TURKEY

GEOGRAPHY

Turkey is situated at the crossroads of the Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, and eastern Mediterranean. It is among the larger countries of the region in terms of territory and population, and its land area is greater than that of any European state. Nearly all of the country is in Asia, comprising the oblong peninsula of Asia Minor—also known as Anatolia (Anadolu) and, in the east, part of a mountainous region sometimes known as the Armenian Highland. The remainder Turkish Thrace (Trakya) lies in the extreme southeastern part of Europe, a tiny remnant of an empire that once extended over much of the Balkans. The country has a north-south extent that ranges from about 300 to 400 miles (480 to 640 km), and it stretches about 1,000 miles from west to east. Turkey is bounded on the north by the Black Sea, on the northeast by Georgia and Armenia, on the east by Azerbaijan and Iran, on the southeast by Iraq and Syria, on the southwest and west by the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea, and on the northwest by Greece and Bulgaria. The capital is Ankara, and its largest city and seaport is Istanbul.

HISTORY

Turkey was one of the new states that emerged once the Ottoman Empire disintegrated. To know the origin of this Republic we have to move a lot in time, back in 1,900 BC, at which point the Hittites arrived in the Anatolian peninsula founding the first Indo-European state. This town lived its maximum splendor in the year 1450 BC, at which time it expanded considerably and evolved a lot with respect to its first settlements. The struggles with other kingdoms began, and tensions with the Egyptians forced the Hittites to sign the first peace treaty in history, a treaty signed with Ramses II in Kadeshen in 1285 B.C. From the year 1,200 BC the Thracians, among other peoples, began to invade their territories reducing the Hittite empire to small settlements without importance. The arrival of the Persian people in Anatolia became a reality from the 5th century BC. This town displayed all its potential conquest after conquest, even reaching Greece. No one managed to stop their feet until Alexander the Great arrived in 332 BC, at which time Anatolia would be freed from these Persians. With Alexander the Great there was a time of great splendor. Great advances in many fields as well as the impulse of the synthesis between west and east. After the death of Alexander the Great, the kingdom of Pergamos was created. At this time an impressive level was reached as far as civilization is concerned. It was the moment in which the most beautiful cities of all Anatolia were created, cities that today still keep guts of this kingdom. After the last king of Pergamum, the territory would be annexed by the Roman Empire. The contributions that this civilization brought to the entire peninsula are evident. A scientific and architectural development like no other, building true cities in the purest style of the Empire. Constantine, back in 330, decided to move the capital to Constantinople (Istanbul). This is perhaps one of the most important dates in the entire history of Turkey. From that moment on, the official religion of the entire Byzantine state would be Christianity and many temples of worship would be built. However, this empire was also placated by new invaders and later inhabitants. In the year 636 the invasions of the Muslim Arabs began that ended up defeating the Byzantine Empire and settled in Constantinople. The Ottomans came from clans and nomadic tribes that had occupied Central Asia for thousands of years. Droughts and famines caused these tribes, among others, to travel to Anatolia. Finally, after occupying large lands and evolving as a people, the Ottoman Empire emerged in 1288, founded by the Muslim Osmanli. 

The Ottomans boosted the architecture, using their own style and leaving aside their old nomadic condition. Istanbul thus achieved a large number of new buildings, including mosques, bathrooms and schools, among others. The Ottoman Empire remained standing until the end of World War I. After this war, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia and Arabia were lost. In this way Turkey was reduced to what today constitutes the country. Before the concession of Izmir to Greece, an avalanche of Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, began a war for independence, thus ending the expulsion of the Greeks and creating the Republic of Turkey in 1923.

SOCIAL CULTURE AND RELIGION

Language: Turkish: more than one hundred and fifty million people speak Turkish throughout the world. The Turkish language belongs to the same branch as Finnish and Hungarian. Turkish is written with Latin characters. 

Religion: The official and majority religion is Islamism,although there is also a 2% spread between Judaism and Christianity. The state declares itself secular. Within Islamism, the majority is Sunni (78%), while the Alevis make up the remaining 20%. 

