TURKEY
GEOGRAPHY
Total area: 780,580 km2; land area: 770,760 km2
Comparative area: slightly larger than Texas
Land boundaries: 2,715 km total; Bulgaria 240 km, Greece 206 km,
Iran 499 km, Iraq 331 km, Syria 822 km, USSR 617 km
Coastline: 7,200 km
Maritime claims:
Exclusive economic zone: in Black Sea only--to the maritime
boundary agreed upon with the USSR;
Territorial sea: 6 nm in the Aegean Sea, 12 nm in Black Sea and
Mediterranean Sea
Disputes: complex maritime and air (but not territorial)
disputes with Greece in Aegean Sea; Cyprus question; Hatay question
with Syria; ongoing dispute with downstream riparians (Syria and
Iraq) over water development plans for the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers; Kurdish question among Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and
the USSR
Climate: temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters;
harsher in interior
Terrain: mostly mountains; narrow coastal plain; high central
plateau (Anatolia)
Land use: arable land 30%; permanent crops 4%; meadows and
pastures 12%; forest and woodland 26%; other 28%; includes
irrigated 3%
Environment: subject to severe earthquakes, especially along
major river valleys in west; air pollution; desertification
Note: strategic location controlling the Turkish straits
(Bosporus, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean
Seas; Turkey and Norway only NATO members having a land boundary
with the USSR
PEOPLE
Population: 58,580,993 (July 1991), growth rate 2.2% (1991)
Birth rate: 28 births/1,000 population (1991)
Death rate: 6 deaths/1,000 population (1991)
Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1991)
Infant mortality rate: 54 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)
Life expectancy at birth: 68 years male, 72 years female (1991)
Total fertility rate: 3.6 children born/woman (1991)
Nationality: noun--Turk(s); adjective--Turkish
Ethnic divisions: Turkish 80%, Kurdish 17%, other 3% (est.)
Religion: Muslim (mostly Sunni) 99.8%, other (Christian and
Jews) 0.2%
Language: Turkish (official), Kurdish, Arabic
Literacy: 81% (male 90%, female 71%) age 15 and over can
read and write (1990 est.)
Labor force: 18,800,000; agriculture 56%, services 30%,
industry 14%; about 1,000,000 Turks work abroad (1987)
Independence: 29 October 1923 (successor state to the Ottoman
Empire)
Constitution: 7 November 1982
Legal system: derived from various continental legal systems;
accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
National holiday: Anniversary of the Declaration of the Republic,
29 October (1923)
Executive branch: president, Presidential Council, prime minister,
deputy prime minister, Cabinet
Legislative branch: unicameral Grand National Assembly (Buyuk
Millet Meclisi)
Judicial branch: Court of Cassation
Leaders:
Chief of State--President Turgut OZAL (since 9 November 1989);
Head of Government--Prime Minister Mesut YILMAZ (since 30
June 1991); Deputy Prime Minister Ekrem PAKDAMIRLI (since 30 June
1991)
Political parties and leaders:
Motherland Party (ANAP), Mesut YILMAZ;
Social Democratic People's Party (SHP), Erdal INONU;
Correct Way Party (DYP), Suleyman DEMIREL;
People's Labor Party (HEP), Fehmi ISIKLAR;
Socialist Unity Party (SBP), leader NA;
Democratic Center Party (DMP), Bedrettin DALAN;
Great Anatolia Party (BAP), leader NA;
Democratic Left Party (DSP), Bulent ECEVIT;
Refah Party (RP), Necmettin ERBAKAN;
Democratic Center Party (DSP), Bedrettin DALAN;
Grand National Party (GNP), leader NA
Suffrage: universal at age 21
Elections:
Grand National Assembly--last held 29 November 1987
(next to be held November 1992);
results--ANAP 36%, SHP 25%, DYP 19%, other 20%;
seats--(450 total) ANAP 275, SHP 82, DYP 60, HEP 9, SBP 4,
DMP 2, BAP 1, independent 6, vacant 11
Communists: strength and support negligible
Member of: AsDB, BIS, CCC, CE, CERN (observer), COCOM, CSCE, EBRD,
ECE, FAO, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, IDA, IDB, IEA, IFAD, IFC,
ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LORCS,
NATO, NEA, OECD, OIC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
UNIIMOG, UNRWA, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Diplomatic representation: Ambassador Nuzhet KANDEMIR; Chancery at
1606 23rd Street NW, Washington DC 20008; telephone (202) 387-3200;
there are Turkish Consulates General in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles,
and New York;
US--Ambassador Morton ABRAMOWITZ; Embassy at 110 Ataturk Boulevard,
Ankara (mailing address is APO New York 09257-0006);
telephone 90 (4) 126 54 70; there are US Consulates General in
Istanbul and Izmir, and a Consulate in Adana
Flag: 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: The economic reforms that Turkey launched in 1980
continue to bring an impressive stream of benefits. The economy has grown
steadily since the early 1980s, with real growth in per capita GDP
increasing more than 6% annually. Agriculture remains the most important
economic sector, employing about 55% of the labor force, accounting for
almost 20% of GDP, and contributing about 20% to exports. Impressive
growth in recent years has not solved all of the economic problems facing
Turkey. Inflation and interest rates remain high, and a large budget
deficit will continue to provide difficulties for a country undergoing a
substantial transformation from a centrally controlled to a free market
economy. The government has launched a multimillion-dollar development
program in the southeastern region, which includes the building of a
dozen dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to generate electric power
and irrigate large tracts of farmland. The planned tapping of huge
additional quantities of Euphrates water has raised serious concern in
the downstream riparian nations of Syria and Iraq.
GDP: $178.0 billion, per capita $3,100; real growth rate 7.6%
(1990)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 60.3% (1990)
Unemployment rate: 10.4% (1990 est.)
Budget: revenues $27.6 billion; expenditures $34.4 billion,
including capital expenditures of $6.6 billion (1991)
Exports: $11.8 billion (f.o.b., 1989);
commodities--industrial products 78%, crops and livestock
products 20%;
partners--FRG 18%, Italy 8%, Iraq 8%, US 8%, UK 5%, France 4%
Imports: $16.0 billion (f.o.b., 1989);
commodities--crude oil, machinery, transport equipment, metals,
pharmaceuticals, dyes, plastics, rubber, mineral fuels, fertilizers,
chemicals;
partners--FRG 15%, US 11%, Iraq 10%, Italy 7%, France 6%, UK 5%
External debt: $42.8 billion (June 1990)
Industrial production: growth rate 5.9% (1989 est.); accounts
for 32% of GDP
Electricity: 14,315,000 kW capacity; 41,000 million kWh produced,
720 kWh per capita (1990)
Agriculture: accounts for 20% of GDP and employs majority of
population; products--tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets,
pulses, citrus fruit, variety of animal products; self-sufficient in
food most years
Illicit drugs: one of the world's major suppliers of licit opiate
products; government maintains strict controls over areas of opium poppy
cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate
Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $2.3
billion; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments
(1970-87), $8.6 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $665 million;
Communist countries (1970-89), $4.5 billion
Civil air: 39 major transport aircraft (1990)
Airports: 115 total, 109 usable; 64 with permanent-surface runways;
3 with runways over 3,659 m; 30 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 26 with
runways 1,220-2,439 m
Telecommunications: fair domestic and international systems; trunk
radio relay network; 3,400,000 telephones; stations--15 AM; 45 (60
repeaters) FM; 67 (504 repeaters) TV; satellite communications
ground stations operating in the INTELSAT (2 Atlantic Ocean) and EUTELSAT
systems; 1 submarine telephone cable
DEFENSE FORCES
Branches: Land Forces, Navy (including Naval Air and Naval
Infantry), Air Force, Coast Guard, Gendarmerie
Manpower availability: males 15-49, 14,861,358; 9,083,559 fit for
military service; 606,871 reach military age (20) annually
Defense expenditures: $5.6 billion, 5% of GDP (1990)
