Azerbaijan, Baku, 17 March / corr. Trend U. Ismayilova/ There have been significant changes in relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan for the last 17 years, Ali Aliyev, an independent sociologist and the consultant of the Ray (Opinion) Monitoring Center said in a press conference dedicated to the sociological and physiological opinion poll on the relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey.
"According to the results of the opinion poll, Turkey is not inaccessible for Azerbaijanis any more as it was 17 year ago," Aliyev said.
The Expert said that, according to1991 figures, 5% of the respondents have been in Turkey and 65% have never communicated with the citizens of this country (at present 15% and 55% accordingly). In 1991, over 94% of respondents said that they are interested in the life and problems of Turkey and only every 28 people out of 100 said that they have enough information about the country. At present, 83% of them are interested in Turkey and said that they have ample information on Turkey.
The key source of information on Turkey is the Turkish TV channels (72%), film and soap operas (63%), description of Turkish life from ones who have been to Turkey and newspapers and magazines (21%).
The people in Baku are very familiar with members of the Turkish nation. The list of the persons that the Baku citizens have a great respect for is: Ataturk, Ozal, Demirel, Shoray, the singer Tarkan, Aksu, Ejevit and others. Unlike singers, the citizens are not very familiar with the writers and public figures.
As before, the people in Baku are interested in the music, traditions and way of life of the Turkish people. The interest in Turkish culture, history and art has decreased from 42% to 32%.
The correspondent can be contacted at: [email protected]