Turkey
Introduction
Turkey, flag of
country that occupies a unique geographic position, lying partly in Asia and partly in Europe. Throughout its history it has acted as both a barrier and a bridge between the two continents.
country that occupies a unique geographic position, lying partly in Asia and partly in Europe. Throughout its history it has acted as both a barrier and a bridge between the two continents.Turkey is among the larger countries of the Middle East in terms of territory and population, and its land area is greater than that of any European state. Nearly all of the country is in Asia, comprising the oblong peninsula of Asia Minor, known also as Anatolia (Anadolu). The remainder—Turkish Thrace (Trakya)—lies in the extreme southeastern part of Europe, a tiny remnant of an empire that once extended over much of the Balkans.
The country has a north-south extent that ranges from about 300 to 400 miles (480 to 640 km), and it stretches about 1,000 miles from west to east. Turkey is bounded on the north by the Black Sea, on the northeast by Georgia and Armenia, on the east by Azerbaijan and Iran, on the southeast by Iraq and Syria, on the southwest and west by the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea, and on the northwest by Greece and Bulgaria. The capital is Ankara.
Of a total boundary length of some 4,000 miles (6,440 km), about three-fourths is maritime, including coastlines along the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean, as well as the narrows that link the Black and Aegean seas. These narrows—which include the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara (Marmara, Sea of), and the Dardanelles—are known collectively as the Turkish straits; Turkey's control of the straits, the only outlet from the Black Sea, has been a major factor in its relations with other states. Most of the islands along the Aegean coast are Greek; only the islands of Gökçeada and Bozcaada remain in Turkish hands. The maritime boundary with Greece has been a source of dispute between the two countries on numerous occasions since World War II.
A long succession of political entities existed in Asia Minor over the centuries. Turkmen tribes invaded Anatolia in the 11th century CE, founding the Seljuq empire; during the 14th century the Ottoman Empire began a long expansion, reaching its peak during the 17th century. The modern Turkish republic, founded in 1923 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, is a nationalist, secular, parliamentary democracy. After a period of one-party rule under its founder, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) (Atatürk, Kemal), and his successor, Turkish governments since the 1950s have been produced by multiparty elections based on universal adult suffrage.Land (Turkey)
Relief
Turkey is a predominantly mountainous country, and true lowland is confined to the coastal fringes. About one-fourth of the surface has an elevation above 4,000 feet (1,200 metres), and less than two-fifths lies below 1,500 feet (460 metres). Mountain crests exceed 7,500 feet (2,300 metres) in many places, particularly in the east, where Turkey's highest mountain, Mount Ararat (Ararat, Mount) (Ağrı), reaches 16,945 feet (5,165 metres) close to the borders with Armenia and Iran. In the southeast the Uludoruk Peak reaches 15,563 feet (4,744 metres); though further west, the Demirkazık Peak (12,320 feet 【3,755 metres】) and Mount Aydos (11,414 feet 【3,479 metres】) are also significant peaks. Steep slopes are common throughout the country, and flat or gently sloping land makes up barely one-sixth of the total area. These relief features affect other aspects of the physical environment, producing climates often much harsher than might be expected for a country of Turkey's latitude and reducing the availability and productivity of agricultural land. Structurally, the country lies within the geologically young folded-mountain zone of Eurasia, which in Turkey trends predominantly east to west. The geology of Turkey is complex, with sedimentary rocks ranging from Paleozoic (Paleozoic Era) to Quaternary, numerous intrusions, and extensive areas of volcanic material. Four main regions can be identified: the northern folded zone, the southern folded zone, the central massif, and the Arabian platform.The northern folded zone
The northern folded zone comprises a series of mountain ridges, increasing in elevation toward the east, that occupy a belt about 90 to 125 miles (145 to 200 km) wide immediately south of the Black Sea. The system as a whole is referred to as the Pontic Mountains (Doğukaradeniz Dağları). In the west the system has been fractured by the faulting that produced the Turkish straits; in Thrace the Ergene lowlands are among the largest in the country, and the main mountain range—the Yıldız (Istranca)—reaches only 3,379 feet (1,030 metres). Lowlands also occur to the south of the Sea of Marmara and along the lower Sakarya River east of the Bosporus. High ridges trending east-west rise abruptly from the Black Sea coast, and the coastal plain is thus narrow, opening out only in the deltas of the Kızıl (Kızıl River) and Yeşil rivers. These rivers break through the mountain barrier in a zone of weakness where summits are below 2,000 feet (600 metres), dividing the Pontic Mountains into western and eastern sections. In the western section, between the Sakarya and Kızıl rivers, there are four main ridges: the Küre, Bolu, Ilgaz, and Köroğlu mountains. East of the Yeşil the system is higher, narrower, and steeper. Less than 50 miles from the coast, peaks rise to more than 10,000 feet (3,000 metres), with a maximum elevation of 12,917 feet (3,937 metres) in the Kaçkar range. Separated by the narrow trough of the Kelkit and Çoruh river valleys stands a second ridge that rises above 8,000 feet (2,400 metres).
The southern folded zone
The southern folded zone occupies the southern third of the country, from the Aegean to the Gulf of Iskenderun, from which it extends to the northeast and east around the northern side of the Arabian platform. Over most of its length, the Mediterranean coastal plain is narrow, but there are two major lowland embayments. The Antalya Plain extends inland some 20 miles (30 km) from the Gulf of Antalya; the Adana Plain, measuring roughly 90 by 60 miles (145 by 100 km), comprises the combined deltas of the Seyhan and Ceyhan (Ceyhan River) rivers. The mountain system falls into two main parts. West of Antalya a complex series of ridges with a north-south trend reaches 6,500 to 8,200 feet (2,000 to 2,500 metres), but the most prominent feature is the massive Taurus (Taurus Mountains) (Toros) mountain system, running parallel to the Mediterranean coast and extending along the southern border. There crest lines are often above 8,000 feet (2,400 metres), and several peaks exceed 11,000 feet (3,400 metres).In the eastern third of the country, the northern and southern fold systems converge to produce an extensive area of predominantly mountainous terrain, with pockets of relatively level land confined to valleys and enclosed basins, as are found around Malatya, Elazığ, and Muş.
The central massif
The central massif is located in the western half of the country, between the Pontic and Taurus systems. This elevated zone is often referred to as the Anatolian plateau, although its relief is much more varied than this term suggests. At least four subdivisions of the central massif can be identified. Inland from the Aegean as far as a line from Bursa to Denizli, a series of faulted blocks gives a north-south alternation of steep-sided plateaus rising 5,000–6,500 feet (1,500–2,000 metres) and low-lying valley floors. Alluvial plains along the larger rivers, such as the Gediz, Küçükmenderes, and Büyükmenderes, are among the largest in Turkey and are of special agricultural value. East of this section, roughly to a line from Eskişehir to Burdur, is a complex upland zone. The general surface level rises to the east from 1,500 to 3,000 feet (460 to 900 metres); set into the upland are several downfaulted basins, and above it short mountain ranges rise to 6,500 feet.
The most distinctive part of the central massif is the area bounded on the south by the Taurus Mountains and on the northeast by a line from Ankara through Lake Tuz (Tuz, Lake) to Niğde. There the term plateau is most applicable, with large expanses of flat or gently sloping land at elevations of about 3,000 feet separated by low upswellings in the surface. Measuring some 150 by 200 miles (240 by 320 km), these are by far the most extensive plains in Turkey; however, their agricultural value is reduced by the effects of altitude and location on their climate.
The remainder of the central massif, a roughly triangular area with its eastern apex near Sivas, forms a mountainous zone that bounds the plains on their eastern side. Much of this section rises above 5,000 feet (1,500 metres), and there are numerous peaks with elevations of about 6,500 feet. A noteworthy feature is the extensive area of geologically recent volcanic activity in Niğde, Nevşehir, and Kayseri provinces, including the volcanic peaks of Erciyes (12,848 feet 【3,916 metres】) and Hasan (10,686 feet 【3,257 metres】).
The Arabian platform
Southeastern Turkey between Gaziantep and the Tigris (Dicle) River rests on a stable massif called the Arabian platform. It is characterized by relatively gentle relief, with broad plateau surfaces descending to the south from about 2,500 feet (760 metres) at the mountain foot to 1,000 feet (300 metres) along the Syrian border. In the centre of this zone, the volcanic Mount Karaca reaches 6,294 feet (1,918 metres).
The geologic structure of Turkey—where recent faulting and folding are widespread and mountain building is still in progress—is particularly conducive to earthquakes (earthquake), of which there have been many of varying intensity in modern times. A number of serious events have been centred in the east, near Erzurum in 1959 and 1966, Bingöl in 1971 and 2003, and Erzincan in 1939 and 1992. In 1999 the country's northwest was struck by a powerful earthquake near İzmit (Kocaeli) that killed more than 17,000 people and evoked strong criticism of state institutions for their delayed response to the disaster.
Drainage
Rivers
Eight main drainage basins may be discerned, of which two cross the country's frontiers and six are entirely within Turkish territory. The smallest, in the far east of the country, is that of the Aras River, which rises south of Erzurum and flows east for some 250 miles (400 km) to the frontier with Azerbaijan, eventually reaching the Caspian Sea. The bulk of eastern Turkey, however, is drained by the Euphrates (Fırat) and Tigris rivers, which flow south for some 780 miles (1,250 km) and 330 (530 km) miles, respectively, before entering Syria and then Iraq, where they converge to enter the Persian Gulf (see Tigris-Euphrates river system).
There are two basins of inland drainage. In the far east a small area drains to Lake Van (Van, Lake) from which there is no surface outlet. The main inland basin is in west-central Anatolia; its two main centres are the Lake Tuz and Konya basins. Several smaller, separate catchments in this basin contain lakes such as Eğridir and Beyşehir. The remainder of the country drains to the four surrounding seas—Black, Marmara, Aegean, and Mediterranean—and can thus, in a sense, be considered a single system that eventually drains to the Mediterranean. Most of the rivers flowing to the Black Sea are short torrential streams incised into the Pontic Mountains, but several have developed lengthy inland sections and tributaries running parallel to the east-west ranges of northern Turkey. These rivers include the Yenice (Filyos), Çoruh, Kelkit, Yeşil, and Kızıl. One of the largest basins is that of the Sakarya River, which covers about 500 miles (800 km) from its source, southwest of Ankara, to its mouth, north of Adapazarı (Sakarya).
Numerous small rivers drain into the Sea of Marmara; the largest is the Mustafakemalpaşa. Most of European Turkey lies in the Ergene-Maritsa basin, which drains into the northern Aegean. The main elements of the Aegean drainage are the parallel rivers flowing west from the Anatolian interior: the Gediz, Küçükmenderes, and Büyükmenderes. Along the section of the Mediterranean coast bounded by the Taurus Mountains, numerous rivers descend rapidly to the sea, including the short Aksu, Köprü, and Manavgat and the longer Göksu. Two much larger rivers—the Seyhan and the Ceyhan (Ceyhan River)—flow into the Gulf of Iskenderun; their broad combined delta forms the greater part of the fertile Adana Plain.
