Turkey

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Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Republic of Turkey
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Turkish: Yurtta Sulh, Cihanda Sulh (English: "Peace at Home, Peace in the World")
Anthem: İstiklâl Marşı (English: "Independence March")
Capital	Ankara 41°1′N 28°57′E
Largest city	İstanbul
Official languages	Turkish (Türkçe)
Government	Republic
- Founder	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
- President of the Republic	Ahmet Necdet Sezer
- Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Succession	to the Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of Lausanne
- War of Independence	19 May 1919
- Formation of Parliament	23 April 1920
- Declaration of Republic	29 October 1923
Area
- Total	783,562 km² (37th) 302,534 sq mi
- Water (%)	1.3
Population
- 2005 estimate	72,600,000 (17th1)
- 2000 census	67,844,903
- Density	93/km² (102nd1) 241/sq mi
GDP (PPP)	2006 estimate
- Total	$612.3 billion (17th)
- Per capita	$8,385 (75th)
HDI  (2003)	0.750 (medium) (94th)
Currency	New Turkish Lira2 (TRY)
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
- Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Internet TLD	.tr
Calling code	+90
1 Population and population density rankings based on 2005 figures. 2 The New Turkish Lira (Yeni Türk Lirası) replaced the old Turkish Lira on 1 January 2005. A graphical timeline is available here: History of the Republic of Turkey

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), officially the Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Southwestern Asia and the Balkan region of Southeastern Europe. Turkey borders eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Iran and the Nakhichevan exclave of Azerbaijan to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. In addition, it borders the Black Sea to the north; the Aegean Sea to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Turkey also contains the Sea of Marmara that is used by geographers to mark the border between Europe and Asia, thus making the country transcontinental.

Turkey is a democratic, secular, constitutional republic whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. It is a founding member of the United Nations,^[1] the OIC,^[2] the OECD^[3] and the OSCE,^[4] a member state of the Council of Europe since 1949^[5] and of the NATO since 1952,^[6] and is currently in accession negotiations with the European Union, being an associate member since 1964 ^[7].

Due to its strategic location straddling Europe and Asia, Turkey has been a historical crossroad between eastern and western cultures.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2.1 Antiquity 2.2 History of Turks and the Ottoman Empire 2.3 Republican era 3 Government and politics 4 Foreign Relations 5 Military 6 Administrative divisions 7 Geography 8 Economy 9 Demographics 10 Culture 11 Images of Turkey 12 See also 13 Notes and references 14 External links 14.1 Official Web Pages 14.2 Public Offices 14.3 Online Profiles 14.4 News 14.5 Travellers sites

[edit] Etymology

The Turkish name for Turkey, Türkiye, subdivides into two words: Türk, meaning "strong" in Old Turkish ^[8] and usually signifying the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples ^[9]; and the abstract suffix -iye, which means "owner" or "related to". The term "Türk" or "Türük" was first used as an autonym in the Orkhon inscriptions of the Göktürks (English: Sky Turks) of Central Asia.

[edit] History

Main article: History of Turkey

[edit] Antiquity

The region comprising modern Turkey is one of the oldest continually inhabited regions in the world, because of its strategic location at the intersection of Asia and Europe. The earliest Neolithic settlements such as Çatalhöyük (Pottery Neolithic), Çayönü (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A to pottery Neolithic), Nevali Cori (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), Hacilar (Pottery Neolithic), Göbekli Tepe (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A) and Mersin are considered as the earliest human settlements in the world. The settlement of Troy starts in the Neolithic and continues forward into the Iron Age. Through recorded history, Anatolians have spoken Indo-European, Semitic and Kartvelian languages, as well as many languages of uncertain affiliation. In fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical center from which the Indo-European languages have radiated. Other authors have proposed an Anatolian origin for the Etruscans of ancient Italy.

The first major empire in the area was that of the Hittites, from the 18th through the 13th century BC. Subsequently, the Phrygians, an Indo-European people, achieved ascendancy until their kingdom was destroyed by the Cimmerians in the 7th century BC. The most powerful of Phrygia's successor states was Lydia, Caria and Lycia. The Lydians and Lycians spoke languages that were fundamentally Indo-European, but both languages had acquired non-Indo-European elements prior to the Hittite and Hellenic periods.

