Holidays in Turkey

Understanding Turkey

Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." Under his leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the Kurdistan People's Congress or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives. After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey mainly to northern Iraq. In 2013, KGK and the Turkish Government agreed to a ceasefire that continues despite slow progress in ongoing peace talks. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community. Over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy; it began accession membership talks with the European Union in 2005.

Turkey economy

Turkey's largely free-market economy is increasingly driven by its industry and service sectors, although its traditional agriculture sector still accounts for about 25% of employment. An aggressive privatization program has reduced state involvement in basic industry, banking, transport, and communication, and an emerging cadre of middle-class entrepreneurs is adding dynamism to the economy and expanding production beyond the traditional textiles and clothing sectors. The automotive, construction, and electronics industries are rising in importance and have surpassed textiles within Turkey's export mix. Oil began to flow through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in May 2006, marking a major milestone that will bring up to 1 million barrels per day from the Caspian to market. Several gas pipelines projects also are moving forward to help transport Central Asian gas to Europe through Turkey, which over the long term will help address Turkey's dependence on imported oil and gas to meet 97% of its energy needs. After Turkey experienced a severe financial crisis in 2001, Ankara adopted financial and fiscal reforms as part of an IMF program. The reforms strengthened the country's economic fundamentals and ushered in an era of strong growth averaging more than 6% annually until 2008. Global economic conditions and tighter fiscal policy caused GDP to contract in 2009, but Turkey's well-regulated financial markets and banking system helped the country weather the global financial crisis and GDP rebounded strongly to around 9% in 2010-11, as exports returned to normal levels following the recession. Growth dropped to roughly 3-4% in 2012-13. Turkey's public sector debt to GDP ratio has fallen below 40%, and two rating agencies upgraded Turkey's debt to investment grade in 2012 and 2013. Turkey remains dependent on often volatile, short-term investment to finance its large current account deficit. The stock value of FDI reached nearly $195 billion at year-end 2013, reflecting Turkey's robust growth even in the face of economic turmoil in Europe, the source of much of Turkey's FDI. Turkey's relatively high current account deficit, domestic political uncertainty, and turmoil within Turkey's neighborhood leave the economy vulnerable to destabilizing shifts in investor confidence.

Issues in Turkey

complex maritime, air, and territorial disputes with Greece in the Aegean Sea; status of north Cyprus question remains; Syria and Iraq protest Turkish hydrological projects to control upper Euphrates waters; Turkey has expressed concern over the status of Kurds in Iraq; in 2009, Swiss mediators facilitated an accord reestablishing diplomatic ties between Armenia and Turkey, but neither side has ratified the agreement and the rapprochement effort has faltered; Turkish authorities have complained that blasting from quarries in Armenia might be damaging the medieval ruins of Ani, on the other side of the Arpacay valley Refugees and internally displaced persons: refugees (country of origin): 13,467 (Iraq) (2013); 783,065 (Syria) (2014) IDPs: 954,000-1.2 million (displaced from 1984-2005 because of fighting between Kurdish PKK and Turkish military; most IDPs are Kurds from eastern and southeastern provinces; no information available on persons displaced by development projects) (2012) stateless persons: 780 (2012) Illicit drugs: key transit route for Southwest Asian heroin to Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, the US - via air, land, and sea routes; major Turkish and other international trafficking organizations operate out of Istanbul; laboratories to convert imported morphine base into heroin exist in remote regions of Turkey and near Istanbul; government maintains strict controls over areas of legal opium poppy cultivation and over output of poppy straw concentrate; lax enforcement of money-laundering controls

Cities in Turkey

adana  adilcevaz  afsin  afyonkarahisar  agva  ahlat  akcaabat  akcakoca  akdagmadeni  akhisar  aksaray  aksehir  alaca  alanya  alasehir  aliaga  amasya  anamur  ankara  antakya  antalya  ardahan  ardesen  artvin  babaeski  bafra  bahce  batman  bayburt  belen  bergama  besikduzu  beysehir  biga  bilecik  bingol  birecik  bismil  bitlis  bodrum  bolu  bor  boyabat  bozova  bozuyuk  bucak  bulancak  burdur  burhaniye  bursa  buyukcavuslu  canakkale  can  canta  carsamba  catalca  cay  cayeli  celaliye  cerkezkoy  cermik  cesme  ceyhan  cine  cizre  corlu  corum  cubuk  cumra  degirmen  demirci  denizli  derik  develi  devrek  dinar  dortyol  durusu  duzce  edirne  edremit  elbistan  elmadag  emet  emirdag  erbaa  ercis  erdemli  eregli  eregli  ergani  erzincan  erzurum  esenyurt  eskil  eskisehir  fatsa  fethiye  gaziantep  gebze  gediz  gelibolu  gemlik  genc  gerede  giresun  goksun  golcuk  golkoy  gonen  gorele  gumushane  gumusyaka  gurgentepe  gursu  hadimkoy  hakkari  hayrabolu  hendek  horasan  idil  igdir  imamoglu  inegol  iskenderun  iskilip  islahiye  isparta  istanbul  izmir  izmit  iznik  kadirli  kahramanmaras  kahta  kaman  karabuk  karacabey  karacakoy  karakose  karaman  karamursel  kars  kastamonu  kavakli  kayseri  kemalpasa  kesan  keskin  kestel  kilis  kirac  konya  korfez  kozan  kozluk  kula  kulu  kumburgaz  kumluca  kurtalan  kutahya  luleburgaz  malatya  malazgirt  malkara  manavgat  manisa  mardin  marmaris  menemen  mersin  merzifon  midyat  milas  mimarsinan  mudanya  mugla  muratbey  mus  mustafakemalpasa  mut  nazilli  nevsehir  nigde  niksar  nizip  nusaybin  odemis  of  oltu  ordu  orhangazi  ortakoy  ortakoy  osmaniye  pasinler  patnos  rize  safranbolu  salihli  samandag  samsun  sarkikaraagac  sebinkarahisar  selcuk  selimpasa  sereflikochisar  serik  seydisehir  siirt  sile  silifke  silivri  silopi  silvan  simav  sinop  sirnak  sivas  siverek  soke  solhan  soma  sorgun  suhut  suluova  sungurlu  suruc  susehri  susurluk  talas  tarsus  tatvan  tekirdag  tepecik  terme  tire  tokat  tosya  trabzon  tunceli  turgutlu  turhal  unye  urfa  urla  usak  uzumlu  uzunkopru  van  vezirkopru  viransehir  yakuplu  yalova  yalvac  yenisehir  yerkoy  yozgat  yuksekova  zile  zonguldak