Turkiye

republican parliamentary democracy

Turkiye as the 1990 edition of the CIA World Factbook published it: 73 fields, one of 36 editions from 1990 to 2025.

field in that editiontext changed from the edition beforenot in that editionthe open editionEach field below ends in its editions, 1990 to 2025. Point at a year above to follow it down.

CapitalAnkara
Area780,580 km2
1990

Every edition of Turkiye

Populationas each edition published it
56.7 million July 1990 · 84.63m in 2025
Population growth% a year
Not in this edition 2.07% in 1993
Median ageyears
Not in this edition 26.8 yrs in 2003
Life expectancyyears at birth
Not in this edition 70.41 yrs in 1993
Fertility ratechildren per woman
3.6 children per woman 1990 · 1.88 in 2025
Infant mortalitydeaths per 1,000 live births
74 deaths per 1,000 live births 1990 · 17.9 in 2025
GDP per capitaeach edition's own dollars
Not in this edition $3,670 in 1993
GDP real growth% a year
Not in this edition 5.9% in 1993

Geography

13 fields

Land useshare of 780,580 km2

arable land 30%permanent crops 4%meadows and pastures 12%forest and woodland 26%other 28%includes 3% irrigated
Total area
780,580km2
land area: 770,760 km2Comparative area: slightly larger than Texas
Coastline
7,200km
Territorial sea: 6 nm (12 nm in Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea)
Land boundaries
2,715km total
Bulgaria 240 km, Greece 206 km, Iran 499 km, Iraq 331 km, Syria 822 km, USSR 617 km

Extended economic zone

in Black Sea only--to the maritime boundary agreed upon with the USSR;

Disputes

  • complex maritime and air (but not territorial) disputes with Greece in Aegean Sea;
  • Cyprus question;
  • Hatay question with Syria;
  • ongoing dispute with downstream riparians (Syria and Iraq) over water development plans for the Tigris and Euphrates rivers;
  • Kurdish question among Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and the USSR

Climate

  • temperate;
  • hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters;
  • harsher in interior

Terrain

  • mostly mountains;
  • narrow coastal plain;
  • high central plateau (Anatolia)

Natural resources

antimony, coal, chromium, mercury, copper, borate, sulphur, iron ore

Environment

  • subject to severe earthquakes, especially along major river valleys in west;
  • air pollution;
  • desertification

Note

  • strategic location controlling the Turkish straits (Bosporus, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas;
  • Turkey and Norway only NATO members having a land boundary with the USSR

People

14 fields
Population
56,704,327
(July 1990), growth rate 2.2% (1990)

Per 1,000 population(1990)

Birth
29Death
8Net migration
0

Ethnic divisions

Turkish 85%Kurd 12%other 3%

Religion

Muslim (mostly Sunni) 98%other (mostly Christian and Jewish) 2%

Infant mortality rate

74 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth

64 years male, 67 years female (1990)

Total fertility rate

3.6 children born/woman (1990)

Nationality

noun--Turk(s); adjective--Turkish

Language

Turkish (official), Kurdish, Arabic

Labor force

  • 18,800,000;
  • 56% agriculture, 30% services, 14% industry;
  • about 1,000,000 Turks work abroad (1987)

Organized labor

10-15% of labor force

Government

Republican parliamentary democracy

17 fields

Grand National Assembly, 450 seats, elected 29 November 1987seats by party

ANAP 283SHP 81CWP 56independents 26vacant 4

Percent of vote

ANAP 36%SHP 25%CWP 19%others 20%

Long-form name

Republic of Turkey

Type

republican parliamentary democracy

Capital

Ankara

Administrative divisions

  • 67 provinces (iller, singular--il);
  • Adana, Adiyaman, Afyon, Agri, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya, Artvin, Aydin, Balikesir, Bilecik, Bingol, Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Canakkale, Cankiri, Corum, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Edirne, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Hatay, Icel, Isparta, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahraman Maras, Kars, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Kocaeli, Konya, Kutahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mugla, Mus, Nevsehir, Nigde, Ordu, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Siirt, Sinop, Sivas, Tekirdag, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Urfa, Usak, Van, Yozgat, Zonguldak;
  • note--there may be four new provinces named Aksaray, Bayburt, Karaman, and Kirikkale

