About Turkey
Turkey, a bridge between Asia and Europe, has a very rich cultural heritage. Perhaps no other land has witnessed so many diverse civilizations over the last nine thousand years. Istanbul holds the honor of having been the capital of two huge empires, first the Byzantine then the Ottoman. Turkey today still holds a very strategic position on the world map. This vast land of over 65 million people has tackled the challenges of the future through its journey along the road towards modernization, secularism and democracy. Today, it has a vigorous society, a dynamic economy, an active political life and great confidence in its future.
Geographical Situation
Turkey is located in an area where the Asian, European and African continents come very close to each other, and surrounded from west to east by Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan (Nakhichevan), Iran, Iraq and Syria. Geographically, the country is in the northern half of the hemisphere at a point that is about halfway between the equator and the north pole, at a longitude of 36 degrees N to 42 degrees N and a latitude of 26 degrees E to 45 degrees E.
Turkey has been separated into seven large geographical regions by taking into consideration the factors such as climate, natural plant distribution and types of agriculture: the Mediterranean, Aegean, Black Sea, Marmara, Central Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia Regions.
The actual surface area of Turkey inclusive of its lakes and rivers, is 814,578 square km of which 97 percent (790,200 km2) is on the Asian continent that is usually called Anatolia, and 3 percent (24,378 km2) is located in Thrace on the European continent. Turkey's coastlines, which encompass her on 3 sides with the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. There is also an important internal Sea, the Sea of Marmara between the straits of Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, important water ways that connect the Black Sea with the rest of the world. The length of the coastline is 8,333 km and the length of the land borders is 2,875 km.
There are many rivers and streams in Turkey. A large portion of these rivers are used for energy production. The main mountain ranges in Turkey, which is a mountainous country, generally extend parallel to the coasts to the north and to the south. The Great Agrı (Mount Ararat) Mountain, is the highest pick (5,137 m) mentioned in the Bible as the place where the Noah's ark came to rest, in Turkey.
The coastal regions have moderate maritime climate while the internal regions surrounded by mountains have a continental climate. The Mediterranean Region, which is under the influence of the Mediterranean climate, has hot and arid summers and mild and rainy winters. This Mediterranean climate also manifests itself in the Aegean Region and in the South of the Marmara Region. The Black Sea Region is dominated by a more moderate and rainy maritime climate. In the interior regions, the summers are hot and slightly rainy and the winters are cold and snowy with limited precipitation. Turkey also has a great variety of wild animals, with over 110 species of mammals. Some 400 species of native or migratory birds live in Turkey, some of which are considered endangered species and not available in Europe.
Population
The population of Turkey is 62.5 million (mid-year population) of which 50.54 % is male according to the result of the General Population census made in 1997. However, almost half of the population is concentrated in the coastalregions. Turkey is one of the countries with the most rapid process of urbanization in the world. There is a great migration into the cities from rural areas, and urban population has been gradually increasing. Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir are the largest provinces in terms of population. The annual Official Language of Turkey is Turkish. The Turkish spoken in Turkey represents the southwestern branch of the Turkish language community within the Ural-Altaic language branch. Turkish is the 7th most spoken and widespread language among the average of 4,000 languages spoken in the world today. More than 200 million people speak Turkish all over the world. Turkish alphabet is Latin alphabet which is accepted in 1928.
Politics
The Republic of Turkey has a unitary state structure. This unitary state structure comes from the National Pact of 1920, which was accepted during the War of Independence. There is unity of the legislative, executive, judicial, legal and code of laws in the state. To provide this unity is under the authority and responsibility of the central administration. The unitary state has been organized in the form of the central administration and the local administration. The Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) is composed of 550 deputies. The Member of Parliament elections are held once every five years. The deputies represent the entire nation when they started their duties. The (TGNA), adopts, amends and abrogates the laws, supervises the council of Ministers and ministers, gives the authority to the Council of Ministers to promulgate decrees having the force of law and adopts the budget and final account draft laws.
The executive organ is composed of the President and Council of Ministers. The administrative unit is also in the executive section of the Constitution and some administrative units are also included in this section. The President is the Head of the State. He/she represents the Republic of Turkey and the unity of the Turkish Nation in this capacity. The Parliament members of the TGNA elect the president. The president protects the application of the Constitution and organized and coordinated work of the state organs.
The president appoints the Prime Minister and the Ministers upon the proposal of the Prime Minister. The Council of Ministers is composed of the Prime Minister and the Ministers. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President from among the members of the parliament. The Ministers are chosen by the Prime Minister from among the deputies or from among those eligible for election as deputies and they are appointed by the president. The members of the Council of Ministers are jointly responsible for the executive of the general policies. Currently there are 35 ministries including the Prime Ministry.
The Judicial power in Turkey is exercised by the independent Court and Supreme Judiciary Organs. The Judicial section in the Constitution, by taking the principle of the legal state as the basis, has been placed on the foundation of the independence of the courts and the judges.
The organization and function of the Administration are based on the principle of centralization and local administration. The central administration in Turkey has been structured in the form of provinces (81), countries, sub-districts and villages. The local administrations are the special provincial administrations, the towns and the villages.
Education and Science
According to the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey,everyone has the right to receive education.The objective of education is to educate individuals: - who adopt the values of the Turkish nation, - who know the duties and responsibilities to their country and have made them a part of their behaviour,- who can produce knowledge, can utilize the knowledge and technology produced, and - who are democratic citizens and respect human rights.
