Turkey is located in Europe (3 % of the country) and Asia (97 % of the country). The European part of Turkey is called Thrace, while the Asian part is called Anatolia. The country borders on Bulgaria, Greece, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Iraq and Syria. There is a total of 8,333 km of coastline. Turkey has 81 provinces and seven geographical regions. The provinces, which have the same names as their headquarter cities, are: Adana, Adiyaman, Afyon, Agri, Aksaray, Amasya, Ankara, Antalaya, Ardahan, Artvin, Aydin, Balikesir, Bartin, Batman, Bayburt, Bilecik, Bingol, Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Canakkale, Cankiri, Corum, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Duzce, Edrine, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Hatay, Igdir, Isparta, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Karabuk, Karaman, Kars, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kirikkale, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Kilis, Kocaeli, Konya, Kutahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Mugla, Mus, Nevsehir, Nigde, Ordu, Osmaniye, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Siirt, Sinop, Sivas, Sanliurfa, Sirnak, Tekirdag, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Usak, Van, Yalova, Yozgat, and Zonguldak. Of the seven regions, four carry the names of the seas which are adjacent to them. They are: the Black Sea Region, the Aegean Region, the Mediterranean Region and the Marmara Region. The other three regions are named according to their location in Anatolia: the Central Anatolia Region, the Eastern Anatolia Region, and the South-eastern Anatolia Region. Turkey’s major cities are: Istanbul, with 11 million inhabitants, Ankara with 4 million, Izmir with 3.4 million, Bursa with 2.1 million, Konya with 2.2 million and Adana with 1.8 million. In the year 2000, Turkey led the world in the production of hard-shell nuts, figs and apricots, and was the fourth biggest producer of fresh vegetables, grapes and tobacco. During the last 25 years the level of economic prosperity in the country has risen.

Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (also known as  "Father of the Turks."), from the remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire.

The country's largest minority, the Kurds, has posed the most serious and most persistent challenge to the official image of a homogeneous society. During the 1930s and 1940s, the government had disguised the presence of the Kurds statistically by categorising them as "Mountain Turks." With official encouragement, some scholars even suggested that Kurdish, an Indo-European language closely related to Persian, was a dialect of Turkish. By the 1980s, the “Mountain Turk” label had been dropped in favour of a new euphemism for Kurds: "Eastern Turks". Officials were prosecuted after preparing guidelines for the 1985 census that instructed enumerators to list Kurdish, when appropriate, as a language spoken in addition to Turkish. The 1982 constitution includes a seemingly contradictory policy on the use of non-Turkish languages. Whereas one article prohibits discrimination on the basis of language, other articles ban the public use of languages "prohibited by law." Although legislation forbidding the use of specific languages has never been enacted, many Kurdish citizens were arrested prior to 1991 on charges relating to the public use of Kurdish. Although speaking or reading Kurdish is no longer cause for arrest, at an official level there remains an entrenched bias against the use of Kurdish. At the end of 1994, for example, imprisoned Kurds still were required to communicate with their lawyers and visiting family members in Turkish, even if they did not speak or understand that language. In a holdover from the Ottoman system of millets, Turks traditionally have tended to consider all Sunni Muslims as Turks and to regard non-Sunni Muslim speakers of Turkish as non-Turks. The revival of popular interest in religion since the early 1980s has reinvigorated popular prejudices against religious minorities, especially adherents of the Shia Muslim sect, and the Alevi, most of whom are ethnic Kurds or Arabs. Also, since 1984 the extensive migration of Kurds from the predominantly Kurdish and rural provinces of the south-east to the cities of western Turkey has resulted in the emergence of a relatively strong, urban-based Kurdish ethnic consciousness and popular resentment of the Kurds' presence among ethnic Turks. Turkey's largest non-Turkish ethnic group, the Kurds, are concentrated in 11 provinces of the south-east. There are also isolated Kurdish villages in other parts of Turkey. Kurds have been migrating to Istanbul for centuries, and since 1960 they have migrated to almost all other urban centres as well. There are Kurdish neighbourhoods, for example, in many of the shantytowns which have grown up around large cities in western Turkey. About half of all Kurds worldwide live in Turkey. Most of the rest live in adjacent regions in Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Turkey's censuses do not list Kurds as a separate ethnic group. Consequently, there is no reliable data on their total numbers. In 1995 estimates of the number of Kurds in Turkey ranged from 6 million to 12 million. Because of the size of the Kurdish population, the Kurds are perceived as the only minority that could pose a threat to Turkish national unity. Indeed, there has been an active Kurdish separatist movement in south-eastern Turkey since 1984. The government's main strategy for assimilating the Kurds has been language suppression. Yet despite official attempts over several decades