Lakes
Turkey has about 50 lakes with areas larger than four square miles and more than 200 smaller ones. By far the largest are Lakes Van (Van, Lake) (1,434 square miles 【3,714 square km】) and Tuz (Tuz, Lake) (about 600 square miles 【1,550 square km】); the latter is very shallow, expanding and contracting with the seasons. Being centres of inland drainage, both are saline.
The largest freshwater lakes are those in the lake district on the north side of the Taurus system, which include Lakes Akşehir, Eğridir, and Beyşehir. Another freshwater lake is Lake İznik, northeast of Bursa. The development of hydroelectric power has produced a number of artificial lakes, of which the largest are those connected with the Atatürk and Keban barrages on the Euphrates, the Hirfanlı on the Kızıl, the Sarıyar on the Sakarya, the Demirköprü on the Gediz, and the Seyhan on the Seyhan.
Soils
Turkey's relief features and climatic variations produce major contrasts in soil types between the interior and the periphery. The detailed pattern, however, is complex; zonal soil types are broken by variations in relief and parent material, and thus a variety of azonal soils are present. Seven main soil groups may be distinguished, each containing several soil types.
Red and gray-brown podzolic soils (podzolic soil), along with brown forest soils, represent the most extensive group, covering about one-third of the country. These occur mainly in mountainous areas as a broad belt around the northern, western, and southern sides of the Anatolian interior and are associated with the more humid climatic zones. The red and gray-brown podzolic soils are moderately leached and somewhat acidic, the red type occurring in the wetter, warmer areas. Brown forest soils are generally developed on calcareous rocks and are less acidic than the red and gray-brown podzolic soils.
Brown and reddish brown soils are characteristic of the driest parts of the country, mainly in the semiarid zones of central Anatolia and in the southeast; covering about one-fifth of the country, they support extensive dryland grain production. These soils are for the most part calcareous and are more productive when irrigated.
Noncalcic brown soils with rendzinas and grumusols are found in slightly wetter climates. Noncalcic brown soils are a zonal type, less strongly leached and less acidic than the podzols; they are most extensive in lowland Thrace but also occur in patches along the Aegean. Rendzinas—highly calcareous azonal soils derived from limestones—occur mainly along the Mediterranean; grumusols, found mainly in Thrace, also are calcareous but are deeper and heavier.
Chestnut soils are found on a smaller scale in the same regions as the brown and reddish brown group but under slightly more humid conditions where the parent materials are calcareous.
Serozems—highly alkaline semidesert gray soils—are found in the driest areas, notably in the Konya basin and the Aras valley.
Terra rossas and red prairie soils are the products of limestone weathering under Mediterranean climates; the red prairie soils occur under warmer and damper conditions and are slightly more leached than the terra rossas. Both occur in patches along the Aegean and Mediterranean, notably in the Antalya and Adana lowlands.
Alluvial soils, which cover only a small portion of the country, are the most valuable type and support the most-intensive agriculture. These soils are found mainly in the valleys of the Marmara and Aegean regions, the deltas along the Black Sea, the basins of central and eastern Anatolia, and the Adana lowland.
Climate
Overview
Turkey's varied climate—generally a dry semicontinental Mediterranean variant—is heavily influenced by the presence of the sea to the north, south, and west and by the mountains that cover much of the country. The sea and the mountains produce contrasts between the interior and the coastal fringes. Several areas have the winter rainfall maximum typical of the Mediterranean regime, and summer drought is widespread. However, the elevation of the country ensures that winters are often much colder than is common in Mediterranean climates, and there are significant contrasts between winter and summer temperatures.
January mean temperatures are below freezing throughout the interior, and in the east there is a sizable area below 23 °F (−5 °C); extremely low temperatures occur at times, with minima from −4 °F (−20 °C) in the west to −40 °F (−40 °C) in the east. The duration of snow cover ranges from two weeks in the warmer areas to four months in some mountainous areas in the east. The coastal fringes are mild, with January means above 41 °F (5 °C). Summers generally are hot: July means exceed 68 °F (20 °C) in all but the highest mountain areas, 77 °F (25 °C) along the Aegean and Mediterranean, and 86 °F (30 °C) in the southeast. Precipitation is strongly affected by relief; annual totals of 12–16 inches (305–406 mm) are characteristic of much of the interior, whereas the higher parts of the Pontic and Taurus ranges receive more than 40 inches (1,000 mm).
Climatic regions
Contrasts between the interior and the coasts produce six main climatic regions.
The Black Sea coastlands are the wettest region, with rain throughout the year and a winter maximum. Annual totals exceed 32 inches (813 mm), reaching 96 inches (2,438 mm) in the east. Frosts can occur, but winters are generally mild, with January means of 43–45 °F (6–7 °C); summers are hot, with July means above 68 °F (20 °C) at sea level.
Thrace and Marmara are influenced by winter depressions passing through the straits, but summers are drier than along the Black Sea. Annual precipitation ranges from 24 to 36 inches (610 to 914 mm), with a pronounced winter maximum. January mean temperatures are close to freezing; summers are hot, with July means above 77 °F (25 °C).
The Aegean coastlands have a Mediterranean regime. Average temperatures range from 45–47 °F (7–8 °C) in January to 77–86 °F (25–30 °C) in July, and frosts are rare. Annual rainfall varies from 24 to 32 inches (610 to 813 mm), and there is a pronounced summer drought.
The Mediterranean coastlands display characteristics similar to the Aegean but in a more intense form. July means exceed 83 °F (28 °C) at sea level. Annual rainfall declines from 40 inches (1,000 mm) in the west to barely 24 inches in the Adana Plain, and the summer months are virtually rainless at sea level.
The southeast is dry and hot during the summer. Winters are cold, with January means near freezing; July means are generally above 86 °F (30 °C). Annual rainfall ranges from 12 to 24 inches (305 to 610 mm).
The Anatolian interior has a semicontinental climate with a large temperature range; Ankara's January mean is 28 °F (−2 °C), and its July mean is 74 °F (23 °C). Precipitation is influenced by relief: Konya, with barely 12 inches, is among the driest places in the country, but in the mountainous east the annual totals generally exceed 24 inches.
Plant and animal life
Vegetation
Patterns of natural vegetation are closely related to those of relief, climate, and soils. There are two main types: steppe grasslands, which occur mainly in central Anatolia and the southeast but are also found in lowland Thrace and in the valleys and basins of eastern Anatolia; and forest and woodland, which cover the remainder of the country. Over much of Turkey, however, these natural vegetation types have been greatly modified by human action, both directly (through lumbering and clearance for agriculture) and indirectly (through the activities of grazing animals).
The richest type of woodland is the Pontic, or Colchian, forest, confined to the eastern part of the Black Sea coastlands, where rainfall is heavy, there is no summer drought, and winters are mild. Hornbeam, sweet chestnut, oriental spruce, and alder are the commonest species, and there is a rich shrub layer of rhododendron, laurel, holly, myrtle, hazel, and walnut. The remainder of the Black Sea zone is occupied by humid deciduous forest, second only to the Colchian type in richness and variety. The main tree species in the Black Sea zone are oriental spruce, beech, hornbeam, alder, oak, fir, and yew, with oak and pine in the drier parts. Coniferous species become dominant above 3,300 feet (1,000 metres), giving way to alpine grassland above 6,500 feet (2,000 metres).
Drier conditions in the western and eastern parts of the interior—on either side of the central steppe-grassland zone—produce the drier mixed- and deciduous-forest belt, where the dominant species are oak, juniper, pine, and fir, with patches of open grassland. Mediterranean mountain forest is characteristic of the central and western Taurus range; pine, fir, and oak are the main species, but cedar, beech, juniper, and maple also occur. Along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts is a belt of Mediterranean lowland vegetation of the maquis type. Myrtle, wild olive, laurel, and carob are the commonest species, but there are occasional stands of oak, pine, and cypress.
Fauna
Turkey is fairly rich in wild animals and game birds. Wolves, foxes, boars, wildcats, beavers, martens, jackals, hyenas, bears, deer, gazelles, and mountain goats are still found in secluded and wooded regions. Domesticated animals include water buffalo, Angora goats (on the central massif), and camels (in the southwest), as well as horses, donkeys, sheep, and cattle. Major game birds are partridge, wild geese, quail, and bustards.
Settlement patterns
More than three-fifths of the population lives in towns and cities. Prior to the mid-20th century, however, the population was predominantly rural, and its distribution was strongly influenced by the agricultural potential of the land. Thus, there are pronounced regional variations in population density, the main contrast being between the interior and the periphery. The regional coastlands of the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, and the Aegean Sea are the most densely settled regions; accounting for less than two-fifths of the country's land area, the regions together represent more than half its population. The Mediterranean coastal region is more thinly settled, though there are pockets of high population density in the Antalya and Adana basins. The remainder of the country is relatively lightly populated: the Anatolian interior and southeast, occupying more than half the country's territory, contain less than two-fifths of Turkey's population. At the beginning of the 21st century, however, the southeast was the country's fastest-growing region.Historically, much of Anatolia—especially the east—was populated by nomads and transhumants, who migrated seasonally between upland and plain. Some of their descendants, herders of sheep and goats, move from plain to mountain, living in tents, while others possess houses in two or even three villages at different altitudes.
Over much of the country, the bulk of the population lives in villages, which are estimated to number at least 50,000. The average village population tends to vary, and many villages comprise two or three separate rural settlements some distance apart.
The typical Turkish village house is a rectangular flat-roofed building, the colour of the local unbaked brick or stone from which it is made, one or two stories high. The poorest contain a single room to house family, livestock, and possessions; the better village houses encompass joint households of perhaps 20 people living in large compounds, off which lead many living rooms, stores, stables, and barns. The vast majority of homes fall between these extremes, and there is great local variation. Commonly, the head of the household and his wife live and sleep in the main room of the house, which contains the bedding (stacked away in the daytime), the cooking stove (in some areas a beehive-shaped oven built into the floor), shelves with cooking pots and implements, a gaily painted chest containing the woman's trousseau and personal possessions, and a chest for flour and grain. People sit on rugs or mats spread on the floor. Many homes also have at least one room fitted as a guest room, normally for the use of men only. The guest room has built-in divans running along the walls and very often a stone or wooden floor. The most marked contrast occurs in the forests of the northern mountain ranges, where the village homes are made of timber and have red roofs. Brick, cement, and cinder block are now also becoming common wherever people can afford them.
Cities in Turkey are for the most part of moderate size, though many have grown rapidly since the 1970s. The largest is Istanbul; though no longer the capital city, it remains the chief port and commercial centre, attracting migrants from the entire country. With its suburbs along the Bosporus, Istanbul forms a sprawling agglomeration with nearly nine million inhabitants. The second largest city, Ankara, is of much more recent origin. Prior to the establishment of the republic, it was one of many small provincial towns in the interior, but its choice as the capital city has resulted in a long period of rapid growth. The third largest city, İzmir, is the port and commercial centre for the prosperous Aegean coastal zone.