Coastal Anatolia (Ionia) meanwhile was settled by Greeks. The entire area was overrun by the Persians during the 6th and 5th centuries and fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BC. Anatolia was subsequently divided into a number of small Hellenistic kingdoms (including Bithynia, Cappadocia, Pergamum, and Pontus), all of which had succumbed to Rome by the mid-1st century BC. In AD 324 the Roman emperor Constantine I chose Constantinople, now Istanbul, as the capital of the Roman Empire. It subsequently became the capital of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire.

See also: History of Anatolia

[edit] History of Turks and the Ottoman Empire

Main articles: History of the Turkish people and Ottoman Empire

The House of Seljuk was a branch of the Kinik Oğuz Turks who in the 9th century lived on the periphery of the Muslim world, north of the Caspian and Aral seas in their Yabghu Khaganate of the Oğuz confederacy ^[10]. In the 10th century, the Seljuks migrated from their ancestral homelands into the eastern Anatolian regions which had been an area of settlement for Oğuz Turkic tribes since the end of the first millennium. The gradual conquest of Anatolia from the Byzantines by Turkic tribes under the Seljuks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, along with the rise of the Seljuk Empire in the 11th century, and continued with Anatolian Turkish Beyliks. Mass conversions to Islam by native Anatolians and peoples of the newly acquired lands, along with the assumption of the title and function of Caliph by the Ottoman Sultan, helped create an Islam-based religious identity rather than a Turkic-based ethnic identity in the Empire.

The Ottoman Empire interacted with both Eastern and Western cultures throughout its 623-year history. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman Empire was among the world's most powerful political entities, often locking horns with the powers of eastern Europe in its steady advance through the Balkans and the southern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Following years of decline, the Ottoman Empire entered the First World War through the Ottoman-German Alliance in 1914 - a war in which it was ultimately defeated. After the war, the victorious Allied Powers sought the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire through the Treaty of Sèvres.

See also: Seljuk Empire, Anatolian Turkish Beyliks, and Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire

[edit] Republican era

Main article: History of the Republic of Turkey

History of the Republic of Turkey v • d • e
War of Independence | Single Party Period | Multi-Party Period
Timeline of Independence | Timeline of Republic
Economic History | Constitutional History | Military History

On 19 May 1919 this prompted the beginning of establishment of the Turkish national movement under the leadership Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military commander who had distinguished himself in the Battle of Gallipoli. Turkish national movement sought to revoke the terms of the treaty signed by the Sultan in Istanbul. This involved mobilizing every available part of Turkish society in what would become the Turkish War of Independence (Turkish: Kurtuluş Savaşı). By September 18, 1922, the occupying armies were repelled and the country saw the birth of the new Turkish state. On November 1, 1922, the Turkish Grand National Assembly formally abolished the office of the Sultan, ending 623 years of Ottoman rule. The Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 led to the international recognization of the sovereignty of the newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire.

In the coming years, Atatürk's reforms changed the landscape of the country and Kemal Pasha became the Republic's first President and introduced many radical changes with the aim of modernizing the new Republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past. According to the Law on Family Names, the Turkish National Assembly presented Mustafa Kemal with the honorific name "Atatürk" (meaning Father of the Turks) in 1934.

Turkey entered the World War II on the side of the Allies in the later stages of the war as a ceremonial gesture and became a charter member of the United Nations in 1945. Difficulties faced by Greece after World War II in quelling a communist rebellion, along with demands by the Soviet Union for military bases in the Turkish Straits, prompted the United States to declare the Truman Doctrine in 1947. The doctrine enunciated American intentions to guarantee the security of Turkey and Greece, and resulted in large scale US military and economic support.

