Turkiye

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

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

• water pollution from dumping of chemicals and detergents;
• air pollution, particularly in urban areas;
• deforestation;
• concern for oil spills from increasing Bosporus ship traffic

party to:

Air Pollution, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified:

Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Environmental Modification

• strategic location controlling the Turkish Straits (Bosporus, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas;
• Mount Ararat, the legendary landing place of Noah's Ark, is in the far eastern portion of the country

0-14 years:

27.8% (male 9,520,030; female 9,178,423)

15-64 years:

65.9% (male 22,552,253; female 21,827,002)

65 years and over:

6.3% (male 1,946,523; female 2,284,697) (2002 est.)

at birth:

1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.04 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

1.03 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.85 male(s)/female

total population:

1.02 male(s)/female (2002 est.)

noun:

Turk(s)

adjective:

Turkish

conventional long form:

Republic of Turkey

conventional short form:

Turkey

local long form:

Turkiye Cumhuriyeti

local short form:

Turkiye

chief of state:

President Ahmet Necdet SEZER (since 16 May 2000)

elections:

• president elected by the National Assembly for a seven-year term;
• election last held 5 May 2000 (next to be held NA May 2007);
• prime minister and deputy prime ministers appointed by the president

note: a National Security Council serves as an advisory body to the president and the cabinet

cabinet:

Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the nomination of the prime minister

head of government:

• Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (14 March 2003);
• note - Abdullah GUL resigned 11 March 2003;
• Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN was given a mandate to form a government

election results:

Ahmed Necdet SEZER elected president on the third ballot; percent of National Assembly vote - 60%

note: president must have a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly on the first two ballots and a simple majority on the third ballot

• Democratic Left Party or DSP [Bulent ECEVIT];
• Justice and Development Party or AKP [Recep Tayip ERDOGAN];
• Motherland Party or ANAP [Mesut YILMAZ];
• Nationalist Action Party or MHP [Devlet BAHCELI];
• Republican People's Party or CHP [Deniz BAYKAL];
• Saadet Party [Recai KUTAN];
• note - KUTAN was head of the Virtue Party or FP which was banned by Turkey's Constitutional Court in June 2001;
• Socialist Democratic Party or TDP [Sema PISKINSUT];
• True Path Party (sometimes translated as Right Path Party) or DYP [Tansu CILLER]

• Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions or DISK [Ridvan BUDAK];
• Independent Industrialists and Businessmen's Association or MUSIAD [Erol YARAR];
• Moral Rights Workers Union or Hak-Is [Salim USLU];
• Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association or TUSIAD [Muharrem KAYHAN];
• Turkish Confederation of Employers' Unions or TISK [Refik BAYDUR];
• Turkish Confederation of Labor or Turk-Is [Bayram MERAL];
• Turkish Union of Chambers of Commerce and Commodity Exchanges or TOBB [Fuat MIRAS]

chief of mission:

Ambassador Dr. Osman Faruk LOGOGLU

FAX:

[1] (202) 612-6744

consulate(s) general:

Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York

chancery:

2525 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone:

[1] (202) 612-6700

chief of mission:

Ambassador Robert W. PEARSON

embassy:

110 Ataturk Boulevard, Kavaklidere, 06100 Ankara

mailing address:

PSC 93, Box 5000, APO AE 09823

telephone:

[90] (312) 455-5555

FAX:

[90] (312) 468-0019

consulate(s) general:

Istanbul

consulate(s):

Adana

lowest 10%:

2%

highest 10%:

32% (1994)

general assessment:

undergoing rapid modernization and expansion, especially with cellular telephones

domestic:

• additional digital exchanges are permitting a rapid increase in subscribers;
• the construction of a network of technologically advanced intercity trunk lines, using both fiber-optic cable and digital microwave radio relay is facilitating communication between urban centers;
• remote areas are reached by a domestic satellite system;
• the number of subscribers to mobile cellular telephone service is growing rapidly

international:

• international service is provided by three submarine fiber-optic cables in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, linking Turkey with Italy, Greece, Israel, Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia;
• also by 12 Intelsat earth stations, and by 328 mobile satellite terminals in the Inmarsat and Eutelsat systems (2002)

total:

8,607 km

standard gauge:

8,607 km 1.435-m gauge (2,131 km electrified) (2001)

total:

382,059 km

paved:

106,976 km (including 1,726 km of expressways)

unpaved:

275,083 km (1999 est.)

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

• complex maritime, air, and territorial disputes with Greece in Aegean Sea;
• Cyprus question with Greece;
• dispute with downstream riparian states (Syria and Iraq) over water development plans for the Tigris and Euphrates rivers;
• traditional demands regarding former Armenian lands in Turkey have subsided;
• Turkey is quick to rebuff any perceived Syrian claim to Hatay province;
• border with Armenia remains closed over Nagorno-Karabakh dispute

• key transit route for Southwest Asian heroin to Western Europe and - to a far lesser extent the US - via air, land, and sea routes;
• major Turkish, Iranian, and other international trafficking organizations operate out of Istanbul;
• laboratories to convert imported morphine base into heroin are in remote regions of Turkey as well as near Istanbul;
• government maintains strict controls over areas of legal opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate