Turkey is a country located in the Middle East and Southeastern Europe. It has an area of 783,562 square kilometers and a population of approximately 82 million people. The ethnic composition of Turkey is largely Turkish (77%), with minorities such as Kurds (17%), Arabs (3%) and other ethnicities making up the remaining 20%. The majority of the population are adherents to Islam, with around 99% following Sunni Islam and 1% practicing other religions. Education is compulsory for children up to the age of 15 and the literacy rate is estimated to be around 96%. The official language is Turkish but there are also many other languages spoken throughout the country such as Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian and various tribal languages. The capital city Ankara has an estimated population of over 5 million people making it one of the largest cities in Turkey. Check hyperrestaurant to learn more about Turkey in 2009.
Social conditions
Turkey is still characterized by large economic and social gaps between urban and rural residents, but also between western and eastern/southeastern parts of the country. In 2005, the number of unemployed was estimated at 11.7 percent. Traditional and religious values still play a big role in the countryside. Nearly 25 percent are considered living below the poverty line, and most of the poor are found in the eastern parts of the country. Unemployment among women is high in Turkey. Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of TUR and acronym for Turkey.
The public health care system has been greatly expanded, the state handles most of the health care and the poor now receive care for free. The AKP government party in 2003 introduced a new health care reform, which, however, encountered significant resistance. Turkey’s expenditure on health care is estimated at 7.6 percent of GDP in 2008. In 2003, there were 1 doctor per 700 residents In eastern Turkey (Kurdistan in particular), there is still a shortage of doctors and hospitals. Infectious diseases have been overcome, among other things by improved water supply. A comprehensive vaccination program for childhood diseases and improved hygiene has dramatically reduced child mortality in Turkey since the beginning of the 1980s. Today, cardiovascular disease and cancer are the most common causes of death in Turkey. In 2002, 1,500 people were reported to be infected with HIV. Check to see Turkey population.
Government employees have their own pension insurance; other social insurance covers industrial and commercial employees as well as certain other groups, but not farmers. There is no general unemployment insurance; the legislation prescribes minimum wages, working hours and holidays. Women were given the right to vote in 1934, but only in recent years have reforms begun to promote gender equality.
Over the past decades, Turkish drug cartels have gained control of heroin trafficking in Europe, distributing heroin to $ 30 million. Europeans. From Europe, the drugs used in Turkey are used to refine the heroin, and in this way the country has become the hub of the drug trade between Asia and Europe.
In June, NATO conducted a ministerial summit in Istanbul under great security circumstances. The summit was met by demonstrations by Turkish pacifists and environmentalists and cost 4 killed and many wounded following assaults in Istanbul and Ankara. At the US meeting, Turkey failed to participate in the occupation of Iraq. Turkey had decided to limit itself to bilateral aid to its neighboring country. However, it was especially resistance from Germany and France that hindered the US plan to engage NATO in the occupation of Iraq.
In September, the EU declared to the Commission that no accession negotiations with Turkey could be initiated until the country implemented its penal code reforms. However, the Turkish parliament suspended the treatment of criminal code reforms after a number of parliamentarians made proposals to introduce articles aimed at criminalizing adultery. Acc. Such a criminalization would be against the European Commission’s legal standards on the continent. Commission spokesman Jean-Christopher Filori stated that no admission negotiations could be initiated if the reform had not been completed by October 6. On that day, the Commission had planned the publication of a report to conclude whether Turkey met the political and economic criteria for initiating admission negotiations. That led to a clash between Erdogan and European Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen in the same month, when Erdogan declared that the EU should not interfere in internal Turkish affairs. However, Turkey ended up adopting the reforms and the EU Commission recommended in early October that admission negotiations could be opened.
However, admission negotiations will not automatically lead to Turkish admission. On the extreme European right wing, including in the Danish government and its racist support party, there is great opposition to Turkish inclusion, due to the “Islamophobia” the same right wing has spread since the 1990s. The popular mood in France also draws in this direction, although the French government is formally supporting admission negotiations. Far greater support for admissions is found in Germany and the United Kingdom, and US President Bush has also spoken hotly for admission, which may, however, lie behind other reasons.
