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Önder Kutlu & Erhan Örselli & Selçuk Kahraman
found as 0.864. The measured Cronbach Alpha value indicates that the scale used in
the questionnaire study is highly reliable.
When the political profiles of the survey participants are examined, it is seen that most
of them ideologically placed themselves on the right and identified themselves most
as nationalist or conservative . A large majority of the participants also feel close to
the AK Party. It is also important to note that more than half of the participants stated
that they are interested in politics and about a third of them will vote for the first time
in the referendum. In this respect, the participants render the political atmosphere
supporting Turkey’s politics and constitutional changes highly visible.
Research Findings
More than half of the participants state that they participated in a panel-talk-confer-
ence on the presidential government system. A relatively large portion (86.9%) has
examined the booklet prepared by any party or institution about the constitutional
amendment and the presidential government system. It was also determined that a
large majority (70.3%) of the participants had knowledge of the presidential govern-
ment system and that 70% examined constitutional amendments. In this context, it
can be concluded that the university students within our sample group have a high
level of knowledge and awareness about the constitutional amendments and the
planned presidential government system. It is quite natural that the studied universe
is university students, and well-educated individuals should have knowledge of polit-
ical interest and political debate.
72.3% of participants stated that constitutional amendments are required and tak-
en positively. 53.1% of participants also are in favor of the regulation which set the
presidential nomination age as 18. It might have expected that such young universe
could produce more a favorable stance regarding the decrease of nomination age.
The participants were probably influenced by their political views and, in general, tak-
en a similar position towards being against the 18-year-old constitutional amendment.
When asked about the presidential government system, most of the participants posi-
tively connoted the words “New Turkey”, “powerful execution”, and “stability”. On the
contrary, it seems that the most negative connotations are “authoritarian administra-
tion” and “dictatorship-one man”. When the findings are evaluated, a large majority
of the university students who are in our sample group positively reproduce the pres-
idential system of government in their minds, while those who are negative are also
in considerable size. The resulting perceptions are actually dualities existing in the
country, and they also summarize the polarization. Those who are in favor of change
are stated that stability should come and that double standards should end up, while
those who are against set forth dictatorial discourse.
