Republic of Turkey Türkiye Cumhuriyeti
Flag
Anthem: İstiklal Marşı Independence March
Location of Turkey
Capital		Ankara 39°55′N 32°50′E / 39.917°N 32.833°E / 39.917; 32.833
Largest city		Istanbul
Official language(s)		Turkish
Demonym		Turkish
Government		Parliamentary republic
-	Founder	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
-	President	Abdullah Gül
-	Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
-	Speaker of the Parliament	Cemil Çiçek
-	President of the Constitutional Court	Haşim Kılıç
Legislature		Grand National Assembly
Succession		to the Ottoman Empire
-	Treaty of Lausanne	24 July 1923
-	Declaration of Republic	29 October 1923
Area
-	Total	783,562 km2 (37th) 302,535 sq mi
-	Water (%)	1.3
Population
-	2011 estimate	74,724,269[1] (18th)
-	2000 census	67,803,927[2]
-	Density	97/km2 (108th) 239.8/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$1.073 trillion[3] (16th)
-	Per capita	$14,517[3] (64th)
GDP (nominal)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$778.089 billion[3] (18th)
-	Per capita	$10,522[3] (62nd)
Gini (2008)		40[4] (medium)
HDI (2011)		0.699[5] (high) (92nd)
Currency		Turkish lira[6] (TRY)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
-	Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Date formats		dd/mm/yyyy (AD)
Drives on the		right
ISO 3166 code		TR
Internet TLD		.tr
Calling code		90

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.^[7]

Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims.^[8] The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.^[9]

Oghuz Turks began migrating into the area now called Turkey (derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, i.e. "Land of the Turks") in the 11th century. The process was greatly accelerated by the Seljuk victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert.^[10] Several small beyliks and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion. Starting from the 13th century, the Ottoman beylik united Anatolia and created an empire encompassing much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. After the Ottoman Empire collapsed following its defeat in World War I, parts of it were occupied by the victorious Allies. A cadre of young military officers, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues, organized a successful resistance to the Allies; in 1923, they would establish the modern Republic of Turkey with Atatürk as its first president.

Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with an ancient cultural heritage. Turkey has become increasingly integrated with the West through membership in organisations such as the Council of Europe, NATO, OECD, OSCE and the G-20 major economies. Turkey began full membership negotiations with the European Union in 2005, having been an associate member of the European Economic Community since 1963 and having joined the EU Customs Union in 1995. Turkey has also fostered close cultural, political, economic and industrial relations with the Middle East, the Turkic states of Central Asia and the African countries through membership in organisations such as the Turkic Council, Joint Administration of Turkic Arts and Culture, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Economic Cooperation Organisation.

Turkey's location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia makes it a country of significant geostrategic importance.^[11][12][13] Given its strategic location, large economy and military strength, Turkey is a major regional power.^[13][14]

Etymology[link]

The name of Turkey, Türkiye in the Turkish language, can be divided into two components: the ethnonym Türk and the abstract suffix –iye meaning "owner", "land of" or "related to" (derived from the Arabic suffix –iyya, which is similar to the Greek and Latin suffixes –ia). The first recorded use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an autonym is contained in the Orkhon inscriptions of the Göktürks (Celestial Turks) of Central Asia (c. 8th century). The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia (c. 1369).^[15] The Greek cognate of this name, Tourkia (Greek: Τουρκία) was originally used by the Byzantines to describe medieval Hungary^{[dn 1][16][page needed][17]} (since pre-Magyar Hungary was occupied by proto-Turkic and Turkic tribes, such as the Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Kabars, Pechenegs and Cumans.) Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the northern shores of the Black and Caspian seas, was referred to as Tourkia (Land of the Turks) in Byzantine sources. However, the Byzantines later began using this name to define the Seljuk-controlled parts of Anatolia in the centuries that followed the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

History[link]

Antiquity[link]

The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions in the world. The earliest Neolithic settlements such as Çatalhöyük (Pottery Neolithic), Çayönü (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A to Pottery Neolithic), Nevalı Çori (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), Hacılar (Pottery Neolithic), Göbekli Tepe (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A) and Mersin (Yumuktepe) are considered to be among the earliest human settlements in the world.^[18]

Portion of the legendary walls of Troy (VII), identified as the site of the Trojan War (ca. 1200 BCE.)

The settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic and continued 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 radiated.^[19] The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the Central Anatolia, noted at least as early as ca. 2300 BC. Indo-European Hittites came to Anatolia and gradually absorbed Hattians ca. 2000–1700 BC. The first major empire in the area was founded by the Hittites, from the eighteenth through the 13th century BC. The Assyrians colonized parts of southeastern Turkey as early as 1950 BC until the year 612 BC, when the Assyrian Empire was conquered by the Chaldean dynasty in Babylon.^[20][21] Following the Hittite collapse, the Phrygians, an Indo-European people, achieved ascendancy until their kingdom was destroyed by the Cimmerians in the 7th century BC.^[22] The most powerful of Phrygia's successor states were 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 Hellenistic periods.

The Celsus Library in Ephesus, dating from 135 AD.

Starting around 1200 BC, the coast of Anatolia was heavily settled by Aeolian and Ionian Greeks. Numerous important cities were founded by these colonists, such as Miletus, Ephesus, Smyrna (modern İzmir), and Byzantium (later Constantinople and Istanbul). The first state established in Anatolia that was called Armenia by neighboring peoples (Hecataeus of Miletus and Behistun Inscription) was the state of the Armenian Orontid dynasty. Anatolia was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire during the 6th and 5th centuries BC and later fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BC.^[23] Anatolia was subsequently divided into a number of small Hellenistic kingdoms (including Bithynia, Cappadocia, Pergamum, and Pontus), all of which had succumbed to the Roman Republic by the mid-1st century BC.^[24]

In 324, the Roman emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium to be the new capital of the Roman Empire, renaming it New Rome (later Constantinople and Istanbul). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it became the capital of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire).^[25]

Turks and the Ottoman Empire[link]

Ottoman territories acquired between 1481 and 1683.

The House of Seljuk was a branch of the Kınık Oğuz Turks who resided on the periphery of the Muslim world, in the Yabghu Khaganate of the Oğuz confederacy, to the north of the Caspian and Aral Seas, in the 9th century.^{[26][page needed]} In the 10th century the Seljuks started migrating from their ancestral homeland into Persia, which became the administrative core of the Great Seljuk Empire.

In the latter half of the 11th century the Seljuks began penetrating into the eastern regions of Anatolia. The victory of the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan against the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 gave rise to the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate, which developed as a separate branch of the Great Seljuk Empire that covered parts of Central Asia, Persia, Anatolia, the Levant and southeast Arabia.^{[27][page needed]}

In 1243, the Seljuk armies were defeated by the Mongols, causing the Seljuk Empire's power to slowly disintegrate. In its wake, one of the Turkish principalities governed by Osman I would, over the next 200 years, evolve into the Ottoman Empire, expanding throughout Anatolia, the Balkans and the Levant.^{[28][page needed]} In 1453, the Ottomans completed their conquest of the Byzantine Empire by capturing its capital, Constantinople.

The Selimiye Mosque in Edirne is one of the most famous architectural legacies of the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire's power and prestige peaked in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. The empire was often at odds with the Holy Roman Empire in its steady advance towards Central Europe through the Balkans and the southern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.^{[12][page needed]} At sea, the Ottoman Navy contended with several Holy Leagues (composed primarily of Habsburg Spain, the Republic of Genoa, the Republic of Venice, the Knights of St. John, the Papal States, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Savoy) for control of the Mediterranean Sea. In the Indian Ocean, the Ottoman Navy frequently confronted Portuguese fleets in order to defend the empire's monopoly over the historic maritime trade routes between East Asia and Western Europe; these routes faced new competition with the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, which had a considerable impact on the Ottoman economy. In addition, the Ottomans were occasionally at war with Safavid Persia over territorial disputes or caused by religious differences between 16th and 18th centuries.^[29]

During nearly two centuries of decline, the Ottoman Empire gradually shrank in size, military power, and wealth. It entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers and was ultimately defeated. During the war, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were deported and exterminated in the Armenian Genocide.^[30][31] The Turkish government denies that there was an Armenian genocide and claims that Armenians were only relocated from the eastern war zone.^[32] Large scale massacres were also committed against the empire's other minority groups such as the Greeks and Assyrians.^[33][34][35] Following the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, the victorious Allied Powers sought to partition the Ottoman state through the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres.^[28]

Republic era[link]

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey.

The occupation of Constantinople and Smyrna by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I prompted the establishment of the Turkish national movement.^[12] Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military commander who had distinguished himself during the Battle of Gallipoli, the Turkish War of Independence was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres.^[11]

By 18 September 1922, the occupying armies were expelled, and the new Turkish state was established. On 1 November, the newly founded parliament formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of Ottoman rule. The Treaty of Lausanne of 24 July 1923, led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on 29 October 1923, in the new capital of Ankara.^[12]

Mustafa Kemal became the republic's first President and subsequently introduced many radical reforms with the aim of founding a new secular republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past.^[12] With the Surname Law of 1934, the Turkish Parliament bestowed upon Mustafa Kemal the honorific surname "Atatürk" (Father of the Turks.)^[11]

Roosevelt, İnönü and Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference which was held between 4–6 December 1943.