After participating with United Nations forces in the Korean conflict, Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952. Turkey intervened and militarily invaded Cyprus in July 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup by EOKA-B ^[11]. The resultant breakaway de-facto independent Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is not officially recognised by any country except Turkey itself. Reunification of Cyprus failed despite acceptance by the Turkish Cypriots on a referendum of the UN sponsored Annan plan due to the rejection of the same by the southern Greek Cypriot community on April 24, 2004, ^[12], later also resulting in the failure of the EU to fulfill its promises of lifting restrictions ^[13] on the Turkish Cypriots in the north of the island.

As a result of political instability, Turkey has experienced a series of military coups d'états since the 1960s: Coup of 1960, coup by memorandum of 1971, coup of 1980 and the post-modern coup d'état of 1997. The period of the Seventies and Eighties was [[marked by political instability and rapid, but at times erratic, economic growth. A series of economic shocks in 2001 ^[14] led to early parlimentary elections in 2002 that brought the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by the former mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, into power ^[15]. In October 2005, the European Union opened accession negotiations with Ankara and Turkey officially became a candidate country to join the European Union as a full member, having been an associate member since 1964.

See also: Atatürk's reforms

[edit] Government and politics

Main article: Politics of Turkey

The politics of Turkey takes place within a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, in which the Prime Minister of Turkey is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government while the Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and the Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

The function of Head of State is performed by the President of the Republic (Cumhurbaşkanı). The president is elected for a seven-year term by the Grand National Assembly but he is not required to be a member of parliament. The current President Ahmet Necdet Sezer was elected on May 16, 2000, after having served as the President of the Constitutional Court. Executive power rests in the Prime Minister (Başbakan) and the Council of Ministers (Bakanlar Kurulu) who make up the government. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Ministers have to be members of Parliament; though in most cases they are (one notable exception was Kemal Derviş, who was the Minister of Finance following the financial crisis of 2001 ^[16]; he is currently the head of the UN Development Programme^[17]). The Prime Minister is elected by the parliament through a vote of confidence in his government, and he is generally the head of the party that has won the elections. The current Prime Minister is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose Islamic conservative AKP won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats in the general elections of 2002.

Legislative power is invested in the 550-seat Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) that represents the Turkish Nation. Its members are elected for a five-year term by mitigated proportional representation with a national election threshold of 10%. There are 85 electoral districts that represent the 81 administrative provinces of Turkey (Istanbul is divided into three electoral districts whereas Ankara and Izmir are divided into two each because of their large populations). To avoid a hung parliament and its excessive political fragmentation, only parties that win at least 10% of the national vote in a national parliamentary election gain the right to parliamentary representation. Independent candidates may run, and to be elected, they must only win 10% of the vote in the district they are running from.

Turkey has a multi-party system, with several well-established political parties, with ideologies ranging from the far-left to the far-right. Nevertheless, political parties deemed anti-secular or separatist by the Constitutional Court can have their public financing and activities suspended or their existence banned altogether.

The Armed Forces have traditionally been a politically powerful institution, considered as the guardians of Atatürk's Republic. The protection of the Turkish Constitution and the unity of the country is given by law to the Turkish Armed Forces and it therefore plays a formal political role via the National Security Council in the same functional way that exists also in other western democracies, as the guardian of the secular, unitary nature of the republic and reforms of Atatürk, in the Turkish example. Through the National Security Council (Turkish: Milli Guvenlik Kurulu), the army contributes to recommendations for defense policy against any threat to the country, including those pertaining to ethnic seperatism or religious extremism. In recent years, reforms led to an increased civilian presence on the National Security Council and efforts to defunct military's constitutional responsibilities under the program of compliance with the EU demands. Despite its perceived alleged influence in civilian affairs, the military owns strong unequivocal support from the nation, and is considered to be Turkey's most trusted institution ^[18].

