• ECO Region Features
      Territory: 8 million square km
      Population: 457,534,000
      GDP: 1,968,910 (million USD)

    • Republic of Turkey

      Republic of Turkey *

      The lands of Turkey are located at a point where the three continents making up the old world. Asia, Africa and Europe are closest to each other and straddle the point where Europe and Asia meet. Geographically, the Country is located in the northern half of the hemisphere at a point that is about halfway between the equator and the north pole, at a longitude of 36 degrees N to 42 degrees N and latitude of 26 degrees E to 45 degrees E. Turkey is roughly rectangular in shape and is 1,660 kilometers long and 550 kilometers wide. Because of its geographical location, the mainland of Anatolia has always found favour throughout history and is the birthplace of many great civilizations. It has also been prominent as a center of commerce because of its land connections to three continents and the sea surrounding it on three sides.

      The area of Turkey is 774,815 square kilometers. The actual land border length of Turkey is 2,875 kilometers in total and coastlines (including islands) are another 8,333 kilometers. Turkey has two European and six Asian countries as neighbors along its land borders.

      Turkey has been a melting pot of ethnically and culturally distinct groups since early prehistoric times. The most decisive influence was the incursion of Turkic peoples from the east from the 2nd century AD onward. Turkish is the mother tongue of about nine-tenths of the Country's population. Lausanne Treaty recognizes Armenians, Greek Orthodox and Jews as minorities. Nearly all Turks are Muslims, and the Sunni is predominant. Turkey's population increased rapidly after World War II, but the rate of growth declined by the end of the 20th century.

      The Turkish Republic, founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, was a one-party state until 1946. Since then many parties have contested for power, and Turkey has had a civilian parliamentary government most of the time. The 1982 Constitution, amended in 1987 and 1995, provides for a democratic parliamentary system of government. Under the Constitution, the Head of State is the President. H.E. Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the current President of Republic of Turkey.

      Turkey's developing economy is part private and part publicly owned; the industrial sector now predominate over agriculture. The economy underwent a sustained expansion during the second half of the 20th century. It has become increasingly integrated into the West European economic arena. It is a member of OECD and has established a Customs Union with EU. It is also the member of some international, regional and sub-regional economic cooperation schemes such as Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Middle East/North Africa Economic Conference (MENA), Southeastern Europe Cooperation Initiative (SECI), World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank Group, UNCTAD, Economic Commission for Europe and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Turkey is also an associate member of the European Union (EU) and the Western European Union (WEU).

      Agriculture accounts for about one-sixth of the gross domestic product (GDP) while manufacturing accounts for one-fifth of the GDP.

      Locally mined iron ore, coal, lignite, bauxite and copper provide raw materials for the country's key manufacturing industries. It also has huge deposits of chromites. Turkey is the Middle East's leading steel producer.

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