Turkey remained neutral during most of World War II, but entered the war on the side of the Allies on 23 February 1945, as a ceremonial gesture; and on 26 June 1945, became a charter member of the United Nations.^[36] Difficulties faced by Greece after the war 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 U.S. military and economic support.^{[37][page needed]} Both countries were included in the Marshall Plan and OEEC for rebuilding European economies in 1948, and subsequently became founding members of the OECD in 1961.

After participating with the United Nations forces in the Korean War, Turkey joined NATO in 1952, becoming a bulwark against Soviet expansion into the Mediterranean. Following a decade of Cypriot intercommunal violence and the Greek military junta backed coup in Cyprus on 15 July 1974 staged by the EOKA B paramilitary organization, which overthrew President Makarios (who fled to the United Kingdom) and installed the pro-Enosis (union with Greece) Nikos Sampson as dictator, Turkey invaded Cyprus on 20 July 1974 upon the request for guarantorship intervention by the Turkish Cypriot leader and Vice President of the Republic of Cyprus Rauf Denktaş.^[38] Nine years later the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Turkey, was established.^[39]

The single-party period ended in 1945. It was followed by a tumultuous transition to multiparty democracy over the next few decades, which was interrupted by military coups d'état in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997.^{[40][page needed]} In 1984, the PKK began an insurgency against the Turkish government; the conflict, which has claimed over 40,000 lives, continues today.^[41] Since the liberalisation of the Turkish economy during the 1980s, the country has enjoyed stronger economic growth and greater political stability.^[42]

Politics[link]

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been elected three times as Prime Minister: In 2002 (with 34% of the popular vote), in 2007 (with 47%) and in 2011 (with 49%).

Turkey is a parliamentary representative democracy. Since its foundation as a republic in 1923, Turkey has developed a strong tradition of secularism.^[43] Turkey's constitution governs the legal framework of the country. It sets out the main principles of government and establishes Turkey as a unitary centralized state.

The President of the Republic is the head of state and has a largely ceremonial role. The president is elected for a five-year term by direct elections. Abdullah Gül was elected as president on 28 August 2007, by a popular parliament round of votes, succeeding Ahmet Necdet Sezer.^[44]

Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers which make up the government, while the legislative power is vested in the unicameral parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, and the Constitutional Court is charged with ruling on the conformity of laws and decrees with the constitution. The Council of State is the tribunal of last resort for administrative cases, and the High Court of Appeals for all others.^[45]

The prime minister is elected by the parliament through a vote of confidence in the government and is most often the head of the party having the most seats in parliament. The current prime minister is the former mayor of İstanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose conservative Justice and Development Party won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats in the 2002 general elections, organized in the aftermath of the economic crisis of 2001, with 34% of the suffrage.^[46]

The Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara during a speech of U.S. President Barack Obama on 6 April 2009.

In the 2007 general elections, the AKP received 46.6% of the votes and could defend its majority in parliament.^[47] Although the ministers do not have to be members of the parliament, ministers with parliament membership are common in Turkish politics. In 2007, a series of events regarding state secularism and the role of the judiciary in the legislature occurred. These included the controversial presidential election of Abdullah Gül, who in the past had been involved with Islamist parties;^[48] and the government's proposal to lift the headscarf ban in universities, which was annulled by the Constitutional Court, leading to a fine and a near ban of the ruling party.^[49]

Universal suffrage for both sexes has been applied throughout Turkey since 1933, and every Turkish citizen who has turned 18 years of age has the right to vote. As of 2004, there were 50 registered political parties in the country.^[50] The Constitutional Court can strip the public financing of political parties that it deems anti-secular or separatist, or ban their existence altogether.^[51][52]

There are 550 members of parliament who are elected for a four-year term by a party-list proportional representation system from 85 electoral districts which represent the 81 administrative provinces of Turkey (İstanbul is divided into three electoral districts, whereas Ankara and İzmir are divided into two each because of their large populations). To avoid a hung parliament and its excessive political fragmentation, only parties winning at least 10% of the votes cast in a national parliamentary election gain the right to representation in the parliament.^[50] Because of this threshold, in the 2007 elections only three parties formally entered the parliament (compared to two in 2002).^[53][54]

Human rights in Turkey have been the subject of much controversy and international condemnation. Between 1998 and 2008 the European Court of Human Rights made more than 1,600 judgements against Turkey for human rights violations, particularly the right to life and freedom from torture. Other issues such as Kurdish rights, women's rights and press freedom have also attracted controversy. Turkey's human rights record continues to be a significant obstacle to future membership of the EU.^[55] The Turkish Journalists Association says that 58 of the country's journalists have been imprisoned. A former U.S. State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said that the United States had "broad concerns about trends involving intimidation of journalists in Turkey."^[56]

Foreign relations[link]

Turkey is a founding member of the OECD and the G-20 major economies.