See also: Constitution of Turkey, Legal System in Republic of Turkey, Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and Elections in Turkey

[edit] Foreign Relations

Main article: Foreign relations of Turkey

Turkey's main political, economic and military relations remain rooted within Western Europe and the United States. An associate member of the European Union since 1964, Turkey is currently in the process of accession pending the completion of negotiations started on October 3, 2005. One of the major stumbling blocks in its EU candidacy is the issue of Cyprus, a EU member that Turkey does not recognise, instead supporting the de facto independent Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Other such unresolved issues include Turkey's human rights record, its relatively large population and its relatively poor but rapidly growing economy. Based on what it views as lukewarm support for its accession to the EU and alleged double standards in its negotiations (France and Austria have indicated they will hold referendums on Turkey's membership), the Turkish public has become increasingly euroskeptic in recent times. A mid-2006 Eurobarometer survey revealed that 43% of Turkish citizens view the EU positively; just 35% trust the EU, 45% support enlargement and just 29% support an EU constitution. ^[19] It is believed that the accession process would take at least 15 years ^[20]. The earliest date that Turkey could enter the EU is 2013, the date when the next six-year EU budget will come into force (2013-2019).

Turkey has remained a close ally of the United States, supporting it in the war on terror in the post September 11th climate. However, the Iraq war faced strong domestic opposition in Turkey and as such, the Turkish parliament voted against allowing US troops to attack Iraq from its south-eastern border. This led to a period of cooling in relations, but soon regained momentum through diplomatic, humanitarian and indirect military support. Turkey is particularly cautious about an independent Kurdish state arising from a destabilised Iraq. Turkey has fought an insurgent war against the Kurdistan Workers Party (or PKK, which is listed internationally as a terrorist organization by a number of states and organisations, including the USA and the EU), that asserts to seek Kurdish independence, in which some estimated 37,000^[21] people have lost their lives. This has led Ankara to pressure the US into clamping down on insurgent training camps in northern Iraq, though it remains reluctant due to its relative stability compared to the rest of Iraq.

Historically, relations with neighbouring Greece have been strained and, occasionally, close to war on certain occasions. The long divided island of Cyprus as well as disputes in the Aegean Sea remain the main sticking points between the two states. Cyprus remains divided between a Greek Cypriot south, and a Turkish Cypriot north recognized only by Turkey. Efforts to reunite the island under the auspices of the United Nations have failed thus far. As far as the Aegean Sea is concerned, Ankara considers it strategically important for easy passage of Turkish vessels, and as such does not recognise the extension of Greek territorial waters to 12-mile around the islands of the Aegean. Turkey has warned that such an act would be considered a casus belli or an act of war on Turkey. Nonetheless, following consecutive earthquakes in both Turkey and Greece and the prompt response of aid and rescue teams from both sides, the two nations have entered a much more positive period of relations, with Greece actively supporting Turkey's candidacy to enter the European Union. A clear sign of improved relations was visible in the response to a mid-air collision by Greek and Turkish fighter jets in the southern Aegean in May 2006. While the Turkish pilot ejected safely, the Greek pilot lost his life. Both countries agreed that the event should not affect their bilateral relations ^[22]. Recently, Greek military vessels throwing illegal immigrants into Turkish territorial waters led to official protests by the Turkish government.^[23]

See also: Accession of Turkey to the European Union, Cyprus dispute, and Greco-Turkish relations

[edit] Military

Main article: Turkish Armed Forces

The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) (Turkish: Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri - TSK) consists of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. The Gendarmerie and the Coast Guard operate as parts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in peacetime; whereas they are subordinated to the Army and Navy Commands respectively in wartime, during which they have internal law enforcement and military functions.

The Turkish Armed Forces, with a combined strength of 1,043,550 ^[24] uniformed personnel, is the second largest standing armed force in NATO, after the United States Armed Forces. Turkey became a member of NATO on February 18, 1952. Currently, 36,000 ^[25] troops are stationed in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Every fit heterosexual male citizen (homosexuals have the right to not to serve in the Turkish Army, if they request) is required to serve in the military for time periods ranging from one to fifteen months, depending on his education and job location.

In 1998, Turkey announced a modernization programme worth some $31 billion over a period of ten years in varying projects including tanks, helicopters and assault rifles^[26]. Turkey is also a level three contributor to the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, gaining an opportunity to develop and influence the creation of the next generation fighter spearheaded by the United States.

The Turkish Army has contributed to a number of peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, provided logistics and military support to the coalition forces during both Gulf wars and maintains special forces units in Northern Iraq ^[27]. In 2006, the Turkish parliament deployed a Turkish peacekeeping force of Navy patrol vessels and around 700 ground troops as part of an expanded United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in wake of the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon conflict ^[28].

