Support for Erdoğan jumps after Syria offensive: Poll

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's approval rating has jumped following the country's military incursion in Syria, a poll shows, which showed that the support for the President reached 48 percent.

Duvar English/Reuters

According to a poll released on Nov. 5, support for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has increased following Turkey's military offensive in northern Syria.

According to Metropoll's survey, Erdoğan's approval rating rose by 3.7 percentage points in October to 48 percent, its highest level since shortly after presidential elections in June of 2018, which were held before last year's currency crisis took hold.

His disapproval rating fell 9.3 percentage points to 33.7 percent, its lowest level since the failed coup attempt in July 2016. Some 18% of participants did not respond to the survey question or said they had no idea.

Since the worst of the currency crisis, which knocked 30 percent off the value of the lira last year, Erdoğan's support had eroded as inflation and unemployment surged and the economy dipped into a recession.

Ankara sees the People's Protection Units (YPG) as a terrorist organization due to its links with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The country has been battling the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington and the European Union, for over 35 years.

Four of the five political parties in the Turkish parliament have strongly supported Turkey's operation against the YPG, with the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) strongly opposing it.

Ankara launched its operation on Oct. 9, days after President Donald Trump abruptly decided to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria following a phone call with Erdoğan.

Turkey later reached separate agreements with Washington and Moscow and stopped its operation after YPG militants withdrew from a border strip inside Syria.