Background: the Ottoman Empire. Soon thereafter the country instituted secular laws to replace

Geographic coordinates: 39 00 N 35 00 E

Map reference: Middle East

Area
Comparative: slightly larger than Texas

Coastline: 7,200 km

Climate: temperate; hot dry summers with mild wet winters; harsher in interior

Terrain: mostly mountains; narrow coastal plain; high central plateau (Anatolia)

Natural resources: antimony coal chromium mercury copper borate sulfur iron ore arable land: hydropower

Irrigated land: 36,740 km² (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: very severe earthquakes especially in northern Turkey along an arc extending from the Sea of Marmara to Lake Van

Geography
Note: strategic location controlling the Turkish Straits (Bosporus Sea of Marmara Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas

Population: 65,666,677 (July 2000 est.)
Growth rate: 1.27% (2000 est.)
Below poverty line: NA%

Ethnic groups: Turkish 80% Kurdish 20%

Languages: Turkish (official) Kurdish Arabic Armenian Greek

Religions: Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni) other 0.2% (Christian and Jews)

Population growth rate: 1.27% (2000 est.)

Birth rate: 18.65 births/1000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate: 5.96 deaths/1000 population (2000 est.)

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1000 population (2000 est.)

Environment
Current issues: water pollution from dumping of chemicals and detergents; air pollution particularly in urban areas; deforestation; concern for oil spills from increasing Bosporus ship traffic

Infant mortality rate: 48.9 deaths/1000 live births (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate: 2.16 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Government type: republican parliamentary democracy

Capital: Ankara

Administrative divisions: 80 provinces (iller singular - il); Adana Adiyaman Afyon Agri Aksaray Amasya Ankara Antalya Ardahan Artvin Aydin Balikesir Bartin Batman Bayburt Bilecik Bingol Bitlis Bolu Burdur Bursa Canakkale Cankiri Corum Denizli Diyarbakir Edirne Elazig Erzincan Erzurum Eskisehir Gazi Antep Giresun Gumushane Hakkari Hatay Icel Igdir Isparta Istanbul Izmir Kahraman Maras Karabuk Karaman Kars Kastamonu Kayseri Kilis Kirikkale Kirklareli Kirsehir Kocaeli Konya Kutahya Malatya Manisa Mardin Mugla Mus Nevsehir Nigde Ordu Osmaniye Rize Sakarya Samsun Sanli Urfa Siirt Sinop Sirnak Sivas Tekirdag Tokat Trabzon Tunceli Usak Van Yalova Yozgat Zonguldak

Independence: 29 October 1923 (successor state to the Ottoman Empire)

National holiday: Anniversary of the Declaration of the Republic 29 October (1923)

Constitution: 7 November 1982

Legal system: derived from various European continental legal systems; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legislative branch: unicameral Grand National Assembly of Turkey or Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi (550 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)

Judicial branch: Constitutional Court judges appointed by the president; Court of Appeals judges are elected by the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors

Political parties and leaders: Changing Turkey Party or DEPAR [Gokhan CAPOGLU]; Democracy and Peace Party or DBP [Yilmaz CAMLIBEL]; Democratic Left Party or DSP [Bulent ECEVIT]; Democratic Party or DP [Korkut OZAL]; Democratic Turkey Party or DTP [Husamettin CINDORUK]; Enlightened Turkey Party or ATP [Tugrul TURKES]; Freedom and Solidarity Party or ODP [Ufuk URAS]; Grand Unity Party or BBP [Muhsin YAZICIOGLU]; Labor Party or EP [Ihsan CARALAN]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDP [Besim TIBUK]; Motherland Party or ANAP [Mesut YILMAZ]; My Turkey Party or TP [Durmus Ali EKER]; Nation Party or MP [Aykut EDIBALI]; Nationalist Action Party or MHP [Devlet BAHCELI]; New Democracy Movement or YDH [Huseyin ERGUN]; Peace Party or BP [Ali Haydar VEZIROGLU]; People's Democracy Party or HADEP [Turhan DEMIR]; Republican People's Party or CHP [Altan OYMEN]; Revolutionary People's Party [Meral KIDIR]; Socialist Power Party or SIP [leader NA]; True Path Party or DYP [Tansu CILLER]; Virtue Party or FP [Recai KUTAN]; Workers' Party or IP [Dogu PERINCEK]