to spread Turkish among them, most Kurds have retained their native language. In Turkey two major Kurdish dialects are spoken: Kermanji, which is used by the majority of Kurds, as well as by some of the Kurds in Iran and Iraq; and Zaza, spoken mainly in a triangular region in south-eastern Turkey between Diyarbakir, Ezurum, and Sivas, as well as in parts of Iran. Literate Kurds in Turkey have used Kermanji as the written form of Kurdish since the seventeenth century. However, almost all literary development of the language since 1924 has occurred outside Turkey. In 1932 Kurds in exile developed a Latin script for Kermanji, and this alphabet continued to be used in the mid-1990s. Prior to the 1980 military coup, government authorities considered Kurdish one of the unnamed languages banned by law. Use of Kurdish was strictly prohibited in all government institutions, including courts and schools. Nevertheless, during the 1960s and again in the mid-1970s, Kurdish intellectuals attempted to start Kurdish-language journals and newspapers. None of these publications survived for more than a few issues because state prosecutors inevitably found legal pretexts for closing them down. Between 1980 and 1983, the military government passed several laws expressly banning the use of Kurdish and the possession of written or audio materials in Kurdish. The initiation of armed insurrection by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (Partiya Karkere Kurdistan - PKK) in 1984, along with increasing international media interest in the Kurds of Iraq beginning in the mid-1980s, compelled some members of Turkey's political elite to question government policy toward the country's Kurdish population. Turgut Özal, who became prime minister in 1983 and president in 1989, broke the official taboo on using the term Kurd by referring publicly to the people of eastern Anatolia as Kurds. Subsequently, independent Turkish newspapers began using the term and discussing the political and economic problems in the 11 predominantly Kurdish provinces. In 1991 Özal supported a bill that revoked the ban on the use of Kurdish and possession of materials in Kurdish. However, as of 1995, the use of Kurdish in government institutions such as courts and schools was still prohibited. In 1995 Turkey's ethnic Arab population was estimated at 800,000 to 1 million. The Arabs are heavily concentrated along the Syrian border, especially in Hatay Province, which France, having at that time mandatory power in Syria, ceded to Turkey in 1939. Arabs then constituted about two-thirds of the population of Hatay (known to the Arabs as Alexandretta), and the province has remained predominantly Arab. Almost all of the Arabs in Turkey are Alevi Muslims, and most have family ties with the Alevi (also seen as Alawi or Alawite) living in Syria. As Alevi, the Arabs of Turkey believe they are subjected to state-condoned discrimination. Fear of persecution actually prompted several thousand Arab Alevi to seek refuge in Syria following Hatay's incorporation into Turkey. The kinship relations established as a result of the 1939-40 emigration have been continually reinforced by marriages and the practice of sending Arab youths from Hatay to colleges in Syria. Since the mid-1960s, the Syrian government has tended to encourage educated Alevi to resettle in Syria, especially if they seem likely to join the ruling Baath Party. The tiny Armenian minority, estimated at 40,000 in 1995, is also a remnant of a once-larger community. Before World War I, some 1.5 million Armenians lived in eastern Anatolia. In 1915 the Ottoman government ordered all Armenians deported from eastern Anatolia; at least 600,000 Armenians died during a forced march southward during the winter of 1915-16. Armenians believe – but Turks deny - that the catastrophe that befell their community was the result of atrocities committed by Turkish soldiers following government directives. Armenians outside Turkey refer to the deaths of 1915-16 as an instance of genocide, and over the years various Armenian political groups have sought to avenge the tragedy by carrying out terrorist attacks against Turkish diplomats and officials abroad. Most Armenians living in Turkey are concentrated in and around Istanbul. Like the Greeks, they are bankers and merchants with extensive international contacts. The Armenians support their own newspapers and schools. They are intensely attached to their Christian faith and their identity as Armenians rather than Turks. In addition, they have relatives in the Armenian diaspora throughout the world. The establishment of an independent Armenia on Turkey's eastern border following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a source of ethnic pride for the Armenians of Turkey. However, Armenia's conflict with Turkic Azerbaijan, combined with the jingoistic support of Azerbaijan in the Turkish media, has raised apprehensions among the Armenian minority about their future status in Turkey. In 1995 fewer than 20,000 Greeks still lived in Turkey. Most of them are Greek Orthodox Christians and live in Istanbul or on the two islands of Gökçeada (Imroz) and Bozca Ada (Tenedos), off the western entrance to the Dardanelles. They are the remnants of an estimated 200,000 Greeks who were permitted under the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne to remain in Turkey following the 1924 population exchange, which involved the forcible resettlement of approximately 2 million Greeks from Anatolia. Since 1924 the status of the Greek minority in Turkey has been ambiguous. Most Turks do not accept the country's Greek citizens as their equals. Beginning in the 1930s, the government encouraged the Greeks to emigrate, and thousands, in particular the educated youth, did so, reducing the Greek population to about 48,000 by 1965. Although the size of the Greek minority has continued to decline, the Greek citizens of Turkey generally constitute one of the country's wealthiest communities. In 1995 an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 Jews lived in Turkey. During the first half of the twentieth century, the Jewish population remained relatively stable at around 90,000. Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, an estimated 30,000 Jews immigrated to the new state. An average of 1,000 Jews annually left for Israel during the 1950s and early 1960s. By 1965 the Jewish minority had been reduced to an estimated 44,000, most of whom lived in Istanbul, where many Jewish men operated shops and other small businesses. Unlike the Armenians and Greeks, the Jewish minority is neither ethnically nor linguistically homogeneous. Most of its members are Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were expelled from Spain by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1492. They speak Ladino, a variant of 15th century Spanish with borrowings from several other languages. The Ashkenazic minority - Jews from central and northern Europe - speak Yiddish, a German-derived language. Both languages are written in the Hebrew script. Most Jews also speak Turkish. The Karaites - viewed by most other Jews as heretics - speak Greek as their native language. In general, the different Jewish communities have tended not to intermarry and thus have retained their identities. Turkey is a parliamentary democracy. The unicameral Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) has 550 seats, and members are elected by popular vote to serve for a five-year term. Every Turkish citizen over the age of 25 is eligible to be a deputy, provided that he or she has completed primary education and has not been convicted of a serious crime or been involved in "ideological and anarchistic activities". Legislative elections were last held on 3 November 2002 (the next are to be held in 2007). Note - a special rerun of the general election in the province of Siirt on 9 March 2003 resulted in the election of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to a seat in Parliament, a prerequisite for becoming prime minister, which he did on 14 March 2003. The cabinet (Council of Ministers) is appointed by the president on the nomination of the prime minister. Head of state is the  president, since 16 May 2000 Ahmet Necdet Sezer. The president is elected by the Grand National Assembly for a seven-year term. Elections were last held on 5 May 2000 (the next are to be held in May 2007). The judiciary consists of the Constitutional Court, the High Court of Appeals, the Council of State, the Court of Accounts, the Military High Court of Appeals and the Military High Administrative Court. The founder of modern Turkey is Mustapha Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938), who launched a reform programme under which Turkey abandoned much of its Ottoman and Islamic heritage, and proclaimed itself the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. Turkey has included secularism in its constitution and guarantees complete freedom of worship to non-Muslims. Turkey invaded Cyprus on 20 July 1974, and by 16 August 1974 Turkish forces occupied 40% of the island (in the north-east). Cyprus remains divided in two: the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish-controlled part of the island (the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” or “TRNC” or Kuzey Kibris Türk Cumhuriyeti), which declared independence on 15 November 1983 and which is only recognised by Turkey. The doctrine of “Kemalism” has been used by the military to justify three coups in the country since 1960. The Justice Party (AP), which influenced Turkish political life in the 1960s and the 1970s, was established on 11 February 1961. The first chairman of the party was Ret. General Ragip Gümüspala. Süleyman Demirel, former director general of the State Water Works, was elected new AP chairman when Ragip Gümüspala passed away in 1964. The AP received 53% of the vote in the 1965 elections and came to power by obtaining a majority in Parliament. During the same elections, the Turkish Labour Party (TIP) participated for the first time and obtained 15 parliamentary seats. On 12 March 1971, a joint memorandum by the chief of general staff and four military force commanders called for the formation “of a non-partisan government of national consensus in which all political parties would participate so that the necessary reforms with a Kemalist perception could be implemented” and “terrorism and anarchy could be prevented”. This was the start of the “12 March period”. Secretary General of the CHP party Bülent Ecevit and his supporters resigned as CHP Central Executive Board members because they disagreed with President Ismet Inönü over party policy regarding the 12 March occurrence. Inönü resigned during the party’s 1972 general congress, and Ecevit was elected party chairman. During the 1973 elections, which legally ended the 12 March period, no party could obtain an absolute majority in Parliament, but the Ecevit-led CHP attained a majority of votes and formed a coalition government. Süleyman Demirel managed to form a coalition called the "Nationalist Front" (MC), which stayed in power until the 1977 general elections. Demirel ruled over a second MC government in 1977 because no party could obtain an absolute majority, and it remained in power until January 1978. Ecevit’s new government was