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Travel to Turkey — Unbiased reviews and great
deals from TripAdvisorTurkey
| Republic of Turkey National
name: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti President: Abdullah Gul (2007) Prime Minister: Recep Tayyip Erdogan
(2003)
Current government officials
Land area: 297,591 sq mi (770,761 sq km);
total area: 301,382 sq mi (780,580 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 71,158,647 (growth
rate: 1.0%); birth rate: 16.4/1000; infant mortality rate: 38.3/1000;
life expectancy: 72.9; density per sq mi: 239
Capital (2003 est.):
Ankara, 3,582,000 (metro. area), 3,456,100 (city
proper) Largest cities: Istanbul,
9,760,000 (metro. area), 8,831,805 (city proper); Izmir, 2,398,200;
Bursa, 1,288,900; Adana, 1,219,900; Gaziantep, 979,500 Monetary unit: Turkish lira (YTL)
Languages:
Turkish (official), Kurdish, Dimli, Azeri,
Kabardian
Ethnicity/race:
Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20% (estimated)
Religions:
Islam (mostly Sunni) 99.8%, other 0.2% (mostly
Christians and Jews) Literacy rate:
87.4% (2004 est.) Economic summary:
GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $888 billion; per capita $12,900. Real
growth rate: 5%. Inflation: 8.8%. Unemployment:
9.9% (plus underemployment of 4.0%). Arable land: 30%.
Agriculture: tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets,
pulse, citrus; livestock. Labor force: 23.53 million (2007);
note: about 1.2 million Turks work abroad; agriculture 35.9%, industry
22.8%, services 41.2% (3rd quarter, 2004). Industries:
textiles, food processing, autos, electronics, mining (coal, chromite,
copper, boron), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper.
Natural resources: antimony, coal, chromium, mercury, copper,
borate, sulfur, iron ore, arable land, hydropower. Exports:
$72.49 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): apparel, foodstuffs, textiles,
metal manufactures, transport equipment. Imports: $101.2
billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery, chemicals, semifinished goods,
fuels, transport equipment. Major trading partners: Germany,
UK, U.S., Italy, France, Spain, Russia, China (2004). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 19.5 million (1999); mobile cellular: 17.1 million (2001).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 107, shortwave 6 (2001).
Radios: 11.3 million (1997). Television broadcast stations:
635 (plus 2,934 repeaters) (1995). Televisions: 20.9
million (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 50 (2001).
Internet users: 2.5 million (2002). Transportation: Railways: total: 8,607 km
(2002). Highways: total: 385,960 km; paved: 131,226 km
(including 1,749 km of expressways); unpaved: 254,734 km (1999).
Waterways: about 1,200 km. Ports and harbors: Gemlik,
Hopa, Iskenderun, Istanbul, Izmir, Kocaeli (Izmit), Icel (Mersin),
Samsun, Trabzon. Airports: 120 (2002). International disputes: complex maritime,
air, and territorial disputes with Greece in the Aegean Sea; Cyprus
question remains with Greece; Syria and Iraq protest Turkish
hydrological projects to control upper Euphrates waters; Turkey is
quick to rebuff any perceived Syrian claim to Hatay province; border
with Armenia remains closed over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Turkey is at the northeast end of the Mediterranean Sea in southeast
Europe and southwest Asia. To the north is the Black Sea and to the west
is the Aegean Sea. Its neighbors are Greece and Bulgaria to the west,
Russia, Ukraine, and Romania to the north and northwest (through the Black
Sea), Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east, and Syria and
Iraq to the south. The Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosporus
divide the country. Turkey in Europe comprises an area about equal to the
state of Massachusetts. Turkey in Asia is about the size of Texas. Its
center is a treeless plateau rimmed by mountains.
Government
Republican parliamentary democracy.
History
Anatolia (Turkey in Asia) was occupied in about 1900 B.C. by the Indo-European Hittites and, after the
Hittite empire's collapse in 1200 B.C., by
Phrygians and Lydians. The Persian Empire occupied the area in the 6th
century B.C., giving way to the Roman Empire,
then later the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Turks first appeared in the
early 13th century, subjugating Turkish and Mongol bands pressing against
the eastern borders of Byzantium and making the Christian Balkan states
their vassals. They gradually spread through the Near East and Balkans,
capturing Constantinople in 1453 and storming the gates of Vienna two
centuries later. At its height, the Ottoman Empire stretched from the
Persian Gulf to western Algeria. Lasting for 600 years, the Ottoman Empire
was not only one of the most powerful empires in the history of the
Mediterranean region, but it generated a great cultural outpouring of
Islamic art, architecture, and literature.