The Commander of the TAF is the Chief of the General Staff General Yaşar Büyükanıt who succeeded General Hilmi Özkök on August 28, 2006. ^[29] The President, as the Head of State, is the Commander in Chief during peacetime, while the Chief of the General Staff becomes the Commander in Chief, on behalf of the President, during wartime.

See also: Conscription in Turkey

[edit] Administrative divisions

Main articles: Regions of Turkey, Provinces of Turkey, and Districts of Turkey

The territory of Turkey is subdivided into 81 provinces (Turkish: singular: il, plural: iller) for administrative purposes. In turn, each province is divided into districts (Turkish: singular: ilçe, plural: ilçeler), for a total of 923 districts. Provinces usually bear the same name as their provincial capitals, also called the central district; exceptions to this are the provinces of Hatay (capital: Antakya), Kocaeli (capital: İzmit) and Sakarya (capital: Adapazarı). Provinces with the largest populations are the provinces of İstanbul (~11 million), Ankara (~5 million), İzmir (~3.5 million), Bursa (~2.1 million), Konya (~2.2 million) and Adana (~1.8 million).

The provinces are organized into 7 regions for census purposes, however they do not represent an administrative structure.

The capital city of Turkey is Ankara, but the historic capital of İstanbul still remains the financial, economic and cultural center of the country. Other important cities include İzmir, Bursa, Adana, Trabzon, Malatya, Gaziantep, Erzurum, Kayseri, İzmit, Konya, Mersin, Eskişehir, Diyarbakır, Antalya and Samsun. An estimated 67% of Turkey's population live in urban centers ^[30]. In all, 12 cities have populations that exceed 500,000 and 48 cities have more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Major Cities:

• İstanbul - 10,041,000
• Ankara - 4,319,000
• İzmir - 2,409,000
• Bursa - 1,195,000
• Adana - 1,131,000
• Gaziantep - 854,000
• Konya - 743,000
• Antalya - 603,000

(Population figures given are according to the 2000 census).^[31]

See also: List of cities in Turkey

[edit] Geography

Main article: Geography of Turkey

The territory of Turkey extends from 36° to 42° N and from 26° to 45° E in Eurasia. It is roughly rectangular in shape and is 1,660 kilometers (1,031 mi) wide. Turkey's area inclusive of lakes is 814,578 square kilometres (314,510 sq mi), of which 790,200 square kilometres (305,098 sq mi) occupies the Anatolian peninsula (also called Asia Minor) in Western Asia, and 3% or 24,378 square kilometres (9,412 sq mi) are located in Europe. Turkey is a transcontinental country between Asia and Europe. The land borders of Turkey total 2,573 kilometres (1,599 mi), and the coastlines (including islands) total another 8,333 kilometres (5,178 mi). Turkey's size makes it the world's 37th-largest country (after Mozambique). It is comparable in size to Chile, and is somewhat larger than the US state of Texas.

Turkey is generally divided into seven regions: the Marmara, the Aegean, the Mediterranean, Central Anatolia, East Anatolia, Southeast Anatolia and the Black Sea region. The uneven north Anatolian terrain running along the Black Sea resembles a long, narrow belt. This region comprises approximately 1/6 of Turkey's total land area. As a general trend, the inland Anatolian plateau becomes increasingly rugged as it progresses eastward

Turkey forms a bridge between Europe and Asia, with the division between the two running from the Black Sea (Karadeniz) to the north down along the Bosporus (İstanbul Boğazı) strait through the Sea of Marmara (Marmara Denizi) and the Dardanelles (Çanakkale Boğazı) strait to the Aegean Sea (Ege Denizi) and the larger Mediterranean Sea (Akdeniz) to the south. The Anatolian peninsula (Anatolia (Anadolu) for short) consists of a high central plateau with narrow coastal plains, in between the Köroğlu and East-Black Sea mountain range to the north and the Taurus Mountains (Toros Dağları) to the south. To the east is found a more mountainous landscape, home to the sources of rivers such as the Euphrates (Fırat), Tigris (Dicle) and the Aras, as well as Lake Van (Van Gölü) and Mount Ararat (Ağrı Dağı), Turkey's highest point at 5,137 metres (16,853 ft).