International organization participation: AsDB BIS BSEC CCC CE CERN (observer) EAPC EBRD ECE ECO ESCAP EU (applicant) FAO IAEA IBRD ICAO ICC ICFTU ICRM IDA IDB IEA IFAD IFC IFRCS IHO ILO IMF IMO Inmarsat Intelsat Interpol IOC IOM (observer) ISO ITU NATO NEA OAS (observer) OECD OIC OPCW OSCE PCA UN UNCTAD UNESCO UNHCR UNIDO UNIKOM UNMIBH UNMIK UNOMIG UNRWA UPU WEU (associate) WFTU WHO WIPO WMO WToO WTrO

Flag description: red with a vertical white crescent (the closed portion is toward the hoist side) and white five-pointed star centered just outside the crescent opening

Economy overview: Turkey has a dynamic economy that is a complex mix of modern industry and commerce along with traditional village agriculture and crafts. It has a strong and rapidly growing private sector yet the state still plays a major role in basic industry banking transport and communication. Its most important industry - and largest exporter - is textiles and clothing which is almost entirely in private hands. The economic situation in recent years has been marked by erratic economic growth and serious imbalances. After a sharp drop in 1994 real GNP averaged 6.5% annual growth in 1995-98; it then fell about 5% in 1999 as Turkey was adversely affected by Russia's economic crisis and two major earthquakes. The already-large public sector fiscal deficit widened in 1999 to perhaps 14% of GDP - due in large part to the huge burden of interest payments which accounted for 42% of central grovernment spending. Despite the implementation in January 1996 of a customs union with the EU foreign direct investment in the country remains low - less than $1 billion annually - perhaps because potential investors are concerned about economic and political stability. Prospects for the future are brighter - including prospects for foreign investment - because the ECEVIT government is implementing a major economic reform program including a tighter budget social security reform banking reorganization and greatly accelerated privatization.

Real gdp growth rate: -5% (1999 est.)

Real gdp per capita: purchasing power parity - $6,200 (1999 est.)

Agriculture products: tobacco cotton grain olives sugar beets pulse citrus; livestock

Industries: textiles food processing autos mining (coal chromite copper boron) steel petroleum construction lumber paper

Industrial production growth rate: -5.2% (1999 est.)

Labor force: 23.8 million (April 1999)
By occupation agriculture: 45.8%
By occupation services: 33.7%
By occupation industry: 20.5% (April 1999)

Unemployment rate: 7.3% plus underemployment of 6.9% (April 1999 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Fiscal year: calendar year

Inflation rate consumer prices: 65% (1999 est.)

Exports: $26 billion (f.o.b. 1999 est.)
Commodities: apparel 28% foodstuffs 17% textiles 12% metal manufactures 9% (1998)
Partners: Germany 21% US 9% UK 7% Italy 6% France 6% (1999)

Imports: $40 billion (c.i.f. 1999 est.)
Commodities: machinery 29% semi-finished goods 16% chemicals 14% transport equipment 11% fuels 8% (1998)
Partners: Germany 14% Italy 8% US 8% France 8% Russia 6% UK 5% (1999)

Debt external: $104 billion (1999)

Exchange rates: Turkish liras (TL) per US$1 - 545,584 (January 2000) 418,783 (1999) 260,724 (1998) 151,865 (1997) 81,405 (1996) 45,845 (1995)

Electricity
Production: 116.5 billion kWh (1999)
Consumption: 118.5 billion kWh (1999)
Exports: 209 million kWh (1999 est.)
Imports: 2.3 billion kWh (1999 est.)

Telephones
Main lines in use: 17.244 million (1998)
Mobile cellular: 3.2 million (1998)

Telephone system: undergoing rapid modernization and expansion especially cellular telephones

Internet
Service providers isps: 24 (1999)

Military expenditures
Dollar figure: $6.737 billion (FY97)
Percent of gdp: 4.3% (FY97)

Airports: 118 (1999 est.)

Heliports: 2 (1999 est.)

Pipelines: crude oil 1738 km; petroleum products 2,321 km; natural gas 708 km

Waterways: about 1200 km

Disputes international: complex maritime air and territorial disputes with Greece in Aegean Sea; Cyprus question with Greece; dispute with downstream riparian states (Syria and Iraq) over water development plans for the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; traditional demands regarding former Armenian lands in Turkey have subsided

Illicit drugs: key transit route for Southwest Asian heroin to Western Europe and - to a far lesser extent the US - via air land and sea routes; major Turkish Iranian and other international trafficking organizations operate out of Istanbul; laboratories to convert imported morphine base into heroin are in remote regions of Turkey as well as near Istanbul; government maintains strict controls over areas of legal opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate