March 2, 2009 - 13:45 AMT
Turkish population trusts army more than politicians
The confidence in the Turkish government is decreasing, and as the results of 2008 show it makes 4.9 on a ten-point scale basis, according to results of the research by Turkish Fund of Economic Policy, spread on Sunday. As compared with last year, the 2004 quotient was 6.2 points.

The results of the survey carried out in the country's 25 cities prove that Turks trust the army most of all as was before. This powerful Turkish institution scored 8.3 points and it has not practically changed for the last four years (it scored 8.2 points in 2004).

Politicians are least popular in Turkey. According to last year's survey, they scored 2.9 points. The situation was slightly better in 2004, when they scored 3.4 points, as the fund survey results show.

The last but one place regarding the confidence quotient in Turkish society is that of mass media's: 3.8 points-last year's survey against 4.7 points of 2004 survey.

The survey shows that Turks are most of all concerned about economic problems. 39% of the interviewees claim that for the country with the population of 70 mln unemployment is still the basic problem, 20% claim that it is the economic instability, and 20%- the inflation and high cost of living.

The survey carried out once in four years also showed that almost half of the respondents (49%) do not believe that Turkey will succeed in ensuring political stability in 2009. Only 31% of those interviewed believe that the political situation will possibly improve. The total number of respondents engaged in the survey was 2040, RIA Novosti reports.

On March 29, Turkey will hold elections for local authorities. The ruling AK Party headed by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the favorite.