On January 1, 2005, the country introduced a new currency, the new lira (YTL) in an attempt to create greater economic stability. The new lira was equivalent to 1 million of the old lira.
On the day before International Women’s Day, March 7, 2005, police used lace and tear gas to disperse a few hundred protesters – predominantly women – demanding political reforms to secure women’s rights in the country. The day before, the EU had approved the opening of accession negotiations in October with Turkey. On the agenda was an EU demand that Turkey begin negotiations with the Greek Cypriot government in Cyprus, which is not recognized by Turkey; as well as democratic reforms, including included women’s rights. The EU immediately declared its dismay at the violence used to suppress the demonstration.
In May 2005, 5 Turkish soldiers, 3 village guards and 2 partisans died during clashes in Sirnak province of Kurdistan.
As a result of a methane gas explosion in a coal mine in June, 17 miners were killed and 8 others injured. Various explanations of the accident emerged, and Energy Minister Hilmi Guler ultimately had to declare that the accident was not due to negligence.
In April 2006, Turkey requested Denmark to close the satellite TV station Roj TV, which Turkey accused of being the voice of the PKK. Denmark ended up rejecting the closure request, and 53 Kurdish mayors also protested the call for closure. It prompted the Turkish state to take legal action against the 53 mayors in support of terrorism. The case is extremely sensitive due to the ongoing admission negotiations with the EU. An acquittal will provoke the right-wing Turkish nationalists, and an acquittal is likely to break the accession negotiations.
Ankara
Ankara, until 1930 Angora, the capital of Turkey; 4.3 million residents (2011). Also the name of the province around the city, formerly known for the production of angora wool (mohair).
Ankara is situated at an altitude of 850 m on the northern part of the central Anatolian plateau, approximately 200 km south of the Black Sea Coast. It has a relatively dry climate with cold winters and quite hot summers.
The city’s architecture reflects its varied history of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman-era buildings. The old town, Uluş, is located around the city’s Byzantine citadel and is the commercial center. The city’s new core is Yenişehir with wide streets, high-rise buildings, shops and numerous restaurants.
There are also the many metropolitan functions in the form of ministries, government buildings, embassies, universities and other public service activities, which have given the city the character of a modern Western European metropolis.
The main street, Atatürk Bulvarı, is marked by official buildings and cultural institutions, including the Ethnographic Museum and the city’s opera. Kemal Atatürk’s mausoleum is located in a park at the foot of the Maltepe mound at some distance from the center.
Ankara is first and foremost a capital and commercial city, and the service sector is dominant, but it also contains a number of industries, especially the textile and food industries with processing of the upland agricultural production.
Since Ankara became the capital in 1923, urban growth has been tremendous; it is especially young people from Anatolia’s overpopulated agricultural sector who have moved to the capital to find work.
History
Ankara was in ancient times near the Hittusa capital of the Hittites (see Boğazköy), and was inhabited sporadically from before 1200 BC, first by the Hittites, later by the Fears.
The town was from approximately 200-tfKr. one of the main cities of the Celtic tribe of Galatians. With the creation of the province of Galatia in 25 BC the city became part of the Roman Empire and capital of the province under the ancient name of Ancyra. From this period dates the temple of Roma and Augustus, on whose wall a contemporary copy of Emperor Augustus’ account of his holdings was erected, Monumentum Ancyranum. About 51 AD visited Paul Ancyra and wrote since Galatians, i.e. to the Christian congregation in the city.
Because of its location, Ankara has a long history as a center for caravan trade, including. to Iran and Syria; and from 1000-t. and forth, Seljuk Turks, Byzantines and Crusaders fought for the city, which from 1360 became part of the rapidly growing Ottoman Empire.
In the late 1800’s. the city had lost its significance and had become quite small, but from 1919 it became the center of the national movement behind Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In 1923, the city became the new capital of the Turkish Republic and has since undergone rapid development.