After the reign of Sultan Süleyman I the Magnificent (1494–1566), the
Ottoman Empire began to decline politically, administratively, and
economically. By the 18th century, Russia was seeking to establish itself
as the protector of Christians in Turkey's Balkan territories. Russian
ambitions were checked by Britain and France in the Crimean War
(1854–1856), but the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) gave Bulgaria virtual
independence and Romania and Serbia liberation from their nominal
allegiance to the sultan. Turkish weakness stimulated a revolt of young
liberals known as the Young Turks in 1909. They forced Sultan Abdul Hamid
to grant a constitution and install a liberal government. However, reforms
were no barrier to further defeats in a war with Italy (1911–1912) and the
Balkan Wars (1912–1913). Turkey sided with Germany in World War I, and, as
a result, lost territory at the conclusion of the war.
Turkey's current boundaries were drawn in 1923 at the Conference of
Lausanne, and Turkey became a republic with Kemal Atatürk as the first
president. The Ottoman sultanate and caliphate were abolished, and
modernization, reform, and industrialization began under Atatürk's
direction. He secularized Turkish society, reducing Islam's dominant role
and replacing Arabic with the Latin alphabet for writing the Turkish
language. After Atatürk's death in 1938, parliamentary government and a
multiparty system gradually took root in Turkey, despite periods of
instability and brief intervals of military rule. Neutral during most of
World War II, Turkey, on Feb. 23, 1945, declared war on Germany and Japan,
but it took no active part in the conflict. Turkey became a full member of
NATO in 1952, was a signatory in the Balkan Entente (1953), joined the
Baghdad Pact (1955; later CENTO), joined the Organization for European
Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the Council of Europe, and became an
associate member of the European Common Market in 1963.
Turkey invaded Cyprus by sea and air on July 20, 1974, following the
failure of diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts between Turkish and
Greek Cypriots. Turkey unilaterally announced a cease-fire on Aug. 16,
after having gained control of 40% of the island. Turkish Cypriots
established their own state in the north on Feb. 13, 1975. In July 1975,
after a 30-day warning, Turkey took control of all the U.S. installations
except the joint defense base at Incirlik, which it reserved for “NATO
tasks alone.”
The establishment of military government in Sept. 1980 stopped the
slide toward anarchy and brought some improvement in the economy. A
constituent assembly, consisting of the six-member national security
council and members appointed by them, drafted a new constitution that was
approved by an overwhelming (91.5%) majority of the voters in a Nov. 6,
1982, referendum. Martial law was gradually lifted. The military, however,
effectively continues to control the country.
About 12 million Kurds, roughly 20% of Turkey's population, live in the
southeast region of Turkey. Turkey, however, does not officially recognize
Kurds as a minority group and is therefore exempted from protecting their
rights. Oppression of Kurds and Kurdish culture led to the emergence in
1984 of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish terrorist
campaign under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan. Although the guerrilla
movement sought independence at first, by the late 1980s the rebel Kurds
were willing to accept an autonomous state or a federation with Turkey.
About 35,000 have died in clashes between the military and the PKK during
the 1980s and 1990s. On Feb. 16, 1999, Ocalan was captured. He was tried
and convicted of treason and separatism on June 2, 1999, and sentenced to
death.
On Aug. 17, 1999, western Turkey was devastated by an earthquake
(magnitude 7.4) that left more than 17,000 dead and 200,000 homeless.
Another huge earthquake struck in November.
Construction on a $3-billion, 1,000-mile oil pipeline running from
Baku, Azerbaijan, to the Mediterranean port city of Ceyhan began in Sept.
2002. The pipeline opened in July 2006.
In Nov. 2002 elections, the recently formed Justice and Development
Party (AK) won. Its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was barred from becoming
prime minister, however, because of a conviction for “inciting religious
hatred” by reciting an Islamic poem at a rally in 1998. Another popular AK
leader, Abdullah Gul, served as prime minister until Turkish law was
amended to permit Erdogan to run for a seat in parliament again, which he
easily won. Gul resigned as prime minister, making way for Erdogan.
In March 2003, U.S.-Turkish relations were severely strained when
Turkey's parliament narrowly failed to pass a resolution permitting the
U.S. to use Turkish bases as a launching pad for the pending war against
Iraq. Turkish opinion polls reported that an overwhelming 90% of Turks
were against war in Iraq, but the U.S. had promised the country
much-needed economic aid.
In Nov. 2003, two terrorist attacks rocked Istanbul. On Nov. 17, truck
bombs exploded near two synagogues; on Nov. 22, the British Consulate and
a British bank were targeted. More than 50 were killed and hundreds were
wounded in the attacks; al-Qaeda is believed to be responsible.
In an effort to make itself more attractive for potential EU
membership, Turkey has begun revamping some of its repressive laws and
policies. In 2003, its parliament passed a law reducing the military's
role in political life and offered partial amnesty to PKK members, many of
whom have sought refuge in northern Iraq. In 2004, Turkish state
television broadcast the first Kurdish language program and the government
freed four Kurdish activists from prison. Turkey also abolished the death
penalty in all but exceptional cases.
In April 2007, Prime Minister Erdogan nominated Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul, an Islamist, as the ruling party's candidate for president
over the objections of the military, which has historically been
protective of a secular state. Gul, however, failed to win the necessary
two-thirds majority in parliament, and a constitutional court later
nullified the vote, citing a lack of a quorum. Many secularists in
parliament, who accused Gul of harboring an Islamist agenda, boycotted the
vote. Gul withdrew from the race in May. Gul was victorious in the third
round of elections in August.
Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States and threatened to
withdraw its support of the war in Iraq in October after the U.S. House
Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution labeling as genocide
Turkey's murder of some 1.5 million Armenians during World War I.
President George Bush strongly urged members of the committee to vote
against the resolution.
Tension between Turkey and Iraq peaked in October, as Kurdish
separatists in Iraq, members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
escalated their attacks into Turkey. In response, Turkey's Parliament
voted, 507 to 19, to allow the deployment of troops into northern Iraq.
U.S. and Iraqi officials feared a war on another front in Iraq would
further destabilize the already fragile country. In December, Turkish
fighter jets, with the help of the U.S. military, bombed areas in Dohuk
Province in northern Iraq, targeting the (PKK). Turkish troops resumed
their attacks on Dohuk Province in February 2008, killing as many as 160
PKK fighters, who claimed to have killed as many Turkish troops.
In January 2008, police arrested 13 ultranationalists, including three
former military officers, who were accused of organizing and carrying out
political murders. One of the officers, Veli Kucuk, is suspected of
running a secret unit within the police force that orchestrated political
violence against religious and ethnic minority groups.
In February 2008, Parliament voted in favor of a measure put forth by
Prime Minister Erdogan that would lift the ban on women wearing
headscarves in universities. Secular lawmakers voted overwhelmingly
against the laws, concerned that their secularism faced attack by the
conservative government. In June, the Constitutional Court, Turkey’s
highest court, overturned the measure, saying it violated secularist
principles inherent in the country’s constitution.
On April 30, 2008, Parliament voted to soften Article 301 of the penal
code, which restricts free speech by prohibiting the disparagement of
Turkishness, and has been used to prosecute hundreds authors and
journalists in the past.
On July 9, 2008, four gunmen attacked the U.S. Consulate in Turkey,
opening fire on security guards outside the consulate. Three police
officers and three attackers are killed in a gun battle.
On July 14, 2008, 86 people, who are suspected to be part of a secular
organization called Ergenekon, were charged with attempting to overthrow
the current AKP government. The attempted coup was exposed in June
2007.
On July 30, 2008, Turkey's 11-member Constitutional Court falls one vote short of banning the Justice and Development party for violating the country's secular constitution. The court does rule, however, to reduce by one-half the party's public financing.
See also Encyclopedia: Turkey.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Turkey
State Institute of Statistics www.die.gov.tr/ENGLISH/index.html .
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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