. Özkara, while interpreting the data reached in a remarkable determination: “AK Party voters are more open to establish friendship with the other party, the CHP votes in a distance in this regard. This situation, the rhetoric of polarization at the same time shows deepening the separation.”