Apart from these three main centres, an important cluster of cities is located in the Adana Plain, where Adana, Mersin (İçel), and a number of smaller centres are situated. Elsewhere the chief cities are widely separated regional and provincial capitals, of which the largest are Bursa, in the Marmara lowlands; Samsun, on the Black Sea; Antalya, on the Mediterranean; Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Malatya, Erzurum, and Sivas, in the interior; and Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, and Şanlıurfa, in the southeast.Traditional Anatolian town houses, still the most common residence in many smaller cities, were built in stone or wood, usually of two stories, with wooden floors and, sometimes, beautifully carved ceilings. The upper story often protrudes, cantilever fashion, into the street. With whitewashed walls and red-tiled roofs, these small towns sometimes present a more modern appearance than most villages, though just as often the distinction between large villages and small towns is barely visible. In the larger cities, while traditional building types are still visible in the older areas, large recently developed sections are dominated by simpler styles in brick and concrete. Downtown areas have an increasingly European appearance.
People (Turkey)
Language and religion
According to the Turkish constitution, the word “Turk,” as a political term, includes all citizens of the Republic of Turkey, without distinction of or reference to race or religion; ethnic minorities have no official status. Linguistic data show that a majority of the population claim Turkish (Turkish language) as their mother tongue; most of the remainder speak Kurdish (Kurdish language) and a small minority Arabic (Arabic language) as their first language. Though estimates of the Kurdish population in Turkey have generally been widely varied, at the beginning of the 21st century, Kurds (Kurd) were estimated to account for almost one-fifth of the country's population. Ethnic Kurds are present in significant numbers throughout eastern Anatolia and form a majority in a number of provinces, including Ağrı, Bitlis, Bingöl, Diyarbakır, Hakkari (Hakkâri), Mardin, Muş, Siirt, Şanlıurfa, and Van. Arabic (Arabic language) speakers are mainly in Hatay, Adana, Mardin, Siirt, and Şanlıurfa. There are a further six ethnic groups with sizable numbers: Greeks, Armenians, and Jews are found almost entirely in Istanbul, and Circassians (Circassian), Georgians, and Laz are generally located in the far east.
More than nine-tenths of the population is Muslim (Islāmic world). Nevertheless, Turkey is a secular country. In a 1928 constitutional amendment, Islam was removed as the official state religion, and since that time the state has found itself periodically at odds with religion. Turkey's strong secularism has resulted in what have been perceived by some as strictures on the freedom of religion; for example, the head scarf has long been prohibited in a number of public venues, and a constitutional amendment passed in February 2008 that permitted women to wear it on university campuses sparked considerable controversy. In addition, the armed forces have maintained a vigilant watch over Turkey's political secularism, which they affirm to be a keystone among Turkey's founding principles. The military has not left the maintenance of a secular political process to chance, however, and has intervened in politics on a number of occasions.In addition to the Muslim majority, there also exist small populations of Jews and Christians; Christian adherents are divided between Greek Orthodox (Greek Orthodox Church), Armenian Orthodox, Roman Catholic (Roman Catholicism), Protestant (Christianity), and other denominations.
Demographic trends
In 1927 the total population of the Turkish republic was about 13 million; since then it has increased more than fivefold. Growth was particularly rapid after World War II, reaching nearly 3 percent annually in the early 1960s, but the rate of growth has since declined. A fall in the birth rate was the main factor for the decline, offset somewhat by a decline in the death rate. In the early 21st century, the age profile of the population remained youthful.
A notable development of the postwar period was large-scale internal migration, from rural to urban areas both within each province and over longer distances. Areas attracting the most migrants were those with major urban agglomerations: the zone around the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean coast, the Adana Plain, and Ankara. Net migration losses occurred over much of the interior, particularly the eastern part.
Another element of population movement was the movement of Turkish workers abroad (migrant labour). In the early 1980s some two million Turks lived in various western European countries, three-fourths of them in what was then West Germany, and there were numerous short-term Turkish workers in Arab countries, mainly Libya and Saudi Arabia. The demand for Turkish labour abroad subsequently declined, and the outflow became much smaller. In the early 21st century there were roughly one million Turkish citizens working abroad; of those, a majority of them were living in western Europe.
Economy
Since its inception in 1923, Turkey has operated a mixed economy, in which both state and private enterprise have contributed to economic development. The economy has been transformed from predominantly agricultural to one in which industry and services are the most productive and rapidly expanding sectors. Until about 1950 the state played the leading role in industrialization, providing most of the capital for structural improvement in railways, ports, and shipping facilities and for the establishment of such basic industries as mining, metallurgy, and chemicals; it also invested in manufacturing, notably in the food-processing, textile, and building-material sectors. Emerging industries were protected by tariff barriers, and foreign investment was discouraged; the economy remained self-contained and somewhat isolated, with foreign trade playing only a minor role.
Major political developments of the early postwar period—such as the institution of a multiparty democracy and Turkey's adherence to the Western alliance—had a profound effect on the economy, which became more open to foreign influences. Foreign aid, chiefly from the United States, arrived in large quantities and was used in part to finance agricultural expansion and to import agricultural and industrial machinery and transportation equipment. Growth accelerated, with the private sector playing an increasing role. State intervention—mainly in the form of government loans to private firms—remained strong, and economic development was guided by a series of five-year plans. By the late 1970s, however, the economy was plagued by high inflation, large-scale unemployment, and a chronic foreign trade deficit.
Consequently, during the 1980s there were further shifts in economic policy, including the encouragement of foreign investment, the establishment of joint enterprises, a reduction in the relative importance of the state sector, and a vigorous export drive. By the 1990s, inflation remained a serious problem, and Turkey's per capita gross domestic product remained well below those of most Middle Eastern and European countries. Facing inflation that had reached almost 100 percent by 1997, an 18-month economic monitoring program was initiated with the International Monetary Fund, which succeeded in significantly decreasing the rate of inflation in the following two years. At the beginning of the 21st century, agriculture remained a large employer, with about one-third of the labour force, while about one-fifth of Turkish workers were in the industrial sector.
Resources
Turkey has a great variety of natural resources, though few occur on a large scale. Apart from Iran, Turkey is the only Middle Eastern country with significant coal deposits, mainly in the Zonguldak field. Output of lignite is substantial. There is small-scale production of oil from fields in the southeast of the country, as well as in the northwestern Thrace region; this provides for only a fraction of the country's needs, and Turkey is thus dependent on imported petroleum products. Both lignite and oil are used in electricity generation, and hydroelectric resources are under intensive development. Among the largest hydroelectric plants are those on the Sakarya, Kemer, Kızıl, and Seyhan rivers and on the Keban and Atatürk barrages on the Euphrates. A national electricity grid covers the whole country, including nearly all villages. The most important metallic ores are iron, mainly from Divriği in Sivas province, and chromite, much of which is exported. There are significant deposits of manganese, zinc, lead, copper, and bauxite.Agriculture
About one-third of Turkey's land area is utilized for agriculture, much of it extensively. About half of the agricultural land is used for field crops and about one-third for grazing. These proportions have remained fairly stable since the 1960s, following a period of rapid change in the 1950s, when the advent of tractors supported significant expansion of arable land, mainly at the expense of grazing land. A smaller proportion of the cultivated land consists of vineyards, orchards, olive groves, and vegetable gardens. The most important field crops are cereals; these occupy one half of the cultivated area. A majority of the cereal land is sown in wheat, with smaller areas of barley, rye, oats, corn (maize), and rice. Other important crops are cotton, sugar beets, tobacco, and potatoes. Roughly one-sixth of the cropland is irrigated. Livestock farming is a major activity; Turkey has vast numbers of cattle, sheep, goats, and water buffalo. Landholdings are generally small, with family farms averaging only 15 acres (6 hectares). Agricultural products provide substantial export earnings; cotton, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, nuts, livestock, and livestock products are the main items.
Regional variations in agriculture reflect those in the physical environment, especially between the interior, where cereals and livestock are predominant, and the coastal fringes, where most of the higher-value crops are grown. The relative warmth and dampness of the Black Sea coastlands make this region one of the most intensively cultivated despite its limited lowlands. Corn is the chief cereal and supports large numbers of cattle. High-value crops include hazelnuts, tobacco, tea, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, and citrus and other fruits; sugar beets, sunflowers, potatoes, and vegetables also are important. The Aegean coastlands constitute the most productive, commercialized, and export-oriented region, with a relatively low proportion of cereals. Cotton is the main industrial crop, and the Aegean coastlands are Turkey's chief area of olive production. There are extensive vineyards, and the region is famous for its raisins, sultanas, and figs. The western part of the Mediterranean coastlands is dominated by wheat and barley, but cotton, flax, sesame, potatoes, fruits (including grapes and citrus—and even bananas, around Alanya), and rice also are grown. The Adana Plain is an important cotton-producing region. The elevated lands of the Anatolian interior are dominated by livestock and cereals, mainly wheat and barley. In the more favoured areas, especially where irrigation is possible, some cotton, fruits, tobacco, hemp, and sugar beets also are found, as are vineyards. The lowlands of Thrace and Marmara grow wheat, barley, corn, tobacco, sunflowers, vegetables, fruits, and olives. Vineyards also are present there and in the southeast, which is focused mainly on dry-farmed wheat and barley but also produces rice, fruits, and vegetables.
Industry
Turkey supports a wide range of manufacturing activities. Manufacturing plants are widely distributed, with clusters of factories in all sizable towns, although a high proportion of total output comes from four highly industrialized zones: Istanbul and the area around the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean coast around İzmir, the Adana basin, and the region around Ankara. The leading manufactures are chemicals; food, beverages, and tobacco; and textiles, clothing, and footwear.
Turkey, the Middle East's leading steel producer, supplies most of its own domestic needs. The main plants are at Karabük, Ereğli, and İskenderun. Small-scale nonferrous metallurgy occurs at several sites, including Göktaş, Ergani, and Antalya. Engineering industries expanded rapidly during the 1970s and '80s and now are widely dispersed, with major concentrations around Istanbul, İzmir, and Ankara. The chemical industries are located close to the oil refineries at Mersin (İçel), İzmit, and İzmir and at a variety of other sites.
The major manufacturing employer is the textile industry. The biggest plants are in the cotton-growing districts of the Adana Plain and Büyükmenderes valley, but textile production also occurs in most regional centres. The processing of agricultural products also is widely dispersed; leading branches are tobacco manufacture, mainly in the Black Sea and Aegean regions, and sugar production, in the beet-growing districts of the interior.
Trade
Foreign trade has played an increasing role in the Turkish economy since World War II. Until the 1960s most exports were derived from agriculture, and most of the remainder consisted of minerals and raw materials; imports were mainly limited to machinery, transportation equipment, and manufactured goods. The development of the manufacturing sector provided a new source of exports, and basic and miscellaneous manufactures together now contribute more than half the total. The leading exports are textile fibres, yarns, fabrics, and clothing, iron and steel, fruits and vegetables, livestock products, tobacco, and machinery. Imports include machinery, chemicals, petroleum products, transportation equipment, and consumer goods. About half of all trade is with Europe, where Germany is the main trading partner. Significant trade also takes place within the Middle East, particularly with Iran, Libya, and Saudi Arabia, which are the main suppliers of oil and the main recipients of Turkish manufactures; Algeria and Israel are also trade partners in the region.
