Trust in Democracy and Judiciary Among Turkish Youth Declining as Protests Surge

As Türkiye experiences its largest wave of protests in over a decade following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, we look at the data from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's Türkiye Youth Study 2024 to examine how young Turks perceive the judiciary and the overal state of democracy in the country. This inquiry gains special significance given that many of those protesting are university students. The findings highlight a deep partisan divide that reflects political affiliations.

Turkish Youth Show Partisan Divides in Judiciary Trust

We start our analysis by looking at the comparative data from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's Southeast Europe Youth Study 2024, which shows that Turkish youth actually exhibits the second highest levels of trust in their judiciary system compared to their peers across Southeast Europe. With 30.34% of young Turks trusting the judiciary "quite a lot" or "fully," this places Türkiye only behind Slovenia (35.16%). However, there is still reason for concern considering that 46.22% express little or no trust in the courts.

AKP Supporters Trust Courts, Opposition Highly Skeptical

Looking to see what influences the level of trust in the judiciary among Turkish youth, we noticed a dramatic divide in judiciary trust based on political affiliation. Young Turks who strongly favor President Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) report significantly higher trust in the courts, with 53.51% of high AKP supporters trusting the judiciary "quite a lot" or "fully." The supporters of AKP's coalition partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), have very similar levels of trust (52.03%). This stands in contrast to supporters of opposition parties, particularly those favoring the Republican People's Party (CHP) – İmamoğlu's party – where only 28.5% of strong CHP supporters express similar trust levels. The supporters of other opposition parties, like the Greens and Left Party (YSP) and Good Party (İYİP), show similarly low levels of trust.

These findings are reflective of the overall political dynamics in Türkiye. As Tina Blohm, head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's offices in Istanbul and Ankara, notes in her commentary on the protests:

Democracy Perceptions Show Similar Pattern

We next look at whether a similar partisan divide exists in the perception of the state of democracy in Türkiye. Among youth who strongly support the governing AKP, a substantial 60.2% view Türkiye as democratic (rating it "good" or "very good"), while only 12.6% of high CHP supporters share this positive assessment. This perception gap is even wider than the judiciary trust divide and reflects the deeply polarized political landscape that shapes youth civic engagement in Türkiye.

As protests continue despite government crackdowns that have already led to over 2000 protesters being detained, these underlying divisions in how young Turks perceive their nation's democratic institutions will shape the future trajectory of Turkish politics. Blohm emphasizes the critical role of sustained public resistance while warning of a troubling possibility:

About the Data

This analysis draws from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's Türkiye Youth Study 2024 and the wider Southeast Europe Youth Study 2024, which examined views on society and politics among young people aged 14-29 across 12 Southeast European countries.