Turkey's varied landscapes are the product of complex earth movements that have shaped the region over thousands of years and still manifest themselves in fairly frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanic eruptions. The Bosporus and the Dardanelles owe their existence to the fault lines running through Turkey that led to the creation of the Black Sea. There is an earthquake fault line across the north of the country from west to east.

The climate is a Mediterranean temperate climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, wet and cold winters, though conditions can be much harsher in the more arid interior. Mountains close to the coast prevent Mediterranean influences from extending inland, giving the interior of Turkey a continental climate with distinct seasons. The central Anatolian Plateau is much more subject to extremes than are the coastal areas. Winters on the plateau are especially severe. Temperatures of -30°C to -40°C can occur in the mountainous areas in the east, and snow may lie on the ground 120 days of the year. In the west, winter temperatures average below 1°C. Summers are hot and dry, with temperatures above 30°C. Annual precipitation averages about 400 millimeters, with actual amounts determined by elevation. The driest regions are the Konya plain and the Malatya plain, where annual rainfall frequently is less than 300 millimeters. May is generally the wettest month whereas July and August are the most dry.

See also: Environmental issues in Turkey

[edit] Economy

Main articles: Economy of Turkey and Economic history of Turkey

For most of its republican history, Turkey has adhered to a quasi-statist approach, with strict government controls over private sector participation, foreign trade, and foreign direct investment. However, during the 1980s, Turkey began a series of reforms, initiated by the late-Prime Minister Turgut Özal, designed to shift the economy from a statist, insulated system to a more private-sector, market-based model. The reforms spurred rapid growth, but this growth was punctuated by sharp recessions and financial crises in 1994, 1999 (following the earthquake of that year) ^[32], and 2001 ^[33], resulting in an average of 4% GDP growth per annum between 1981 and 2003. ^[34] Lack of additional reforms, combined with large and growing public sector deficits and widespread corruption resulted in high inflation, increased macroeconomic volatility and a weak banking sector.

Since the economic crisis of 2001 and the reforms initiated by the finance minister of the time, Kemal Derviş, the inflation has fallen to single-digit numbers, investor-confidence and foreign investment has soared while unemployment has decreased. ^[35] Turkey has gradually opened up its markets through economic reforms by reducing government controls on foreign trade and investment and the privatisation of publicly-owned industries and the liberalisation of many sectors to private and foreign participation has continued amid political debate.

The GDP growth rate for 2005 was 7.4% ^[36], thus making Turkey one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Turkish economy is ranked the 19th largest in the world with a GDP of 363.3 billion USD. ^[37] As a fastly developing country, the Turkish economy is no longer dominated by traditional agricultural activities in the rural areas, but more so by a highly dynamic industrial complex in the major cities, mostly concentrated in the western provinces of the country, along with a developped services sector. The agricultural sector accounts for 11.9% of GDP, whereas industrial and service sectors make up 23.7% and 64.5%, respectively. ^[38] The tourism sector has experienced great growth in the last twenty years, and has become a major part of the economy. In 2005, there were 24,124,501 visitors to the country, who contributed 18.2 billion USD to the economy. ^[39]

At the end of 2005, the unemployment stood at 10.3%. ^[40] With a per capita GDP of 4,710 USD ^[41], Turkey ranked 86th in the world for 2006. ^[42] One of the biggest problems facing the Turkish economy is the distribution of wealth among the populace. In 2004, it has been estimated that the wealthiest 20% of the population owned the 46.2% of the annual household disposible income while the poorest 20% had access to only 6%. ^[43]

Turkey's main trading partners are the European Union (52% of exports and 42% of imports as of 2005) ^[44], United States, Russia and Japan. Turkey has taken advantage of a customs union with the European Union, signed in 1995, to increase its industrial production destined for exports, while at the same time benefiting from EU-origin foreign investment into the country. ^[45] In 2005, exports amounted to 73.5 billion USD while the imports stood at 116.8 billion USD, with increases of 16,3% and 19,7% compared to 2004, respectively. ^[46]

