Newsletters
Only 28.1% of Turkish citizens believe NATO would support Türkiye in the event of a conflict with Israel, while 62.9% do not, according to a new survey by MetroPoll, released as tensions between Ankara and Tel Aviv continue over Israeli strikes in Syria.
The survey found 9% of respondents said they did not know or gave no response.
MetroPoll's July 2026 "Türkiye's Pulse" survey asked respondents: "If a conflict were to break out between Türkiye and Israel, do you think NATO would support Türkiye?"
The results varied by political affiliation.
Among ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) voters, 42% said NATO would support Türkiye, while 48.9% said it would not. Among opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) voters, only 22.1% believed NATO would help Türkiye, compared with 66.4% who did not.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) voters were split 32.5% to 62.7% against, while IYI (Good) Party voters showed the strongest skepticism among major parties, with just 15% believing in NATO support versus 78% who did not.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) voters registered 12.6% belief in NATO backing against 82.8% skepticism.
Among those who cast protest votes in the 2023 parliamentary election, 30% believed NATO would support Türkiye, while 58.8% did not.
The survey was conducted among 1,236 people across 28 provinces, based on Türkiye's 26 NUTS 2 regions, between July 18-23, 2026, using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) methodology.
The overall margin of error was cited at plus or minus 2.73% points at the 95% confidence level, with party-specific margins ranging from plus or minus 5.05 points for AK Party respondents to plus or minus 10.48 points for MHP respondents.
The survey comes amid a period of escalating friction between Türkiye and Israel following Israeli airstrikes on Syria's Abu al-Duhur military airbase last week, which Israeli officials said were intended to prevent a Turkish military buildup near the Turkish border.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani rejected Israel's justification for the strike, telling Axios that Damascus had informed Israeli officials before the attack that there were no plans to establish a Turkish base or permanent Turkish military presence at the site.
"There was no intention to establish a Turkish base there, nor to establish a permanent Turkish military presence or deploy Turkish forces at the site," al-Shaibani said.
Al-Shaibani said rehabilitation work at the airbase was intended for the Syrian Air Force, and that Israeli officials had been informed of the nature of the work beforehand.
He acknowledged that Turkish military officers had visited the airbase days before the strike, but described the visit as part of ongoing military cooperation involving training and expertise exchange, comparable to Syria's cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and Russia.
"Syria is a sovereign state, and it has the right to establish relations of cooperation and alliance with any country, including Türkiye," al-Shaibani said.
Türkiye's Ministry of National Defense (MoND) has said no Turkish military delegation was present at the airbase before or during the Israeli attack, describing the strike as "an act aimed at harming Syria's stability, security, unity and integrity."
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack said the intelligence behind the Israeli strike was inaccurate.
"We consulted our intelligence agencies, and the answer we received was that this claim was not true," Barrack said, referring to Israeli claims regarding Turkish military movement toward the base.
He said neither Washington nor Ankara was notified of the attack in advance, and suggested a possible "miscommunication" among the Israeli army, Mossad and the prime minister's office.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to strike the Syrian airbase, warning in an editorial that the escalation could drag Israel into a "pointless conflict" with Türkiye.
"While Netanyahu was bragging about the pinpointed operation in northern Syria, a dangerous and pointless one, new alliances are being formed under his nose and Israel is not a part of them," Haaretz wrote.
The newspaper cited Barrack's warning that the strike could have escalated into a direct military confrontation between Israel and Türkiye, suggesting this may have been Israel's actual objective.
Türkiye and 11 other countries, Algeria, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Somalia, issued a joint statement condemning the strikes as an "extreme escalation" and a violation of Syria's sovereignty, territorial integrity and political unity.
The foreign ministers urged full respect for the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from areas they have occupied in Syria.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
