Info About Turkey - Best Luxury Hotels Worldwide

Info About Turkey - Best Luxury Hotels Worldwide

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), officially the Republic of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti) listen (help·info), is a Eurasian country located mainly in the Anatolian peninsula in Southwestern Asia, with a small portion of its territory located in the Balkan region of Southeastern Europe.

Turkey borders eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia, Armenia and the Nakhichevan exclave of Azerbaijan to the northeast; Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. In addition, it borders the Black Sea to the north; Aegean Sea and Marmara Sea to the west and Mediterranean Sea to the south.

The Republic of Turkey is a democratic, secular constitutional republic, whose political system was established in 1923. Turkey is a member state of the United Nations, NATO, OSCE, OECD, OIC and the Council of Europe. In October 2005, the European Union opened accession negotiations with Ankara and thus Turkey is a Candidate Country to the European Union.





Iron Age and peoples that have settled in or conquered Anatolia include the Phrygians, Hittites, Lydians, Lycians, Mushki, Kurds, Cimmerians, Armenians, Persians, Tabals, Greeks. The conquest of Anatolia by Turkic peoples, under the Seljuks with the Battle of Manzikert and the rise of the Seljuk Empire in the 11th century was finalized by the rise of the Ottoman Empire. In the 16th century, at the height of its power, the Ottoman Empire grew to cover Anatolia, North Africa, the Middle East, Southeastern and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

Following years of decline, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I in an alliance with Germany in 1914 where it was ulitmately defeated and occupied. Western powers sought to partition the empire through the Treaty of Sevres (see Rise of Nationalism under the Ottoman Empire). With the support of the Allies, Greece had occupied İzmir as provided for in the Treaty. On 19 May 1919 this prompted the beginning of a nationalist movement under the command of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military commander who had distinguished himself in the Battle of Gallipoli. Kemal Pasha sought to revoke the terms of 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 18 September 1922 the occupying armies were repelled and the country was liberated. On 1 November 1922 the Turkish Grand National Assembly formally abolished the office of the Sultan, thus ending 631 years of Ottoman rule. In 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne recognized the sovereignty of a new Turkish Republic, Kemal was granted the name Atatürk (meaning father of Turks) by the National Assembly and would become the Republic's first President. Atatürk instituted a wide-range of far reaching reforms with the aim of modernizing the new Republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past.

Turkey entered World War II on the Allied side in the latter stages of the war and became a charter member of the United Nations. Difficulties faced by Greece after World War II in quelling a communist rebellion and 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. After participating with United Nations forces in the Korean conflict, Turkey in 1952 joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Turkey intervened and militarily invaded Cyprus in July 1974 in response to a Greek coup by EOKA-B. The breakaway de-facto independent Northern Cyprus is not officially recognised by any country except Turkey itself.

Upon the retirement of President Kenan Evren, Turgut Özal was elected President, leaving parliament in the hands of the feckless Yildirim Akbulut, and then, in 1991, to Mesut Yilmaz. Yilmaz redoubled Turkey's economic profile and renewed its orientation toward Europe. But political instability followed as the host of banned politicians reentered politics, fracturing the vote, and the Motherland Party became increasingly corrupt. Ozal died of a heart attack in 1993 and Suleyman Demirel was elected president.

The 1995 elections brought a short-lived coalition between Yilmaz's Motherland Party and The True Path Party, now with Tansu Ciller at the helm. Ciller then turned to the Welfare Party (RP), headed by Necmettin Erbakan, the former leader of the National Salvation Party, allowing Erbakan to enter the Prime Ministry. In 1998, the military, citing his government's support for a Turkish religious identity deemed dangerous to Turkey's secular nature, sent a memorandum to Erbakan requesting that he resign, which he did. Shortly thereafter, the RP was banned and re-born under the name Virtue Party (FP). A new government was formed by ANAP and Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP) supported from the outside by the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP), led by Deniz Baykal.

A series of economic shocks led to new elections in 2002, bringing into power the conservative Justice and Development Party led by the former mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Turkey is currently in accession talks with the European Union.


Turkey's political system is based on a separation of powers. Its constitution is called Anayasa or Main Law.



Parliament – Legislative power resides with the 550-seat Grand National Assembly (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi), representing 81 provinces. The Grand National Assembly is elected every five years. To be represented in Parliament, a party must win at least 10% of the national vote in a national parliamentary election. Candidates may also run as independents. To be elected, they must win at least 10% of the vote in the province from which they are running.