The Turkish National Educational System is composed of two main sections: Non-formal Education and Formal Education. Formal Education means the school system and is composed of; - Pre-school Education, - Primary Education, - Secondary Education, and - Higher Education. Non-formal Education includes all the activities organized outside the school or alongside the school. Economy
Turkey is a NATO member country and at the same time plays an active role on the subject of developing multilateral economic cooperation among the Islamic countries. Turkey has been accepted as a candidate country for EU full membership in 1999 at the Helsinki European Council.
Turkey's economy is very dynamic, and it has been growing rapidly after the Second World War due to the high performance of the growth rate (8.3 % in 1997) which is higher than that of the world economy. According to the World Trade Organization report (1997), Turkey was in 21st place among the countries with the most rapidly increasing volume of foreign trade.
In recent years, significant progress has been made especially in the exports of services. Turkey realizes 1.2 percent of the total world exports of services. Tourism, transportation, banking, construction and communications are among the most important services with in the exports of services in Turkey.
Turkey traditionally has more trade with the OECD countries. The share of the OECD countries export was 59.3 percent and the share of the OECD countries in Turkey's imports was 71.7 percent. The EU countries have an important place in the OECD. As a matter of fact, 49.7 percent of Turkey's total exports in 1996 and 46.7 percent in 1997 were made to the EU countries.
Export & import amount to/from Japan in 1998 are 113 and 2,046 millions of dollars, respectively, and which are constituted as 0.42 and 4.46 percents in total. Nowadays, there are about 80 Japanese companies in Turkey.
Turkey, where wonderful historical, cultural and natural beauties are blended together and where these attributes have been maintained until the present, is among the rare tourism paradises in the world. Summer tourism especially is at a developed level in the Mediterranean and the Aegean region of Turkey. Sufficient infrastructure services and modern facilities for tourism have been established in these regions. The encouragement of the tourism sector in Turkey also caused the number of tourists coming to Turkey to increase. The number of tourists visiting Turkey in 1998 reached around 10 million. The net tourism revenues have exceeded 5 billion USD in 1998.
Turkish Cuisine
Fully justifying its reputation, Turkish cuisine is always a pleasant for the visitor. The cuisine is a happy mixture of thee culinary traditions of an essentially pastoral people originating from Central Asia and the acquisitions made through contact with the Mediterranean world. In addition to being the refined product of experience, Turkish cuisine has a very pure quality. This stems from the superb freshness of the fruit, vegetables, meat and fish utilized in a country that produces all its own foodstuffs. The variety and simplicity of the recipes and the quality of the ingredients are the guarantee of delicious meals.
Lamb is the basic meat of the Turkish kitchen and figures on all menus. Pieces of lamb threaded on a skewer and grilled over charcoal is the famous ''Sis Kebab'', now known in many countries of the world. ''Doner Kebab'', another famous Turkish dish, consist of pieces of lamb packed tightly around a vertical revolving spit in front of a charcoal grill. Fish and shellfish are very fresh, and one should nor forget to sample ''Barbunya'' (red mullet) and ''Kılıc Balıgı'' (swordfish).
The most famous ''Meze'' or hors d'oeuvre are the ''Dolma'', a name applied to vegetables such as peppers, aubergines, vine leaves and cabbages leaves stuffed with rice, pine nuts and currants. Also there are the ''Zeytinyaglı'' dishes of cold vegetables in olive oil, including the famous ''Imambayıldı'' meaning ''the priest fainted with pleasure'' a dish of aubergines stuffed with fried tomatoes, onions and garlic. The delicious Turkish natural Yoghourt is justifiably renowned. It is an ingredient of many dishes and when whisked with cold water it forms the refreshing popular drink ''Ayran''. The aubergine deserves a special mention as perhaps being the cardinal vegetable of the Turkish kitchen. It is said that there are over forty ways of preparing the aubergine, from ''Hunkar Begendi''(aubergine puree with casseroled lamb) and ''Karnıyarık'' (aubergine stuffed with minced meat) to ''Patlıcan Dolması'' (aubergine stuffed with rice, pine nuts and currants). One of the great specialities of the Turkish kitchen are the ''Pilav'' or pilafs of rice or cracked wheat. The ''Borek'' are pies of filo pastry of flaky pastry stuffed with meat or cheese.
Turkish desserts fall into two basic groups; those basedon milk such as ''Sutlac'' (rice pudding) and "Kazandibi'' (chicken breast pudding) and those made from various pastries soaked in syrup such as ''Baklava'' (flaky pastry stuffed with nuts in syrup) and ''Tel Kadayıf'' (sheredded wheat stuffed with nuts in syrup). Many of these desserts are topped by ''Kaymak'', the thick Turkish cream. As if the sight of these desserts is not tempting enough, many of them have seductive names, such as ''Hanım Göbegi'' (lady's navel) and ''Dilber dudagı'' (lips of a beauty). In summer many prefer to end their meal with the luscious fruits of the country; grapes, peaches, apricots, figs or a slice of red or yellow melon.
Among alcoholic drinks are the light Turkish beer, excellent red and white wines and the national drink ''Rakı'' (anisette), which clouds when water is added giving it the popular name of ''Lion's Milk''. The drinking of rakı is a veritable rite in itself, and it is traditionally accompanied by a variety of ''Meze'' (hors d'oeuvre).