Gastronomy: Turkish cuisine includes many different stews of vegetables and meat (lamb and beef primarily); borek , kebab , and dolma dishes; and a sourdough bread eaten with almost every meal. Borek is a pastry made of many thin layers of dough interspersed with cheese, spinach, and/or ground meat. Kebab is the common word for meat roasted in pieces or slices on a skewer or as meatballs on a grill. Dolma is the generic name for dishes made of vegetables (e.g., tomatoes and peppers) and leaves (e.g., grape, cabbage, and eggplant) that are stuffed with or wrapped around rice or bulgur pilaf,The Lycian Rock Tombs of Myra, Turkey.ground meat, and spices. Turks are especially fond of eggplant.

POLITICS

In the referendum that took place on April 16, 2017, the Turkish people chose to change to a presidential political system instead of continuing with the parliamentarian. Therefore, after the elections on Sunday, the figure of the prime minister will disappear and the president will assume the leadership of State and Government. At the moment the head of State is the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the one of Government the first minister Binali Yildrim. Under this system, the president will be able to elect his new cabinet of ministers and will have the capacity to make decrees, although Parliament may replace or cancel them later. In addition, the future president may be investigated for crimes and not only for high treason, unlike the previous system. In turn, the president obtains the ability to dissolve Parliament and call early elections, but must have three-fifths of the votes of the Assembly. 

On the other hand, the country is formally secular and the politics of religion are separated. 

It also has a system of political parties, in which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) has won four consecutive electoral victories since 2002. Opposing parties with parliamentary representation include the center-left part Republican People’s Party( CHP, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), The Turkish and conservative Ultra-nationalist party, Nationalist Action Party( MHP, Miliyetçi Hareket Partisi) and the Democratic Party of the peoples( HDP, Halklarin Demokratik Partisi) of Kurdish nationalist orientation.

ECONOMY

Turkey’s economic and social development performance since 2000 has been impressive, leading to increased employment and incomes and making Turkey an uppermiddle-income country. However, growing economic vulnerabilities and a more challenging external environment are threatening to undermine those achievements. For most of the period since 2000, Turkey has maintained a long-term focus on implementing ambitious reforms in many areas, and government programs have targeted vulnerable groups and disadvantaged regions. 

Poverty incidence more than halved over 2002- 15, and extreme poverty fell even faster.

During this time, Turkey urbanized dramatically, maintained strong macroeconomic and fiscal policy frameworks, opened to foreign trade and finance, harmonized many laws and regulations with European Union (EU) standards, and greatly expanded access to public services. It also recovered well from the global crisis of 2008/09. 

However, there has been a slowdown in reforms in several areas in recent years that, together with a number of economic vulnerabilities, risks reversing some of the progress made to date. 

The economic outlook is subject to higher levels of uncertainty than usual, given rising inflation and unemployment, contracting investment, elevated corporate and financial sector vulnerabilities, and only patchy implementation of corrective policy actions and reforms. 

There are also significant external headwinds due to weakening relationships with some key trading partners, ongoing geopolitical tensions in the subregion, global trade tensions, and concerns about a global recession.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

“The EU will never allow Turkey inside because of its religion and big population”, Erdoğan recently stated. But he should have added that Turkey’s departure from fundamental EU standards makes an entry into the Union impossible. The most recent breaking point of the relationship can be attributed to the failed coup d’état in Turkey in 2016. The perception advanced by Ankara is that the EU did not and still does not understand the seriousness of the failed coup to the country’s security and democracy, and that the EU applied double standards in its condemnation of post-coup actions taken by the government. Amongst the people there is a feeling of abandonment—that European countries don’t really care about Turkey and the trauma that people experienced the night of the coup and in the following days. Following the failed coup the Turkey – EU relations fell into its most difficult period since the accession negotiations were opened for Turkey in 2005, and perhaps even in its history. 

Turkey will have to demonstrate some improvements in its governance system if it wants to see progress in even limited areas such as the Customs Union and visas. 

The European Union is Turkey’s irreplaceable partner for exports, service provision, and foreign direct investment. With regard to foreign direct investment, of which Turkey is in dire need given its economic situation, 63, 4 % came from the EU in the period from January to April (2018), with Austria, the Netherlands, and the U.K. being the top three European sources. 

Consequently, the vital interests of the EU and Turkey are in many areas intertwined, and even if there is an termination of the accession talks, the two parties must find ways to move forward with the relationship. Turkey already has a high degree of functional cooperation with the EU, which takes multiple forms in terms of economic, political, judicial and internal affairs, energy, and environmental cooperation.