Independence

29 October 1923 (successor state to the Ottoman Empire)

Constitution

7 November 1982

National holiday

Anniversary of the Declaration of the Republic, 29 October (1923)

Executive branch

president, Presidential Council, prime minister, deputy prime minister, Cabinet

Legislative branch

unicameral Grand National Assembly (Buyuk Millet Meclisi)

Judicial branch

  • Court of Cassation Chief of State--President Turgut OZAL (since 9 November 1989);
  • Head of Government--Prime Minister Yildirim AKBULUT (since 9 November 1989);
  • Deputy Prime Minister Ali BOZER (since 31 March 1989)

Political parties and leaders

  • Motherland Party (ANAP), Yildirim Akbulut;
  • Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), Erdal Inonu;
  • Correct Way Party (CWP), Suleyman Demirel;
  • Democratic Left Party (DLP), Bulent Ecevit;
  • Prosperity Party (RP), Necmettin Erbakan;
  • National Work Party (MCP), Alpaslan Turkes;
  • Reform Democratic Party (IDP), Aykut Edibali

Suffrage

  • universal at age 21 Grand National Assembly--last held 29 November 1987 (next to be held November 1992);
  • results--ANAP 36%, SHP 25%, CWP 19%, others 20%;
  • seats--(450 total) ANAP 283, SHP 81, CWP 56, independents 26, vacant 4

Communists

strength and support negligible

Member of

ASSIMER, CCC, Council of Europe, EC (associate member), ECOSOC, FAO, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAC, ICAO, IDA, IDB--Islamic Development Bank, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOOC, IPU, ITC, ITU, NATO, OECD, OIC, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WSG, WTO

Diplomatic representation

  • Ambassador Nuzhet KANDEMIR;
  • Chancery at 1606 23rd Street NW, Washington DC 20008;
  • telephone (202) 387-3200;
  • there are Turkish Consulates General in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York;
  • US--Ambassador Morton ABRAMOWITZ;
  • Embassy at 110 Ataturk Boulevard, Ankara (mailing address is APO New York 09254--0001);
  • telephone [90] (4) 126 54 70;
  • there are US Consulates General in Istanbul and Izmir, and a Consulate in Adana

Flag

red with a vertical white crescent (the closed portion is toward the hoist side) and white five-pointed star centered on the hoist side

Economy

The economic reforms that Turkey launched in 1980 continue to bring an impressive stream of benefits.

17 fields
GDP, purchasing power parity
$75billion
per capita $1,350; real growth rate 1.8% (1989 est.)
External debt
$36.3billion
(November 1989)

Exports $11.7 billion (f.o.b., 1988)commodities, where a share is given

industrial products
70%crops and livestock products
25%
; partners--FRG 18.4%, Iraq 8.5%, Italy 8.2%, US 6.5%, UK 4.9%, Iran 4.7%

Budget

Revenues
$12.1 billionExpenditures
$14.5 billion
expenditures, including capital expenditures of $2.08 billion (FY88 est.)

Overview

The economic reforms that Turkey launched in 1980 continue to bring an impressive stream of benefits. The economy has grown steadily since the early 1980s, with real growth in per capita GDP increasing more than 6% annually. Agriculture remains the most important economic sector, employing about 60% of the labor force, accounting for almost 20% of GDP, and contributing about 25% to exports.

Impressive growth in recent years has not solved all of the economic problems facing Turkey. Inflation and interest rates remain high, and a large budget deficit will continue to provide difficulties for a country undergoing a substantial transformation from a centrally controlled to a free market economy.

The government has launched a multimillion-dollar development program in the southeastern region, which includes the building of a dozen dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to generate electric power and irrigate large tracts of farmland. The planned tapping of huge quantities of Euphrates water has raised serious concern in the downstream riparian nations of Syria and Iraq.

Imports

  • $14.3 billion (c.i.f., 1988);
  • commodities--crude oil, machinery, transport equipment, metals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, plastics, rubber, mineral fuels, fertilizers, chemicals;
  • partners--FRG 14.3%, US 10.6%, Iraq 10.0%, Italy 7.0%, France 5.8%, UK 5.2%

Industrial production

growth rate 7.4% (1988)

Electricity

14,064,000 kW capacity; 40,000 million kWh produced, 720 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries

textiles, food processing, mining (coal, chromite, copper, boron minerals), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper

Agriculture

  • accounts for 20% of GDP and employs majority of population;
  • products--tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets, pulses, citrus fruit, variety of animal products;
  • self-sufficient in food most years

Illicit drugs

  • one of the world's major suppliers of licit opiate products;
  • government maintains strict controls over areas of opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate

Aid

  • US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-88), $2.2 billion;
  • Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $7.9 billion;
  • OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $665 million;
  • Communist countries (1970-88), $4.5 billion

Currency

Turkish lira (plural--liras); 1 Turkish lira (TL) = 100 kurus

Exchange rates

Turkish liras (TL) per US$1--2,314.7 (November 1989), 1,422.3 (1988), 857.2 (1987), 674.5 (1986), 522.0 (1985)

Fiscal year

calendar year

Communications

9 fields

Merchant marine, 327 ships by type

short-sea passenger 6passenger 1passenger-cargo 1cargo 193container 1roll-on/roll-off cargo 4refrigerated cargo 3livestock carrier 1petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker 35chemical tanker 15liquefied gas 2combination ore/oil 4specialized tanker 1bulk 55combination bulk 4specialized liquid cargo 1327 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 2,972,465 GRT/5,087,620 DWT

Airports, 119 total, 112 usable

permanent-surface runways
69runways over 3,659 m
3runways 2,440-3,659 m
30runways 1,220-2,439 m
28

Networkskm

Highways
49,615 (1985)Railroads
8,401Pipelines
1,738
Highways: ; 26,915 km bituminous; 16,500 km gravel or crushed stone; 4,000 km improved earth; 2,200 km unimproved earth · Railroads: ; 479 km electrified · Pipelines: ; 2,321 km refined products; 708 km natural gas

Railroads

8,401 km 1.435-meter standard gauge; 479 km electrified

Highways

  • 49,615 km total;
  • 26,915 km bituminous;
  • 16,500 km gravel or crushed stone;
  • 4,000 km improved earth;
  • 2,200 km unimproved earth (1985)

Inland waterways

about 1,200 km

Pipelines

  • 1,738 km crude oil;
  • 2,321 km refined products;
  • 708 km natural gas

Ports

Iskenderun, Istanbul, Mersin, Izmir

Civil air

30 major transport aircraft (1985)

Telecommunications

  • fair domestic and international systems;
  • trunk radio relay network;
  • 3,100,000 telephones;
  • stations--15 AM;
  • 45 (60 repeaters) FM;
  • 61 (476 repeaters) TV;
  • communications satellite earth stations operating in the INTELSAT (1 Atlantic Ocean) and EUTELSAT systems;
  • 1 submarine telephone cable

Defense Forces

Land Forces, Navy, Air Force, Gendarmerie, Coast Guard

3 fields

Military manpower

males 15-49
14,413,944fit for military service
8,813,430reach military age (20) annually
597,547
Defense expenditures
3.9%of GDP
or $2.9 billion (1989 est.)

Branches

Land Forces, Navy, Air Force, Gendarmerie, Coast Guard

Central Intelligence Agency. “Turkey.” The World Factbook 1990. Archived by The Factbook, thefactbook.org/turkiye/1990.

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