In recent years, the chronically high inflation has been brought under control and this has led to the launch of a new currency to cement the acquis of economic reforms and erase the vestiges of an unstable economy. On January 1, 2005, the Turkish Lira was replaced by the New Turkish Lira by dropping six zeroes (1 new lira is equal to 1,000,000 old lira). ^[47] As a result of economic reforms, the inflation has climbed down to 8.2% in 2005. ^[48]

After years of low levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), in 2005 Turkey succeeded in attracting 8.5 billion USD in FDI and is expected to attract a higher level in 2006. ^[49] A series of large privatizations, the stability fostered by the start of Turkey’s EU accession negotiations, strong and stable growth, and structural changes in the banking, retail, and telecommunications sectors have all contributed to the rise in foreign investment. ^[50]

See also: Tourism in Turkey

[edit] Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of Turkey, People of Turkey, Immigration to Turkey, Religion in Turkey, and Secularism in Turkey

As of 2005, the population of Turkey stood at 72.6 million ^[51] with a growth rate of 1.5% per annum. ^[52] The Turkish population is relatively young with 25.5% falling within the 0-15 age bracket. ^[53] According to statistics released by the government in 2005, life expectancy stands at 68.9 years for men and 73.8 years for women, for an overall average of 71.3 years for the populace as a whole. ^[54]

Education is compulsory and free from ages 6 to 15. The literacy rate is 95.3% for men and 79.6% for women, for an overall average of 87.4%. ^[55] This low figure is mainly due to prevailing feudal attitudes against women in the Arab and Kurdish inhabited southeastern provinces of the country. ^[56] Due to a demand for an increased labour force in Post-World War II Europe, many Turkish citizens emigrated to Western Europe (particularly West Germany), contributing to the creation of a significant diaspora.

Article 66 of the Turkish Constitution defines a "Turk" as anyone that is " bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship", therefore the legal use of the term "Turkish" (a citizen of Turkey) is different from the ethnic definition. However, the majority of the Turkish population are of Turkish ethnicity. Other major ethnic groups include the Kurds, Circassians, Roma, Arabs and the three official minorities (per the treaty of Lausanne) of Greeks, Armenians and Jews; the largest non-Turkic ethnicity being the Kurds, a distinct ethnic group traditionally concentrated in the southeast. While the term "minority" itself remains a sensitive issue in Turkey, it is to be noted that the degree of assimilation within various ethnic groups outside the recognized minorities is high, with the following generations generally adding into the melting-pot of the Turkish main body. Within that main body, certain distinctions based on diverse Turkic origins could be made as well. Reliable data on the exact ethnic repartition of the population is not available since the Turkish census figures do not include racial figures.

Turkish is the sole official language throughout Turkey. Reliable figures for the linguistic repartition of the populace are not available for reasons similar to those cited above. Nevertheless, the public broadcaster TRT broadcasts programmes in local languages and dialects of Arabic, Bosnian, Circassian and Kurdish a few hours a week. ^[57]

Nominally, 99.8% of the Turkish population is Muslim, of whom a majority belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. About 15-20% of the population are affiliated with the Alevi sect. The remainder of the population belongs to other beliefs, particularly Christian denominations (Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Syriac Orthodox), Judaism, Yezidism and Atheism.

There is a strong tradition of secularism in Turkey. Even though the state has no official religion nor promotes any, it actively monitors the area between the religions. The Turkish Constitution recognises freedom of religion for individuals whereas the religious communities are placed under the protection of state, but the constitution explicitly states that they cannot become involved in the political process (by forming a religious party for instance) and no party can claim that it represents a form of religious belief. However, religious sensibilities are generally represented through conservative parties. Turkey prohibits by law the wearing of religious headcover and theo-political symbolic garments for both genders in government buildings, schools, and universities; ^[58] a law upheld by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights as "legitimate" on November 10, 2005 in Leyla Şahin v. Turkey. ^[59]

