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Fact
Sheet :
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Area : 780,580
sq km
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Population :
71,158,647 (July 2007 est.)
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Capital : Ankara
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Languages : Turkish
(official)
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Currency : Turkish
lira (TRL)
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Government type : republican
parliamentary democracy
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Elements of History :
Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Turkish 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 leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of largely 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 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.
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Climate :
temperate;
hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters; harsher in interior
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