Transportation
Since the establishment of the republic, and particularly since World War II, economic development has involved large-scale state investment in transportation. Until the 1950s this investment was concentrated on the railway network, but in subsequent decades Turkey focused on its system of roads and highways.
Prior to World War I the only long-distance rail route extended from Istanbul to Adana and into Iraq, developed as part of a German plan for a Berlin-Baghdad railway (see Baghdad Railway) to provide an overland link between Europe and the Persian Gulf. Other early rail lines were confined to a few short stretches in the west, linking areas of commercial agriculture to ports on the Aegean and Sea of Marmara. In the interwar years the state railway company built several lines to link the main regional centres, notably a line connecting Ankara, Kayseri, Sivas, and Erzurum with the Soviet frontier (with branches to the Black Sea at Samsun and Zonguldak) and a line connecting Konya, Kayseri, Sivas, and Malatya with Diyarbakır and the Raman oil field. The major development of the postwar period was the construction of a line from Elazığ to the Iranian frontier, which involved a train ferry across Lake Van and was part of an ambitious plan to provide a rail connection between Europe and Pakistan. Despite these developments, the rail network remained rudimentary. Railways carried a proportion of freight traffic—mainly agricultural produce and minerals—and relatively few passengers, but both of these uses steadily declined throughout the 1990s. By the early years of the 21st century, only a negligible number of passengers chose rail as their means of transport; the proportion of freight transport taking place by rail was also slight. In response, the Marmaray Project was undertaken to improve approximately 45 miles (75 km) of Turkey's railway network. The massive transport project was anticipated to upgrade rail service around Istanbul and included an ambitious rail tunnel running beneath the Bosporus to connect the European and Asian halves of the city. The project was stalled in 2006, however, with the discovery of a 4th-century port along the construction zone.
Roads are by far the most important carriers of both freight and passengers. In addition to domestic traffic, there is a large and growing international freight movement across Turkey between Europe and the Middle East. This has been made possible by massive state investment in the construction of a modern road network linking all the main towns. Buses are widely used. City thoroughfares in Turkey are generally congested.
Coastal shipping routes are important freight carriers, particularly along the Black Sea coast; the main international ports are Istanbul, İzmir, Mersin (İçel), İskenderun, and İzmit.
The state airline and several international carriers provide air links through Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir, and there is an internal network linking these cities with more than a dozen provincial centres. Airports on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts at Dalaman and Antalya have been improved and cater to the growing tourist charter traffic.
Administration and social conditions
Government
Following a period of authoritarian, one-party rule under the first president of the republic, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk, Kemal) (Atatürk; 1923–38), and his successor, İsmet İnönü (İnönü, İsmet) (1938–50), multiparty democracy was instituted in 1950. Parliamentary democracy has for the most part remained in force since that date, although it has been interrupted by brief periods of military government at times when civilian rule was perceived as ineffective. After each military interlude (1960–61, 1971–73, 1980–83), power was returned to civilian hands under a revised constitution.
Constitution
Under the current constitution, approved by national referendum in 1982 and amended several times since, the main legislative body is a 550-member parliament, the Grand National Assembly (Büyük Millet Meclisi), elected by universal adult suffrage for a five-year term. Members are chosen by a modified system of proportional representation based on political parties. There are a number of restrictions: extremist parties of both left and right are banned, and no party that obtains less than 10 percent of the national vote may be represented in parliament. Though religion had been largely discouraged from appearing in the political sphere, the role of Islamist parties in Turkish politics expanded in the 1990s and 2000s.
Executive power is divided between the prime minister and the president. The prime minister, elected by the parliament, selects other ministers (subject to parliamentary approval) and is responsible, along with the cabinet—the Council of Ministers—for carrying out government policy. Cabinet actions may be referred to a constitutional court for a ruling on their legality. The president, also elected by the parliament, holds a symbolic role as head of state but also has considerable powers, notably calling or dissolving parliament, approving the appointment of the prime minister, returning legislation to parliament for reconsideration, referring laws to the constitutional court, and submitting proposed constitutional changes to a popular referendum.
Before the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, Turkish civil law was linked to religion and was administered by Sharīʿah courts. With the reforms of 1926, a number of new legal codes were established based in part on the Swiss Civil and Italian penal codes. Following these changes, the independence of the judiciary—including the constitutional court and the courts responsible for criminal, civil, and administrative matters—has been ensured by the constitution. A number of superior courts, including a court of appeals, also exist to examine these rulings.
Turkey's provinces are administered by governors, who are appointed by the Council of Ministers, subject to the approval of the president. Provinces are divided into districts and subdistricts. Villages are governed by a headman and a council of elders, both elected by the village residents.
Political parties
Between 1950 and 1980 the number, names, and composition of Turkish political parties changed frequently. Generally, there was one main leftist and one main rightist party—receiving roughly equal shares of the popular vote—and several smaller parties. As a result, the country often was ruled by unstable coalitions. The 1982 constitution, with its 10 percent electoral threshold for parliamentary representation, was designed to reduce the need for coalition governments but has largely failed to do so.
A recurrent theme in Turkish politics is the conflict between progressive and conservative elements, the former intent on fully implementing Atatürk (Atatürk, Kemal)'s vision of a wholly secular, Westernized state and the latter seeking to preserve the values of traditional Islamic-Turkish culture. The legacy of Atatürk remains central to Turkish political life; throughout the first 50 years of the republic, all major political parties professed adherence to the doctrines of Atatürkism, which defined Turkey as nationalist, republican, statist, populist, and revolutionary and emphasized Westernization, the separation of religion from politics, and a leading role for the state in economic affairs. In the 1980s and '90s there were significant changes: state intervention in economic matters was reduced, a program of privatization of state-run farms was introduced, and private enterprise—both indigenous and foreign—was encouraged. Most striking, while the maintenance of a secular state remained enshrined in the constitution, this issue became even more prominent as a focus of political dispute; support for pro-Islamic political parties increased greatly, resulting in the expansion of the role of Islamist parties in Turkish politics in the 1990s and 2000s.Foreign policy
Throughout the first several decades of the postwar period, Turkey's international relationships were influenced by its Westernization policies and by the perceived threat from the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries. A founding member of the United Nations, Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952 and has been a close ally of the United States. Turkey was also a member—along with the United States, the United Kingdom, Iran, and Pakistan—of the now-defunct Central Treaty Organization, which was created as part of the “ring of containment” separating the Soviet Union from the Arab Middle East. Turkey is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and of the Council of Europe (Europe, Council of). It has long sought full membership in the European Union (EU) and its predecessor organizations. A customs accord between Turkey and the EU was signed in 1995. Turkey's relations with the Arab world at times have been cool; Turkey was long the only Middle Eastern state that maintained cordial relations with Israel.
Turkey's international relationships have reflected its geographic position at the junction of Europe and the Middle East; it belongs wholly to neither but has interests in both. Since the 1970s, while retaining its predominantly Western orientation, Turkey has moved closer to the Arab states of the Middle East, both politically and economically. Many Turks, particularly those who support Islamic political parties, have felt a certain disenchantment with the Western alliance, resulting from perceived Western support of Greece in the disputes over Cyprus and control of the Aegean, European criticism of Turkey's record on human rights (especially with regard to the Kurds), the treatment of Turkish workers in western Europe, and delays in Turkey's admission to the European Union. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the communist bloc, Turkey in the 1990s sought closer relationships with the countries around the Black Sea and with the Turkic-speaking former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
Education, health, and welfare
As part of its modernization policy, Turkey has sought—with limited resources—to improve the social conditions of its population in a variety of ways.
Education
The state education system involves five main sectors. Primary education, which is free and compulsory, begins at age six and lasts five years. A considerable proportion of the primary schools are village schools, where training in agricultural activities and handicrafts is emphasized. Nearly all eligible children are enrolled. Secondary education—with more than half of eligible students enrolled—continues for another six years and includes middle school and high school programs of three years each. There are a large number of technical and vocational schools, which may be entered after completion of the middle school level. Of the more than 1,200 institutions of higher education, more than 60 have university status. The largest are the universities at Istanbul, Ankara, and Ege (Aegean, at İzmir) and the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Istanbul Technical University, and Hacettepe University in Ankara.
Health and welfare
Health care is provided by both state and private health services. Not all workers are covered by the social security system, which provides health insurance. Turkey has a sufficient number of doctors and other health workers, but facilities are concentrated in urban areas. To counter this, the government operates a network of “health houses,” each staffed with a midwife, in the villages; “health units,” directed by a physician, serving groups of villages; and group hospitals, located in district and provincial centres.
Pensions and other social security programs are coordinated by various organizations within the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance. Very few agricultural workers participate in these programs.
Cultural life
Culturally, as in so many other respects, Turkey sits between East and West, drawing elements from both to produce its own unique blend. The territory that now constitutes the republic has been subject to a striking range of cultural influences; these have left a rich archaeological legacy, still visible in the landscape, from the civilizations of Classical Europe and the Islamic Middle East. Several locations of cultural significance have been designated UNESCO World Heritage sites (World Heritage site), including historic areas around Istanbul, the Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği, the old Hittite capital of Hattusha, the remains at Nemrut Dağ and Xanthos-Letoon, the city of Safranbolu, and the archaeological site of Troy. In addition to these, UNESCO recognized two mixed-interest properties (sites of both cultural and natural significance) in Turkey: the area of Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia, which is known for the traces of Byzantine art extant amid its dramatic rocky landscape, and Hierapolis-Pamukkale, which is known for its terraced basins of unique mineral formations and petrified waterfalls, where ruins of the thermal baths and temples constructed there in the 2nd century BCE are still present.
With the division of the Roman Empire into western and eastern sections, Asia Minor became part of the Byzantine realm (see Byzantine Empire), centred at Constantinople (Istanbul). The rise of Islam (Islām) in the east led to a division of the peninsula between the Byzantine Christian world and the Islamic Middle East, and it was not until the arrival of the Turks that Asia Minor finally became part of the Islamic world. The Ottoman Empire was multinational and multicultural; the new Turkey established by Atatürk (Atatürk, Kemal), however, was more homogeneous in language and religion than its predecessor states. Under Atatürk and his followers, Turkey became increasingly secular and Western-oriented, a trend manifested in the reform of the Turkish language, the replacement of the traditional Arabic script by a modified Roman alphabet, and the separation of Islam (Islāmic world) from the state. Nevertheless, Islam has exerted a profound influence on the relations between the sexes and on family life. The strength of this influence varies between the more- and less-developed regions of the country, between urban and rural populations, and between the social classes.Daily life
Work
In the rural areas each season has different tasks and activities. Except in the south and west, winter is a period of frost, snow, and social activities. Animals are often kept indoors and fed mainly chopped straw. With the spring thaw, plowing and sowing are soon under way. After a month or so of less-urgent work, the hay harvest is followed immediately by the main grain harvest, a period of intense activity lasting some six to eight weeks; everyone works, some people 16 to 20 hours a day. Most village areas contain weavers, masons, carpenters, and smiths such as tinsmiths. Some villagers go to town for craft services, and a number of craftsmen travel around the villages—particularly specialists, such as sieve makers or sawyers.