created with the support of the DP and CGP, as well as 11 deputies who had resigned from the AP. Prime Minister Ecevit resigned and Demirel formed an AP minority government with the support of the MSP and the National Action Party (MHP). The army seized power on 12 September 1980. The chairmen of the AP, CHP, MHP and MSP were taken into custody. A new constitution prepared by the Constitutional Commission was voted on and approved in a public referendum on 7 November 1982. Turgut Özal, who had resigned from government in 1982, established the Motherland Party (ANAP). He won the 1983 election, and the same year Turkey came again under civilian rule. In 1985, European observers were once again permitted to enter the country to check out its human rights situation. Özal succeeded in holding onto power after the 1987 elections. Political bans were removed in a referendum held on 6 September 1986. Ecevit changed parties, becoming president of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), while Alparslan Türkes became president of the Nationalist Working Party (MÇP). Meanwhile, Süleyman Demirel became president of the centre-right True Path (DYP) and Necmettin Erbakan became president of the Welfare Party (RP). Özal was elected president on 9 November 1989, and appointed Yildirim Akbulut prime minister. A new government was formed after Mesut Yilmaz replaced Akbulut as ANAP president in 1991. The Yilmaz government decided to hold early elections in October 1991. A DYP (True Path Party) - SHP (Social Democratic People's Party) coalition was formed by Süleyman Demirel on 20 November 1991. Demirel was elected president when Özal passed away on 17 April 1993. Tansu Çiller replaced Demirel as president of the DYP. Çiller became head of the DYP-SHP coalition government and Turkey's first female prime minister, and she stayed in power until the 25 December 1995 elections. At that time the Islamist Refah (Welfare) Party became the leading party with 21% of the votes. It took advantage of inflation, corruption and unemployment in its election campaign. An ANAP-DYP coalition government was formed on 5 March 1996, with Mesut Yilmaz as prime minister. The government lasted for four months. Then the Refah Party (RP) grouped together with the DYP and an Islamist-led coalition ran the country in June 1996, with RP Chairman Necmettin Erbakan named as prime minister. The National Security Council issued a warning at its 28 February 1997 meeting that the danger of fundamentalism was increasing, and Erbakan resigned under intense military pressure in June 1997. President Demirel gave ANAP Chairman Mesut Yilmaz the job of forming a new government in June 1997. The government was removed from power by an interpellation on 25 November 1998. In the 1999 elections, the social-democratic Democratic Left (DSP) won 22% of the vote, the far-right National Action Party (MHP) 18%, and Virtue 16%. ANAP and DYP won 13 and 12% respectively. The Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HADEP) did not win the 10% of the vote required to send members to the Turkish Parliament, but it did win control of 37 local administrations. Ecevit assembled a coalition of the DSP, MHP, and ANAP and won a vote of confidence in June. Ahmet Necdet Sezer became the 10th president of Turkey - and the first president in recent years who was neither a military leader nor a politician - after Demirel’s term in office expired in 2000. In November 2002, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) swept to power, capturing 363 out of 550 parliamentary seats. In the local 2004 elections the AKP won almost 43% of the vote. The European Union (EU) excluded Turkey from a list of prospective members in 1997, but announced in December 2004 that it will begin membership negotiations in October 2005. Negotiations began on 3 October 2005. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Brussels for the talks. The Independent Commission on Turkey published in September 2004 its report “Turkey in Europe”. In preparation for negotiations, Turkey is trying to incorporate into its legal system and daily life democratic values such as freedom of expression and the equal treatment of minorities. Still there is a gap between decision-making on paper and its reality. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was founded in 1978 as a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group, primarily composed of Turkish Kurds. The group’s goal was to establish an independent, democratic Kurdish state in the Middle East. Turkish authorities captured PKK chairman Abdullah Öcalan in Kenya in 1999. He was wanted in Turkey on charges of murder and terrorism. The Turkish State Security Court subsequently sentenced him to death. In August 1999, Öcalan announced a “peace initiative”, ordering members to refrain from violence. At a PKK Congress in January 2000, members supported Öcalan’s initiative. In April 2002 at its 8th Party Congress, the PKK changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK) and committed to non-violent activities in support of Kurdish rights. In late 2003, KADEK renamed itself Kongra-Gel (KGK) in an attempt to rise above its guerrilla past and become a proper political party. The leading parties in Turkey are: the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Republican People's Party (CHP), the True Path Party (DYP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Youth Party (GP), the Social Democratic People's Party (SHP), the Kurdish People's Democratic Party (DEHAP), the Motherland Party (ANAP), the Felicity Party (SP), the Democratic Left Party (DSP), the New Turkey Party (YTP) and the Grand Unity Party (BBP).