NationMaster - Statistics on Turkey. facts and figures, stats and information on Turkish economy, crime, people, government, health and education. 38 maps and 123 flags

Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives. After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK increased. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community; over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy enabling it to begin accession membership talks with the European Union.

Alternative names:

Turkey, Republic of Turkey, Turkiye Cumhuriyeti, Turkiye

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Maps of Turkey

Turkey: Administrative Divisions	Turkey (Shaded Relief) 1983	Adana, Turkey	Turkey
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COMMENTARY

Edda 24th November 2009	Turkey is definitely NOT a Middle Eastern country. Turkey has no ties with that region other than having the same religion. Turks are NOT Arabs, they have no common history with the Middle Easterners, no similar language, etc.. Every other website (including European Union websites) consider Turkey as a European country (and it is). Turkey being in this category shows the lack of required knowledge this website administrators have.
TOSUN 3rd July 2009	Second answer for Mithat Yavlum. You say that turks are not european by race, language, origin. Who are ? Are germans european ? or French ? All those people are descendants of nomadic barbaric tribes coming from the steppes to the Roman Territory. Furthermore, any linguistic authority can explain you that Turkish is in the same european language family tree along with Persian (Iranian).
Tosun 3rd July 2009	Mithat Yavlum. You say that Turkey is not a European country claiming that it has only a small region in Europe. Geographically you seem to be right. Turkey really has its 97% of land area in near east. But you know what. That remaining 3% "small" land area is still larger than several other European countries (Belgium, Netherlands,Luxembourg vice versa). These sentences are written by Tosun....
M. Sevim 24th June 2009	Turks are not Mongolians, this is not more than a blame of people who do not like Turks! Visit the following Wikipedia page about the genetic origins of the Turkish people for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_origins_of_the_Turkish_people
bilgi-sa bilişim 23rd June 2009	Hakkari, Türkiye
Professor 21st June 2009	Turkey is not in the Middle East. Turkey is in the Near East. Get your facts right! I will not address the several other minor but common misconceptions and indoctrinations stated in this article because I do not have time to rewrite other's people's work.
Staff Editor 5th April 2006	Staff response to Oscar, comment posted on 2005-06-25 16:10:12 hungarians are not considered to be mongoloid, because they moved from Mongolia in the 9th century so they more than 1100 years to get mixed with other races, mostly because Hungary was always invaded by other nations: turks, tartars, austrians, russians.
Theresa Riles 12th September 2005	To me you should add more facts about cultures, languages, religions, ethnicities and land forms /bodies of water. I think more kids would come and get help for projects. Thank You.
Oscar 14th July 2005	Turkey has been part of Europe since the 14th century. Like Hungarians, Turks come from Central Asia. The only difference between them is mainly geography. Hungarians are Turks although w/o the Greek and Armenian mixture; thus, they have lighter skin. However, the region that you refer to as 'Turkey' was also part of the Macedonian, Roman, and Byzantine Empire.
lila m. calarck 11th May 2005	im doing a report on turkek can u help me it's due 05/20/05
Typsi 3rd April 2005	An error was made. Its Byzantine not Byzantinian.
Oscar 1st April 2005	You seem to believe that Cyprus belongs to Turkey because it is geographically closer to Cyprus than Greece. But the region you refer to as 'Turkey' was actually part of Greece, Asia Minor, until Mongoloids from Central Asia invaded, occupied and massacred millions of Greeks. Asia Minor was part of Greece in exactly the same Cyprus was. Genocide against Hellenes perpetrated by Mongoloid-Turks in Asia Minor was conducted more efficiently than in Cyprus, this is why Cyprus remains Hellenic today and why unfortunately Asia Minor is not.
Edria Murray Staff editor 29th March 2005	In response to Ali: The land which forms modern day Turkey has a long history of human habitation. Early settlements in the Anatolian Plateau date back to the Bronze and Copper ages. Settlement by the Hittites, Phrygians, Mysians, Persians and others followed until 129BC when Rome established the province of Asia. In 330AD, the emperor Constantine dedicated Constantinople (now Istanbul) to be the "new Rome" and as the Western part of the Roman empire was breaking down, the Eastern Roman (Byzantinian) empire grew in Strength. The Selçuk Turkish empire (based in Persia) took over most of Anatolia in the eleventh century. In 1288, the Ottoman empire began near Bursa and continued until World War I. During the war, the Ottomans fought with Germany and the Central Powers. With their defeat, the Ottoman empire collapsed. Mustafa Kemal began organising resistance to Greek invasion on 19 May 1919. The Turkish war of independence followed from 1920 to 1922. Victory in this war strengthened Mustafa Kemal's command. The sultanate was soon abolished and after it the Ottoman empire. The Turkish Republic was declared on 29 October 1923.
Yalin Can Ates 22nd January 2005	Cilician: An ancient region of southeast Asia Minor along the Mediterranean Sea south of the Taurus Mountains. The area was conquered by Alexander the Great and later became part of the Roman Empire. It was the site of an independent Armenian state from 1080 to 1375.