See also: Turkish diaspora

[edit] Culture

Main articles: Culture of Turkey, Turkish literature, Arts in Turkey, and Sports in Turkey

Turkey has a very diverse culture that are a blend of various elements of the Ottoman, European, and the Islamic cultures and traditions. As Turkey successfully transformed from the religion-based former Ottoman Empire into a modern nation-state with a very strong separation of state and religion, an increase in the methods of artistic expression followed. During the first years of the republic, the government invested a large amount of resources into the fine arts, such as museums, theatres, and architecture amongst other things. This was done both as a process of modernisation and as the creation of a cultural identity. Today, the Turkish economy is diverse enough to subsidise individual artists with great freedom through private means.

Because of different historical factors playing an important role in defining the Turkish identity, the Turkish culture is a combination of efforts to be "modern" and Western, combined with the necessity felt to maintain traditional religious and historical values.

Turkish Music and literature form great examples of such a mix of cultural influences. Many schools of music are popular throughout Turkey, from "arabesque" to hip-hop genres, a result of the interaction between the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic world along with Europe, and thus contributing to a blend of Central Asian Turkic, Islamic and European traditions. ^[60] Turkish literature, which was influenced by Persian and Islamic influences during the Ottoman era, has been subsequently influenced by Western literary traditions and movements since the foundation of the republic; a trend that culminated in Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk being awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature. ^[61]

The most popular sport in Turkey by far is football, with certain matches drawing tens of millions of viewers on television. Nevertheless, other sports such as basketball and Formula One (following the inclusion of Istanbul Park on the F1 calendar) have also become popular in recent times. The traditional Turkish national sport is Yağlı güreş (English: Oiled Wrestling) since the Ottoman times.

See also: Ottoman architecture

[edit] Images of Turkey

Hagia Sophia İstanbul	Galata Tower İstanbul from the Bosphorus	İzmir Port	Anitkabir Ankara Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
İzmir The historic Alsancak neighbourhood	İzmir New Year celebrations at the port	Side Antalya Aspendos Theatre	Sümela Monastery Trabzon
Çatalhöyük (7500 BC) The oldest and largest excavated Neolithic settlement in the world	Fethiye Muğla	Pamukkale (Cottoncastle) Denizli	Konyaaltı Antalya
Çifte Minareli Medrese Erzurum	Göreme Nevşehir Cappadocia	Mount Nemrut Adıyaman	Troy Çanakkale City walls
Hattusa Çorum The Lion Gate of the Hittite capital	Pergamon İzmir Acropolis	Ephesus İzmir Ruins of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World	Halicarnassus Muğla Ruins of the Mausoleum of Maussollos, one of the Seven Wonders of the World

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

[edit] Official Web Pages

• Presidency of the Republic of Turkey
• The Grand National Assembly of Turkey
• The Prime Minister's Office
• Official website of the National Security Council
• Turkish Armed Forces
• Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C.
• Ministry of Culture and Tourism
• National Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey
• National Ministry of Defense of Turkey
• National Intelligence Organisation of Turkey
• The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey

[edit] Public Offices

• Ministry of Interior Affairs
• Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey
• Competition Authority
• Directorate General of Press And Information
• Foreign Trade
• National Intelligence Organisation
• State Planning Organisation
• Turkish Standards Institution
• Turkish Treasury
• Undersecretariat of Customs
• The Scientific and Technological Research Council

[edit] Online Profiles

• BBC News country profile
• CIA Factbook
• Economist.com country briefing
• Turkey Economy and Statistics

[edit] News

• Vatan Gazetesi
• Milliyet
• Hurriyet
• Sabah
• NTV
• The New Anatolian
• Turkish Daily News
• Turkish Press
• Zaman Online

[edit] Travellers sites

• E-Consulate of Turkish Republic
• Info for Prospective Visitors to Turkey
• Cultural Exchange Programs in Turkey
• Turkey Pictures
• Visiting Scientist Travel Grants by The Scientific and Technological Research Council - In Turkish, for Foreign Scientists who should contact their hosting academic study counterpart
• Nic Havers writes about a two-centre classical tour in Cappadocia and the Lycian coast