It is impossible to summarize in a few words the material culture of the towns and cities, which not long ago were the central part of a great empire and have since been profoundly influenced by European fashions and technology. Most towns, large and small, nevertheless still contain markets where simple lockup shops stand side by side in rows. Usually these are arranged by craft or wares—coppersmiths, jewelers, cobblers, tailors, motor mechanics, and so on. Retailers also are grouped by commodity. The larger towns have become increasingly Westernized, with modern factories, offices, and shops. Large-scale commuting from sprawling suburban areas is typical of the major cities, where it produces traffic congestion, air pollution, and strains on public transportation.
Dress
Turkish men have increasingly adopted the styles and sombre colours of European male dress. Fezzes and turbans were abolished by law in 1925, and most peasants now wear cloth caps. The famous Turkish baggy trousers, exceedingly full in the seat, are still quite common in rural areas and among the poorer town dwellers, but the traditional cummerbund and colourful shift or waistcoat are rare. Village women still largely preserve traditional attire. They wear some locally customary combination of baggy trousers, skirts, and aprons. In many areas it is still possible to identify a woman's town or village and her marital status by her dress; village women in Turkey have never worn a veil, but they have traditionally covered their heads and mouths with a large scarf. This practice has been revived among the more devout urban women, though the scarf is often combined with Western dress.Religious practice
For the observant, Islam entails many duties. Men and women are to maintain a state of ritual purity, pray five times a day, fast during the month of Ramadan (Ramaḍān) every year, and strive, if possible, to visit Mecca at least once in their lifetime. Islam provides basic ideas about the nature of morality, charity, transgression, reward and punishment, and relations between men and women, as well as about cleanliness and impurity.
Social roles and kinship
Male and female roles
In rural areas the main responsibilities of the men are the heavy agricultural work, looking after the livestock, and making all contacts outside the home, both official and economic, including shopping. Women—widows, for example—might do men's work, but men never undertake women's tasks. One consequence of this is that men are more dependent on women than women are on men, and a bereaved widower who has no other adult women in his household may remarry within a few days or weeks. Women are concerned with the care of children and their houses and with the preparation and cooking of food. They are also responsible for milking, caring for the chickens, making cakes of winter fuel from dung and straw, weeding vegetable plots near the village, and reaping barley and other short-stemmed crops. Overall, women are responsible for a high proportion of the agricultural work in addition to their domestic duties.
In urban areas the role of women is related to social class. The emancipation of women was among the Westernizing objectives of Atatürkism, and for the urban educated middle and upper classes much has been achieved. Women were given the right to vote in 1930, women were first elected to parliament in 1935, and a woman first held the prime ministership in the 1990s. Women are found in medicine, science, and the arts, and increasing numbers of women work in industry and the service sector. The position of working-class urban women—particularly from the families of recent migrants—and of women in rural areas, however, remains highly traditional.
The structure of social relationships is in innumerable ways profoundly affected by the sharp social segregation of men and women. This segregation is related to attitudes toward sex and sexuality, which are often seen as ritually impure and somewhat shameful; for example, sex is a banned topic between close kin, and a young couple is forbidden to show any interest in each other if anyone else, even a member of the household, is present.
marriage and family life
The traditional rural household consisted of a man, his wife, his adult sons and their wives, and his young children and grandchildren. On the death of the household head, this large household broke up into as many first-generation households as there were sons, each beginning the process again. The former high death rate among adult men, the lack of living sons, and, very rarely, quarrels between generations made these large households a minority of all households at any one time. Thus, although most villagers probably lived some part of their lives in such a household, most village households at any given time contained only parents and children, with perhaps other random relatives. The average size of a household was probably between five and six persons.
In most rural areas household heads were grouped in patrilineal lineages or clans—that is, a group of men descended only through males from a common ancestor, usually a great-grandfather but perhaps an even earlier ancestor. Such lineages were concerned primarily with mutual support and defense within the village, and the members often had adjacent houses and lands. This traditional organization persists in many areas.
Traditional village weddings involve elaborate ceremonies and last several days. Large transfers of wealth often are involved. Regional variations are considerable, but commonly a man may still make a marriage payment to the father of his son's bride and also pay for the wedding, the total cost amounting to as much as or more than one year's total income for an average household, without counting the need to provide a new room or house. These traditions have largely broken down among the urban educated classes, where traditional and Western courtship styles have demonstrated the ability to intermingle. In some cases, families arrange for an introduction between potential spouses; if they are compatible, the two may choose to continue with a period of courtship. This pattern, more common among urban educated youth, results in a longer period, on average, between meeting and marriage, as well as a later marriage age. Dating is growing more common among university populations.
Kinship carries strong obligations of mutual support and interest. People look to their kin for day-to-day sociability, for hospitality in other villages, for help in trouble, for cooperation in weddings and funerals, and for aid in urban migration, in finding jobs, and in getting official favours. Kinship and marriage ties have had important political and economic implications, both at higher levels of power in the towns and in links between towns and villages.
Social change
Change in Turkish society—which, as in many other developing countries, includes growth in population, communication, production, urbanization, and administration and education—has been rapid, complex, and extremely uneven.
A vast increase in jobs available in towns and cities has attracted migrant labour in the form of men who work in urban centres, many of whom work in cities still keep their families in the village tilling the land. It has also meant that many village households have uprooted themselves and moved to towns and cities, greatly increasing the urban population.
At the same time, through political and administrative pressure and greater efficiency, secularization and modernization have increasingly pervaded the rural areas and small towns. State schools have increased in numbers in the countryside, introducing more-national and cosmopolitan ideas. Bureaucracy has introduced registration of births, deaths, and marriages and more-complex systems of credit and law. Land disputes are now often settled by official and legal means rather than by local social pressures. Legal divorce has tended to replace socially recognized separation.
The state is constitutionally secular, but it still controls the religious establishment. Until 1950 no religious teaching was permitted, but modern religious schools and theology faculties were later established, and religious lessons were allowed in state schools. Many courses and groups outside the state system have been set up to teach children religion, and the number of new mosques is large. Thus, the deep attachment of the majority to Islam (Islāmic world) has been demonstrated. With the exception of a secularist elite, many Turkish people remain committed to a Muslim identity and to an Islamic worldview.
Changes in kinship, family, and marriage have resulted from economic and demographic changes. Young men can now more easily establish economic independence. Universal formal education and the possibilities of upward social mobility or migration for work have given young people a view of the world that is different from that of their ancestors, but significant changes in customary behaviour are slow in developing.
Arts and media
During the 20th century, Western forms of art, music, and literature assumed a place in Turkish national culture alongside traditional indigenous cultural expressions. While many writers, artists, and musicians have abandoned traditional Islamic modes in favour of Western ones, Turkish culture has adopted a strongly nationalistic slant evidenced by the use of the vernacular in literature, the depiction of village scenes in the visual arts, and the popularity of folk ballads and other traditional forms in music. Western-style theatres, orchestras, and opera companies are thriving, while the popular arts also flourish. There are many popular dances and games specific to particular regions. Folk instruments include drums, trumpets, flutes, tambourines, viols, and cymbals. Popular drama includes shadow plays, performed by puppets reflected on a linen screen, and the orta oyunu, a type of improvised comedy. Popular traditional literature takes the form of narrative (hikâye) and poetry (siir), recited by minstrels known as âşıks. Turkish contemporary literature was the focus of wide international regard when Orhan Pamuk (Pamuk, Orhan), an acclaimed Turkish novelist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006.Formal cultural institutions are led by the Ministry of Culture, established in 1971. Organizations devoted to the sciences and arts include music conservatories in Ankara, Istanbul, and İzmir, the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, the National Folklore Institute in Ankara, the Turkish Folklore Society in Istanbul, and many scientific and professional societies. There are archaeological museums in Ankara, Istanbul, and İzmir and the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul. The National Library is located in Ankara.
The country's leading newspapers include Milliyet, Sabah, Zaman, and Hürriyet, all based in Istanbul; Cumhuriyet is also an influential publication. The state-run Turkish Radio-Television Corporation (TRT) operates four radio networks and five domestic television channels, as well as a major international satellite television channel. There also are private radio stations and television channels. Freedom of the press is occasionally restricted, particularly for leftist or pro-Kurdish publications.
Sports and recreation
Football (soccer) is a favourite sport in Turkey; introduced to the region in the late 19th century, the game was repressed by Ottoman officials, who believed that it was connected to rebellious activities. In 1923 a national federation was formed, and it became affiliated with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association later that year; in 1954 the country appeared in its first World Cup. Wrestling is another favoured sport. Numerous athletes still compete in oiled wrestling—a sport practiced in the region for some six centuries—in annual competitions.
Turkey made its first Olympic appearance at the 1908 games in London, where it was represented by gymnast Aleko Mulas. However, most of the country's medals have been for wrestling, although it has also had success in boxing and track and field. One of Turkey's most famous Olympians is Naim Süleymanoğlu (Suleymanoglu, Naim) (known as Pocket Hercules), a Bulgarian-born featherweight weightlifter who defected to Turkey while a teenager. Süleymanoğlu set numerous world records in the late 1980s and '90s and won a number of Olympic gold medals.
History
This entry discusses the history of modern Turkey from its formation in the aftermath of the Ottoman defeat in World War I (1914–18) until the 21st century. For discussion of earlier history of the area, see Anatolia; Ottoman Empire.
Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk, Kemal) and the Turkish War of Independence, 1919–23
Although the legal Ottoman government in Istanbul under the 36th and last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI (Vahideddin; ruled 1918–22), had decided that resistance to Allied demands was impossible, pockets of resistance remained in Anatolia—the rump of the Ottoman state that later was to form the bulk of modern Turkey—after the Armistice of Mudros (Mudros, Armistice of), the agreement that ended Ottoman involvement in World War I. These included bands of irregulars and deserters, a number of intact Ottoman units, and various societies for the “defense of rights.” Resistance was stimulated by the Greek occupation of İzmir (May 15, 1919). At this time Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk, Kemal)—one of the empire's most successful officers during the war—was sent on an official mission to eastern Anatolia, landing at Samsun on May 19. He immediately began to organize resistance, despite official Ottoman opposition. Through the Association for the Defense of the Rights (Defense of Rights, Associations for the) of Eastern Anatolia (founded March 3, 1919), congress was summoned at Erzurum (July–August), followed by a second congress at Sivas (September) with delegates representing the whole country. The new Association for the Defense of the Rights (Defense of Rights, Associations for the) of Anatolia and Rumelia was established, and an executive committee with Mustafa Kemal as chairman was created to conduct resistance.The official government yielded to Kemalist pressure. The unpopular grand vizier, Damad Ferid Pasha, resigned and was replaced by the more sympathetic Ali Riza Pasha. Negotiations with the Kemalists were followed by the election of a new parliament, which met in Istanbul in January 1920. A large majority in parliament was opposed to the official government policy and passed the National Pact, formulated at Erzurum and Sivas, which embodied the political aims of independence roughly within the October 1918 armistice lines. The Allies countered by extending the occupied area of Istanbul (March 16, 1920) and by arresting and deporting many deputies. Damad Ferid became grand vizier again on April 5 and, with religious support, set out to crush the Kemalists.