Turkey began full membership negotiations with the European Union in 2005, having been an associate member of the EEC since 1963, and having joined the EU Customs Union in 1995.

Turkey is a founding member of the United Nations (1945), the OECD (1961), the OIC (1969), the OSCE (1973), the ECO (1985), the BSEC (1992) and the G-20 major economies (1999). On 17 October 2008, Turkey was elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.^[57] Turkey's membership of the council effectively began on 1 January 2009.^[57] Turkey had previously been a member of the U.N. Security Council in 1951–1952, 1954–1955 and 1961.^[57]

In line with its traditional Western orientation, relations with Europe have always been a central part of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey became a founding member of the Council of Europe in 1949, applied for associate membership of the EEC (predecessor of the European Union) in 1959 and became an associate member in 1963. After decades of political negotiations, Turkey applied for full membership of the EEC in 1987, became an associate member of the Western European Union in 1992, joined the EU Customs Union in 1995 and has been in formal accession negotiations with the EU since 2005.^[58]

Since 1974, Turkey has not recognized the (essentially Greek Cypriot) Republic of Cyprus as the sole authority on the island, but instead supports the Turkish Cypriot community in the form of the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which was established in 1983 and is recognized only by Turkey.^[59]

The other defining aspect of Turkey's foreign relations has been its ties with the United States. Based on the common threat posed by the Soviet Union, Turkey joined NATO in 1952, ensuring close bilateral relations with Washington throughout the Cold War. In the post–Cold War environment, Turkey's geostrategic importance shifted towards its proximity to the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Balkans. In return, Turkey has benefited from the United States' political, economic and diplomatic support, including in key issues such as the country's bid to join the European Union.

The independence of the Turkic states of the Soviet Union in 1991, with which Turkey shares a common cultural and linguistic heritage, allowed Turkey to extend its economic and political relations deep into Central Asia,^[60] thus enabling the completion of a multi-billion-dollar oil and natural gas pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey. The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline forms part of Turkey's foreign policy strategy to become an energy conduit to the West. However, Turkey's border with Armenia, a state in the Caucasus, remains closed following Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territory during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.^[61]

Military[link]

Troops of the Turkish Army; S-353 TCG Preveze; and a Turkish F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Turkey joined NATO in 1952.

The Turkish Armed Forces 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, although they are subordinated to the Army and Navy Commands respectively in wartime, during which they have both internal law enforcement and military functions.^[62]

The Turkish Armed Forces is the second largest standing armed force in NATO, after the U.S. Armed Forces, with a combined strength of just over a million uniformed personnel serving in its five branches.^[63] Since 2003, Turkey contributes military personnel to Eurocorps and takes part in the EU Battlegroups.^[64] Turkey is also considered to be the strongest military power of the Middle East region besides Israel.^[14]

Every fit male Turkish citizen otherwise not barred is required to serve in the military for a period ranging from three weeks to fifteen months, dependent on education and job location.^[65] Turkey does not recognise conscientious objection and does not offer a civilian alternative to military service.^[66]

Turkey is one of nine partner states of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) development and production programme.

Turkey is one of five NATO member states which are part of the nuclear sharing policy of the alliance, together with Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.^[67] A total of 90 B61 nuclear bombs are hosted at the Incirlik Air Base, 40 of which are allocated for use by the Turkish Air Force.^[68]

In 1998, Turkey announced a programme of modernisation worth US$160 billion over a twenty year period in various projects including tanks, fighter jets, helicopters, submarines, warships and assault rifles.^[69] Turkey is a Level 3 contributor to the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme.^[70]

Turkey has maintained forces in international missions under the United Nations and NATO since 1950, including peacekeeping missions in Somalia and former Yugoslavia, and support to coalition forces in the First Gulf War. Turkey maintains 36,000 troops in northern Cyprus; their presence is supported and approved by the de facto local government, but the Republic of Cyprus and the international community regard it as an illegal occupation force, and its presence has also been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.^[71] Turkey has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the United States stabilisation force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) since 2001.^[63][72] In 2006, the Turkish parliament deployed a peacekeeping force of Navy patrol vessels and around 700 ground troops as part of an expanded United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the wake of the Israeli-Lebanon conflict.^[73]

The Chief of the General Staff is appointed by the president and is responsible to the prime minister. The Council of Ministers is responsible to parliament for matters of national security and the adequate preparation of the armed forces to defend the country. However, the authority to declare war and to deploy the Turkish Armed Forces to foreign countries or to allow foreign armed forces to be stationed in Turkey rests solely with the parliament.^[62] The actual commander of the armed forces is the Chief of the General Staff General Necdet Özel since August 4, 2011.^[74]