Legal System








Foreign Relations

Turkey's main political, economic and military relations still remain firmly rooted within Western Europe and the United States. Turkey is currently in the process of accession to the European Union, with which it has had an association agreement since 1964, and Customs Union since 1996. A major source of tension in its EU aspirations is the issue of Cyprus, a member of the EU which Turkey does not recognise, but instead supports the de facto Turkish Cypriot north. Ankara has been urged to open its ports and recognise the Republic of Cyprus or face a possible halt in talks. Turkey supported a UN-backed peace agreement which was rejected by the Greek Cypriots, but supported by the Turkish Cypriots in 2004, thus paving the way for Greek Cypriot membership. The Greek Cypriot administration has since threatened the use of its veto if Ankara does not meet its EU obligations, though this has been judged an unlikely move.

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 Turkey. This led 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 PKK, a guerrilla group seeking Kurdish independence, in which some 30,000 people have lost their lives. This has led Ankara to pressure the US into clamping down on guerrilla training camps in northern Iraq, though it remains reluctant due to its relative stability with the rest of Iraq. Turkey must therefore balance domestic pressures with commitments to its strongest ally.

Relations with neighbour Greece have historically been strained and on few occasions close to war. Cyprus and claims to the Aegean remain the main sticking point between the two nations. Cyprus continues to be divided between a Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north, and efforts to reunite the island under the auspices of the United Nations have so far failed. In the Aegean, strategically important to the passage of Turkish vessels, Turkey has made clear it will not accept a 12-mile claim to territorial waters surrounding the islands. Though the historical rivalry between the two states has been bitter, following the devastating 1999 earthquake in Turkey, and the quick response of Greek aid and rescue teams, the nations have entered a much more positive period of relations, with Greece backing Turkey's candidacy to the EU.


Turkish Armed Forces (Turkish: Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri or TSK) consists of the Army, Navy (includes Naval Air and Naval Infantry) and Air Force. The Gendarmerie and Coast Guard operate as the parts of Dept. of Internal Affairs in peacetime and are subordinate to the Army and Navy Commands respectively. In wartime, both have law enforcement and military functions. The Turkish Armed forces, with a combined troop strength of 680,000 people, is the second largest standing force in NATO after the United States. Currently, 45,000 troops are stationed in Turkish-recognised Northern Cyprus and UN-administered Kosovo. Every fit male Turkish citizen has to serve military service for varying time periods ranging between 1 month to 15 months depending on his education, job location, and occasional paid options.

After becoming a member of the NATO Alliance on February 18, 1952, the Turkish Republic initiated a comprehensive modernization program for its Armed Forces. Towards the end of the 1980s, a restructuring process was initiated in the Turkish Armed Forces. Recently, the picture of Atatürk was removed from the logo of the Turkish Armed Forces following the modernization. This action led to significant debate in the Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (TBMM) and the picture of Atatürk was placed back in because of public pressure.



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 Asia, and 3% or 24,378 square kilometres (9,412 sq mi) are located in Europe. Many geographers consider Turkey politically (although not culturally) in Europe, although it is rather 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).





Administrative Divisions




The five largest cities by population are:

Istanbul - 10,019,000
Ankara - 4,319,000
İzmir - 2,409,000
Bursa - 1,195,000
Adana - 1,131,000



Turkey began a series of reforms in the 1980s designed to shift the economy from a statist, insulated system to a more private-sector, market-based model. The reforms spurred growth, but growth was punctuated by sharp recessions and financial crises in 1994, 1999, and 2001. Turkey's failure to pursue additional reforms, combined with large and growing public sector deficits, resulted in high inflation, increasing macroeconomic volatility, and a weak banking sector.




Large IMF loans — tied to implementation of ambitious economic reforms — enabled Turkey to stabilize interest rates and the currency and to meet its debt obligations. In 2002 and 2003, the reforms began to show results. With the exception of a period of market jitters in the run-up to the Iraq war, inflation and interest rates have fallen significantly, the currency has stabilized, and confidence has begun to return. Nonetheless, the economy remains very fragile, and continued implementation of reforms is essential to sustain growth and stability. On July 29, 2004 the IMF cleared a further disbursement totalling 661 million dollars, as part of an economic aid package approved two years earlier.



On January 1st 2005 the Turkish Lira was replaced by the New Turkish Lira, at an exchange rate of 1 new lira to 1,000,000 old. This was to demonstrate the stablisation achieved by the currency in recent years, and to help promote exchange, investment and trade.





The largest group of non-Turkic ethnicity are the Kurds, a distinct ethnic group concentrated in the southeast. The 1965 census determined that 7.1% of the population used Kurdish as their primary language and the knowledge of the language was stated by the 12.7% of the population in total, but there are many Turkish-speaking Kurds. According to the CIA fact book [2], 20% of the population are estimated to be ethnic Kurds. However, there are no hard figures for the Kurdish population available.














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