The Fundamental Law and abolition of the sultanate
The Kemalists were now faced with local uprisings, official Ottoman forces, and Greek hostility. The first necessity was to establish a legitimate basis of action. A parliament, the Grand National Assembly, met at Ankara on April 23 and asserted that the sultan's government was under infidel control and that it was the duty of Muslims to resist foreign encroachment. In the Fundamental Law of Jan. 20, 1921, the assembly declared that sovereignty belonged to the nation and that the assembly was the “true and only representative of the nation.” The name of the state was declared to be Turkey (Türkiye), and executive power was entrusted to an executive council, headed by Mustafa Kemal, who could now concentrate on the war.
Local uprisings and the Ottoman forces were defeated, principally by irregular forces, who at the end of 1920 were brought under Mustafa Kemal's control. In 1920–21 the Greeks made major advances, almost to Ankara, but were defeated at the Battle of the Sakarya River (Aug. 24, 1921) and began a long retreat that ended in the Turkish occupation of İzmir (Sept. 9, 1922).
The Kemalists had already begun to gain European recognition. On March 16, 1921, the Soviet-Turkish Treaty gave Turkey a favourable settlement of its eastern frontier by restoring the cities of Kars and Ardahan to Turkey. Domestic problems induced Italy to begin withdrawal from the territory it occupied, and, by the Treaty of Ankara (Ankara, Treaty of) (Franklin-Bouillon Agreement, Oct. 20, 1921), France agreed to evacuate the southern region of Cilicia. Finally, by the Armistice of Mudanya, the Allies agreed to Turkish reoccupation of Istanbul and eastern Thrace.
A comprehensive settlement was eventually achieved via the Treaty of Lausanne (Lausanne, Treaty of) (1923). The Turkish frontier in Thrace was established on the Maritsa River, and Greece (Greece, history of) returned the islands of Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos). A compulsory exchange of populations was arranged, as a result of which an estimated 1,300,000 Greeks left Turkey and 400,000 Turks were repatriated. The question of the city of Mosul was left to the League of Nations (Nations, League of), which in 1925 recommended that it become part of the new state of Iraq. The Treaty of Lausanne also provided for the apportionment of the Ottoman public debt, for the gradual abolition of the capitulations (capitulation) (Turkey regained tariff autonomy in 1929), and for an international regime for the straits (Straits Question) that controlled access to the Black Sea (see Straits Question). Turkey did not recover complete control of the straits until the 1936 Montreux Convention.
The result of the war and the peace settlement was a state in which the great majority spoke Turkish. Though there has been a tendency to see this as the almost inevitable consequence of the rise of Turkish and Arab nationalism, it seems in fact to have been the accident of war that broke off the Arab provinces. Whatever the views of Mustafa Kemal himself, it is clear that the majority of his followers thought of themselves primarily as Muslims; in the elaborate religious ceremony that preceded the opening of the Grand National Assembly, there was no mention of Turks or Turkey but only of the need to save “religion's last country.” The creation of a sense of Turkish nationhood was the product of a long effort in which Mustafa Kemal played the dominant role.
Construction of a new political system began with the abolition of the sultanate and the declaration of a republic. Loyalty to the Ottoman dynasty was strong even among Kemalists, but Mehmed VI's identification with the Allies weakened his support. An Allied invitation to the sultan to nominate representatives to Lausanne aided Mustafa Kemal; a split Turkish delegation would have been self-defeating. With a brilliant mixture of threats and persuasion, Mustafa Kemal was able, therefore, to induce the assembly to abolish the sultanate (Nov. 1, 1922). Mehmed VI left Turkey, and his cousin Abdülmecid II was installed as the first and last Ottoman caliph who was not also sultan.
Declaration of the Turkish republic
On Oct. 29, 1923, the assembly declared Turkey to be a republic and elected Mustafa Kemal as its first president. The caliphate was abolished on March 3, 1924, and all members of the Ottoman dynasty were expelled from Turkey. A full republican constitution was adopted on April 20, 1924; it retained Islam as the state religion, but in April 1928 this clause was removed, and Turkey became a purely secular republic.
Turkey under Mustafa Kemal
Government
The assembly was the instrument of Mustafa Kemal's will. The first assembly had contained large factions hostile to his policies, including religious conservatives, merchants, and former members of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP; a Young Turks organization). In opposition to his 197 acknowledged supporters, who were known as the First Group, there were 118 opponents, members of the Second Group. The first assembly was dissolved on April 16, 1923, and Mustafa Kemal took care to keep his opponents out of the second assembly; only three of the Second Group were returned. Mustafa Kemal's own party, which became the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi; CHP), dominated all assemblies until 1950; in this period the assemblies included a heavy preponderance of urban professional men and of officials with a university education. With an outlook different from that of the illiterate Turkish peasants, they carried out a revolution from the top.
Opposition
There was little opposition to Mustafa Kemal: the small Progressive Republican Party (November 1924–June 1925) had only 29 members and was suppressed because he feared that its leading members, who included some of his most notable associates in the war of independence, might have too much influence in the army; and the similarly short-lived Liberal Republican Party (August–December 1930) was an abortive attempt by Mustafa Kemal to organize a moderate opposition to his own party. Otherwise, he ruled quite autocratically. A plot against his life in 1926 gave him the chance to deal with his rivals, who were tried by a special court. Many of them were sentenced to death, imprisonment, or exile. Opposition outside the assembly—including the dangerous Kurdish revolts of 1925, 1930, and 1937—was suppressed vigorously.
Kemalist policies
The bases of Mustafa Kemal's policies were enshrined in the CHP program of 1931, which was written into the Turkish constitution in 1937. Mustafa Kemal's six fundamental principles were republicanism (i.e., the creation of the republic), nationalism, populism, statism, secularism, and revolution. Revolution was implicit in the radical reorganization of the political, social, and economic systems. Populism was the effort to mobilize popular support from the top through such characteristic devices as the People's Houses (1931–51), which spread the new concept of a national culture in provincial towns, and the village institutes, which performed the same educational and proselytizing role in the countryside. The creation of a sense of nationalism was encouraged by changes in school curricula, the rewriting of history to glorify the Turkish past, the “purification” of the language by a reduction of the number of words of foreign origin (sometime later, this effort appeared to be redundant in light of a declaration that all languages were descended from Turkish (Turkish language)), and the renunciation of Pan-Islamic, Pan-Turkish (Pan-Turkism), and Pan-Ottoman goals in foreign policy.
Statism was the movement toward state-controlled economic development; the shortage of skilled labour and entrepreneurs (caused largely by the reduction of the Greek and Armenian communities, which in 1914 had controlled four-fifths of Ottoman finance, industry, and commerce), the lack of capital, and the intense nationalist desire for industrial self-sufficiency that would banish foreign influence all stimulated a movement in the 1930s toward state ownership or control. This was achieved through investment banks, monopolies, state industrial enterprises, and planning. A five-year plan was instituted in 1934. Although the immediate results were disappointing, the policy of state-inspired economic growth was important for future economic advance.
secularism included the reform of law, involving the abolition of religious courts and schools (1924) and the adoption of a purely secular system of family law. The substitution of the Latin alphabet for the Arabic in writing Turkish was a significant step toward secularism and made learning easier; other measures included the adoption (1925) of the Gregorian calendar, which had been jointly used with the Muslim (Hijrī) calendar since 1917, the replacement of Friday by Sunday as the weekly holiday (1935), the adoption of surnames (1934), and, most striking of all, the abolition of the wearing of the fez (1925), a hat that reformers saw as a sign of cultural backwardness. The wearing of clerical garb outside places of worship was forbidden in 1934.
These changes, coupled with the abolition of the caliphate and the elimination of the dervish (Sufi) orders (see Sufism (Ṣūfism)) after a Kurdish revolt in 1925, dealt a tremendous blow to Islam's position in social life, completing the process begun in the Tanzimat reforms under the Ottomans. With secularism there came a steady improvement in the status of women, who were given the right to vote and to sit in parliament.
Vital as these changes were, in many cases they were primarily matters of appearance and style. Structural changes in society took longer. At the first census, in 1927, the population was put at 13.6 million, of which about one-fourth was urban. In 1940 the population was 17.8 million, but the urban proportion was almost unchanged. In 1938 the per capita income and literacy rate were both below comparable figures for developed countries.
Foreign policy was subordinated to internal change. The loss of Mosul was accepted (June 5, 1926). Hatay (Antalya) province along the Syrian border, however, was recovered. It was given internal autonomy by France in 1937, occupied by Turkish troops in 1938, and incorporated into Turkey in 1939. Turkey followed a neutralist policy, supported the League of Nations (which it joined in 1932), and sought alliances with other minor powers, leading to the Balkan Entente (1934) and the Saʿdābād Pact with Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan (1937).
Turkey after Kemal “Atatürk”
World War II and the postwar era, 1938–50
The autocratic, dominating, and inspiring personality of Kemal Atatürk (“Father of Turks,” as Mustafa Kemal came to be known) had directed and shaped the Turkish republic. At his death in 1938 his closest associate, İsmet İnönü (İnönü, İsmet), was elected president. With the approach of World War II (1939–45), foreign affairs assumed greater importance. An alliance with the Allied powers Britain and France (Oct. 19, 1939) was not implemented because of Germany's early victories. After Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941), there was popular support for an alliance with Germany, which seemed to offer prospects of realizing old Pan-Turkish aims. Although a nonaggression pact was signed with Germany (June 18, 1941), Turkey clung to neutrality until the defeat of the Axis Powers became inevitable; it entered the war on the Allied side on Feb. 23, 1945, mere weeks before the war's end. The great expansion of Soviet power in the postwar years exposed Turkey in June 1945 to Soviet demands for control over the straits (Straits Question) connecting the Black Sea with the Aegean and for the cession of territory in eastern Anatolia. It was also suggested that a large area of northeastern Anatolia be ceded to Soviet Georgia. This caused Turkey to seek and receive U.S. assistance; U.S. military aid began in 1947 (providing the basis for a large and continuing flow of military aid), and economic assistance began in 1948.The war also brought changes in domestic policy. The army had been kept small throughout the Atatürk period, and defense expenditure had been reduced to about one-fourth of the budget. The army was rapidly expanded in 1939, and defense expenditures rose to more than half the budget for the duration of the war. Substantial deficits were incurred, imposing a severe economic strain, which was aggravated by shortages of raw materials. By 1945, agricultural output had fallen to 70 percent of the 1939 figure and per capita income to 75 percent. Inflation was high: official statistics show a rise of 354 percent between 1938 and 1945, but this figure probably understates the fall in the value of money, which in 1943 was less than one-fifth of its 1938 purchasing power. One means chosen by the government to raise money was a capital levy, introduced in 1942, arranged to fall with punitive force upon the non-Muslim communities and upon the Dönme (a Jewish sect that had adopted Islam). The war did provide some stimulus to industry, however, and enabled Turkey to build up substantial foreign credits, which were used to finance postwar economic development.
The most notable change in the postwar years was the liberalization of political life. The investment in education was beginning to show some return, and the literacy rate had risen to nearly one-third of the adult population by 1945. A growing class of professional and commercial men demanded more freedom. The Allied victory had made democracy more fashionable; accordingly, the government made concessions allowing new political parties, universal suffrage, and direct election.
From a split within the CHP, the Democrat Party (DP) was founded in 1946 and immediately gathered support. Despite government interference, the DP won 61 seats in the 1946 general election. Some elements in the CHP, led by Prime Minister Recep Peker (served 1946–47), wished to suppress the DP, but they were prevented from doing so by İnönü. In his declaration of July 12, 1947, İnönü stated that the logic of a multiparty system implied the possibility of a change of government. Prophetically, he renounced the title of “National Unchangeable Leader,” which had been conferred upon him in 1938. Peker resigned and was succeeded by the more liberal Prime Ministers Hasan Saka (1947–49) and Şemseddin Günaltay (1949–50).
Other restrictions on political freedom, including press censorship, were relaxed. The first mass-circulation independent newspapers were established during the period. The formation of trade unions was permitted in 1947, though unions were not given the right to strike until 1963. A far-reaching land-redistribution measure was passed in 1945, although little was done to implement it before 1950. Other political parties were established, including the conservative National Party (1948); socialist and communist activities, however, were severely repressed.
In the more open atmosphere, the DP was able to organize in the villages. The CHP, despite its local village institutes, had always been the government party and had little real grassroots organization. The Democrats were much more responsive to local interests. The DP won a massive victory in the 1950 elections, claiming 54 percent of the vote and 396 out of 487 seats. The CHP won 68 seats, the National Party 1. The DP victory has been attributed variously to American influence, social change, a desire for economic liberalization, better organization, religious hostility to the CHP, and a bad harvest in 1949. Perhaps the ultimate reason, however, is simply that in 27 years the CHP had made too many enemies.
Turkey under the Democrats, 1950–60
In the DP government Celâl Bayar (Bayar, Celâl) became president and Adnan Menderes (Menderes, Adnan) prime minister, a post which for the first time came to surpass that of the president in importance.
The economy
The Democrats were committed to a program of economic growth, to be achieved through a reduction of state interference. At first they had much success, assisted by good harvests in 1950 and 1953 and by an economic boom caused by the Korean War (1950–53). But problems appeared after 1953. In 1954 another poor harvest obliged Turkey to import wheat again. A shortage of foreign exchange limited the purchase of essential materials and parts, which handicapped industry. After a sudden favourable surge in the early 1950s, the international balance of trade moved steadily against Turkey. Inflation, which averaged 15 percent or more annually, became a serious problem. The government attempted unsuccessfully to control prices through legislation, but its continually rising public expenditure worsened inflation. Despite the problems, the DP achieved considerable political success throughout the 1950s.
Political repressions
The political fortunes of the Democrat government closely reflected the economic changes. In the 1954 elections—the Democrat peak—the DP took a majority of the vote and most of the seats; the CHP took about one-third of the vote and many of the remaining seats. Subsequent economic difficulties led to mounting criticism within and outside the DP, to which the government responded with increasing repression. In 1953 much of the property of the CHP was confiscated, forcing the closure of the People's Houses. The CHP newspaper presses in Ankara were seized. In 1954 the National Party was dissolved because of its opposition to Kemalist principles, though it was immediately re-formed as the Republican Nation's Party and in 1958 united with the Peasants' Party to form the Republican Peasants' Nation Party. Laws passed in 1954 provided for heavy fines on journalists thought to have damaged the prestige of the state or the law; several prominent journalists were prosecuted under this law, which was made more severe in 1956, while other laws substantially abridged the independence of civil servants (including university teachers) and judges. In 1955 critics within the DP were expelled; these critics subsequently formed the Freedom Party, which in 1958 merged with the CHP. In 1956, limitations were placed upon public meetings.
The DP's declining popularity was reflected in the elections of October 1957. The three opposition parties attempted to form an electoral coalition, but a law passed that September had declared such coalitions illegal. The combined opposition vote was more than half the total, but the DP controlled a majority of the seats, and many believed that the law banning coalitions had deprived the opposition of victory. Opposition attacks upon the DP became stronger, and it was accused of unconstitutional action. At the same time, the Democrats, fearing a revolution, redoubled control. In December 1959 an alleged plot (the so-called Nine Officers' Plot) was unearthed; some of the accused were so clearly innocent that punishment ultimately fell upon the accuser, but it appears that there indeed had been a conspiracy of some sort.
The CHP strenuously accused the DP of reversing the principles of secularism and favouring conservative religious organizations. Indeed, the DP had relaxed some of the secularist policies of pure Kemalism, following in the steps of the CHP in the years 1945–49. Religious instruction in schools had been extended and the organization of religious schools permitted. Arabic had been reinstated for the call to prayer, and radio readings of the Qurʾān had been allowed. These were modest concessions in themselves, however, and the Democrats had clearly demonstrated their unwillingness to tolerate religious influence in politics by suppressing the renewed activities of dervish orders in 1950–52.
The years 1958–60 saw a further worsening of the economy as the government reluctantly introduced restrictive measures. Returns on new investment fell and inflation continued. Serious problems of housing and unemployment were emerging in the large towns, whose population had been growing annually at the rate of about 10 percent, so that by 1960 the urban portion of the population had risen to nearly one-third. CHP attacks became more bitter and the government's response stronger. In April 1960 the government ordered the army to prevent İnönü from campaigning in Kayseri and formed a committee to investigate the affairs of the CHP. It was widely believed that the government's next action would be to close the CHP. Student demonstrations followed, and martial law was declared on April 28. The army had been brought directly into the political arena.
The military coup of 1960
Relatively neglected from 1923 to 1939, the army underwent a rapid expansion during World War II and, after the war, was extensively modernized with the aid of U.S. advisers. Many officers feared that the DP threatened the principles of the secular progressive Kemalist state. Some younger officers saw the army as the direct instrument of unity and reform. On May 3, 1960, the commander of the land forces, General Cemal Gürsel, demanded political reforms and resigned when his demands were refused. On May 27 the army acted; an almost bloodless coup was carried out by officers and cadets from the Istanbul and Ankara war colleges. The leaders established a 38-member National Unity Committee with Gürsel as chairman. The Democrat leaders were imprisoned.
The National Unity Committee
From the outset a clear division existed between the officers who carried out the coup. One group, consisting predominantly of younger officers, believed that, to restore national unity and carry out major social and economic reforms, it would be necessary to retain power for an extended period; this group included both those who supported a nationalistic and Islamist policy and those who favoured accelerated secularization. Another group, which included most of the senior officers, wanted to withdraw the army from politics as soon as possible. In November 1960 the dispute was decided in favour of the second group, and 14 members of the first group were expelled from the committee and sent into diplomatic exile.
The main work of the National Unity Committee was to destroy the DP and to prepare a new constitution. Substantial purges took place: 5,000 officers, including 235 of the 260 generals, were dismissed or retired, 147 university teachers left their jobs, and 55 wealthy landowners were banished from eastern Anatolia, their lands confiscated. The DP was abolished (September 1960), and many Democrats were brought to trial on a small island (Yassıada) in the Bosporus on charges of corruption, unconstitutional rule, and high treason. Of 601 tried, 464 were found guilty. Three former ministers, including Menderes, were executed; 12 others, including Bayar, had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
The constitution of 1961
Work on the new constitution began immediately after the coup, when a committee of five law professors was appointed to prepare a draft. This document was submitted to the National Unity Committee on October 18. That committee appointed a second committee to redraft the constitution; the new draft was presented to the Constituent Assembly, which met in January 1961. The constitution was completed in May and was approved by 61 percent of the voters at a referendum in July.
The new constitution established a two-chamber parliament, consisting of the Senate and the National Assembly. A separate electoral law provided for proportional representation. The president was elected by the Senate and National Assembly together. The constitution also provided for the Constitutional Court and the State Planning Organization. The first elections were held in October 1961. The army then withdrew from direct political involvement, although the members of the National Unity Committee retained some influence as life members of the Senate.
The ascendancy of the right, 1961–71
No party won a majority in October 1961. The CHP won 38 percent of the votes and 173 of the 450 assembly seats. The newly formed Justice Party (JP), led by the retired general Ragıp Gümüşpala (Gümüşpala, Ragıp), received 35 percent and 158 seats. The remaining seats were divided between two smaller parties—the Republican Peasants' Nation Party, which took 54 seats, and the liberal New Turkey Party, which gained 65. The results demonstrated the enduring popularity of the old DP. Its votes had been divided among the three smaller parties, the majority going to the JP, which also emerged as the largest party in the Senate. The CHP had failed to hold all of its 1957 vote and had suffered by identification with the army coup.
The new Grand National Assembly elected General Gürsel as president. The CHP leader İnönü formed a coalition government with the JP, but the coalition survived only until June 1962, when it broke up over the question of an amnesty for the imprisoned Democrats. After some delay and splits within the parties, which led to the formation of the Nation Party by dissidents who withdrew from the Republican Peasants' Nation Party, the CHP formed a coalition with the two smaller parties. This accelerated the tendency for former Democrat voters to turn to the JP.
In the local elections of 1963, the JP made extensive gains at the expense of the two smaller parties. This led to the breakup of the coalition, and, because the JP was unable to form a government, İnönü formed a minority government from his own party alone but with voting support from the New Turkey Party. The CHP government resigned after a defeat on the budget in February 1965 and was replaced by a coalition of all the other parties, under the leadership of an independent, Suat Hayri Ürgüplü; this coalition acted as caretaker until the elections of Oct. 10, 1965.
In December 1964 a new electoral law introduced the principle of the “national remainder,” by which a certain number of seats were distributed to parties according to their proportion of the vote. The law was intended to operate in favour of the smaller parties and against the JP, but in the election of 1965 the JP won a surprising majority with 53 percent of the votes and 240 seats. The CHP received 29 percent and 134 seats and the smaller parties 76 seats. The new JP leader, Süleyman Demirel (Demirel, Süleyman), a former engineer, was able to form a government.
Political moderation triumphed in the years 1961–65. The army stood aloof while power came gradually to a party that drew its main support from the same groups and areas as the Democrats and that espoused a similar philosophy. Attempts to restore army rule failed. Intervention proposed by senior officers in October 1961 was rejected by others. Two projected coups were foiled in February 1962 and May 1963. Members of a secret society within the army—the Young Kemalists—were arrested in April 1963. Criticism of the 1960 revolution was made illegal in 1962; army leaders contented themselves with occasional warnings against too rapid a rehabilitation of the Democrats. This peaceful political evolution can be ascribed partly to İnönü, who used his personal influence and prestige to restrain the army even while power ebbed from his own party. The price was the postponement of several reforms. The only significant progressive initiative of the early 1960s was the labour law of 1963, which legalized strikes and promoted an expansion of trade unions; by the 1990s about half of Turkey's nonagricultural workers were members of a trade union.
The JP's program embraced political and economic liberalization. The DP prisoners were released (1962–64), and their political rights were restored in 1969. The JP eschewed central economic planning and sought foreign investment in industry to provide growth. The policy had much success: over the period 1963–77 the gross domestic product grew strongly, and industry replaced agriculture as the major contributor to national income. But the JP failed to address new political problems caused by the rise of extremist parties of the right and left and by political violence.
Industrial development, urbanization, and the growth of trade unions provided a base for the development of a radical left that included a new trade union federation, the Confederation of Reformist Workers' Unions (Devrimci Işçi Sendıkalari Konfederasyonu 【DİSK】; founded 1967); a revolutionary youth movement, Dev Genç (1969); a socialist political party, the Workers' Party of Turkey (WPT; 1961); and an armed guerrilla movement, the Turkish People's Liberation Army (1970). These and similar groups espoused anticapitalist and anti-Western doctrines, and their followers, particularly in the universities, often supported them by violent action. The violence of the left was opposed by that of right-wing groups, of which the most prominent was the National Action Party (NAP), created in 1963 from the former Republican Peasants' Nation Party and led by an ex-officer, Alparslan Türkeş. The NAP's agenda combined Islam and Turkish nationalism and stressed education. As part of its organization, the NAP developed a paramilitary section, known as the Gray Wolves, that clashed with the leftists.
The JP's failure to deal with increasing violence during the late 1960s was caused in part by its own internal divisions. A coalition of diverse groups, including prosperous farmers from western Anatolia and big and small businessmen, the JP fell victim to personal rivalries. Its victory in the 1969 election, with slightly less than half the vote, was narrower than its 1965 victory; moreover, it lost votes not to the CHP—which was supported by only about one-fourth of the electorate—but to smaller parties. However, a change in the electoral system had made it more difficult for these smaller parties to win seats, and the JP thus increased its parliamentary representation. In the new parliament the right wing of the JP, led by Sadettin Bilgiç, disappointed at its exclusion from the government, defeated Demirel in February 1970; the Demirel government continued but was much weakened by these events.
Political developments, 1970s to the '90s
Military intervention and coalition governments
Senior army officers, concerned by the uncontrolled spread of political violence and a revolt in Kurdish regions of eastern Turkey—a part of the region commonly referred to as Kurdistan—and fearing that political divisions would spread to the army itself, delivered a warning to the government in March 1970 and a year later forced Demirel's resignation. During the next two years, Turkey was ruled by supraparty coalitions of conservative politicians and technocrats who governed with the support of the army and who were primarily concerned with restoring law and order. martial law was established in several provinces and was not completely lifted until September 1973; there were armed clashes with guerrillas and many arrests and trials; extremist political parties, including the WPT and the Islamic-based National Order Party (NOP), were shut down; and the constitution was amended to limit personal freedoms. Unlike in 1960–61, however, there was no sweeping political reorganization; the constitution, parliament, and major political parties remained. In 1973 the army withdrew to the barracks when its candidate for the presidency was defeated, leaving government once more to the politicians.
From 1973 until 1980 the army and the politicians were faced with the consequences of their failure to address the political problems that had led to the 1971 military intervention. During these years Turkey was ruled mainly by weak coalition governments dependent on the support of minor parties, including the extremists; these extremists refused to agree to measures that would curb their own violence, and they introduced their supporters into state institutions. The annual death toll from political violence rose from 34 in 1975 to about 1,500 before the military intervention in September 1980.
In the 1973 election the CHP emerged as the strongest party, with about one-third of the vote, narrowly defeating its principal rival, the JP. The CHP had changed its character since the early 1960s; its conservative wing, opposed to the leftist program adopted at the 1965 election, had departed. The party leader, İnönü, supported the radicals but in 1972 was discarded in favour of the radical leader, Bülent Ecevit (Ecevit, Bülent). The CHP thus became a social democratic party, drawing its support primarily from workers and intellectuals in the major cities. The remainder of the vote was distributed among small parties, mainly of the right.Lacking a majority, the CHP formed a coalition with the National Salvation Party (NSP), founded in 1972 as a successor to the banned NOP and led by Necmettin Erbakan (Erbakan, Necmettin). The electoral success of the NSP—which polled more than one-tenth of the vote—was striking. Although the constitution banned religious parties, the NSP was in all but name an Islamic party; in 1980 it called for the restoration of Islamic law ( Sharīʿah). The coalition's principal domestic achievement was a land reform measure that reduced ceilings on landholdings to about 250 acres (100 hectares) of irrigated and 500 acres (200 hectares) of dry land. Implementation of the land reform was slow, however, and the law was eventually annulled by the constitutional court in 1977. In September 1974 Ecevit resigned, hoping to bring about an election in which he could profit from the popular Turkish invasion of Cyprus (see Foreign affairs since 1950 (Turkey)), but his gamble failed; nonpartisan and coalition governments of the right followed, and there was no election until 1977.
In the 1977 elections the CHP again emerged as the largest party, with about two-fifths of the vote, edging out the JP. The smaller parties, which had done so well in 1973, lost votes but still held the balance of power in the assembly. The NSP took about one-tenth of the vote and the NAP a smaller proportion. Demirel's ineffective coalition government continued and was succeeded in 1978 by an even more ineffective coalition under Ecevit. Inflation, unemployment, the trade deficit, and political violence all grew rapidly. The economy was seriously weakened by a rise in world oil prices and a fall in remittances from Turkish workers abroad. Ecevit resigned in 1979, and Demirel formed a minority JP government that announced a major new economic recovery program.
The 1980s
On Sept. 12, 1980, the senior command of the army, led by General Kenan Evren, carried out a bloodless coup. This coup, the third army intervention in 20 years, was generally supported by the public. The leading politicians were arrested, and parliament, political parties, and trade unions were dissolved. A five-member National Security Council took control, suspending the constitution and implementing a provisional constitution that gave almost unlimited power to military commanders. Martial law, which had been established in a number of provinces in 1979, was extended throughout Turkey, and a major security operation was launched to eradicate terrorism. There followed armed clashes, thousands of arrests, imprisonment, torture, and executions, but political violence by opponents of the government was greatly reduced.
As it had been in 1971, the army's intervention was prompted by disgust at the failure of the politicians to control violence, fear of the Islamic upsurge (which drew strength from the Iranian Revolution 【1978–79】 that had resulted in the declaration of an Islamic Republic), concern at the spread of guerrilla warfare in Kurdistan, and renewed worries that the army might become infected by the politicization that had paralyzed the police force. In 1980, however, the army was determined not only to restore order but also to undertake a thorough reform of the political system.
The 1982 constitution
A new constitution, modeled on the French constitution of 1958, was approved by referendum in 1982. It provided for a strong president (elected for a seven-year term) who appointed the prime minister and senior judges and could dismiss parliament and declare a state of emergency. A unicameral parliament replaced the bicameral experiment of 1961, and—in an effort to reduce the influence of smaller parties—no party polling less than 10 percent of the votes cast was to receive seats in parliament. There were also close controls over political parties, the press, and trade unions.
The first elections under the new constitution were held in 1983 and were a disappointment to the army, which had intended that two parties—the centre-right National Democratic Party (NDP) and the centre-left Populist Party (PP)—should dominate the new parliament. Instead, a third party, the Motherland Party (MP), emerged as the clear winner, gaining more than half the seats. The MP—a heterogeneous coalition of liberal, nationalist, social democratic, and Islamic groups—owed its success to the unwillingness of Turks to accept the army's prescription for government and to the reputation of its leader, Turgut Özal (Özal, Turgut). Özal was considered an authority on economic issues; he had been the author of the JP's economic reform package of 1980 and had been responsible for the successful stabilization program carried out after the army intervention. By the early 1980s, then, only the army upheld the principles of Atatürk.
Under Özal's leadership the MP ruled Turkey until 1991. From 1983 to 1987 its economic policies—based on removing state controls, encouraging foreign trade, and relying on free-market principles—had considerable success, helped by the fall in world oil prices and by opportunities created by the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88). The inflation rate fell, and economic growth was strong. After 1987, however, the economic situation deteriorated as a result of the world recession of the late 1980s and early '90s and the government's failure to stem the rising budget deficit, largely the consequence of the continued burden of inefficient, heavily subsidized state industries. Inflation and unemployment rose, and a large foreign-trade deficit developed.
The Kurdish (Kurd) conflict
The public security situation also worsened, notably in the Kurdish provinces of the southeast. Following major social changes associated with the commercialization of agriculture since the 1950s, there were outbreaks of violence in Kurdistan during the 1970s, generally linked with the activities of the revolutionary left. After 1980, however, the disturbances took on a specifically Kurdish character. Several groups emerged, espousing demands ranging from freedom of cultural expression to outright independence; some turned to violence to advance their cause. The most important of these groups was the Kurdistan Workers' Party (Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan; PKK), led by Abdullah Öcalan. The PKK, a leftist group founded in 1978, initiated violent attacks in the late 1970s before launching its armed campaign against the state in 1984 from bases in Iraq. The PKK sought an independent Kurdish state or, possibly, full Kurdish autonomy. With between 5,000 and 10,000 armed fighters, the PKK directed attacks against government property, government officials, Turks living in the Kurdish regions, Kurds accused of collaborating with the government, foreigners, and Turkish diplomatic missions abroad. The PKK received support from Syria and from Kurds living abroad and also acquired money through criminal activities. From 1991 the existence of so-called safe havens in Iraqi Kurdistan—established following the Persian Gulf War (1990–91) and protected by U.S. and British forces—provided new bases for PKK operations. Turkish governments sought to deal with the Kurdish problem by granting cultural concessions in 1991 and limited autonomy in 1993. The establishment of Kurdish political parties, however, remained forbidden. The main government effort remained the military suppression of the uprising; martial law was imposed in Kurdish areas, and increasing numbers of troops and security forces were committed to the task. By 1993 the total number of security forces involved in the struggle in southeastern Turkey was about 200,000, and the conflict had become the largest civil war in the Middle East. It is estimated that between 1982 and 1995 some 15,000 people were killed, the great majority of them Kurdish civilians. Dozens of villages were destroyed and many inhabitants driven from their homes. Turkish forces also attacked PKK bases in Iraq, first from the air and then with ground forces; in an operation in late 1992, about 20,000 Turkish troops entered the safe havens in Iraq, and in 1995 some 35,000 troops were employed in a similar campaign.
In the 1987 election the MP was returned to power. Its share of the vote fell to slightly more than one-third, but it expanded its representation in parliament. Prior to the election, the political rights of the old politicians had been restored, and they figured prominently in the campaign. Demirel reemerged as the leader of the True Path Party (TPP; founded 1983), which won about one-fifth of the vote. Erdal İnönü, the son of İsmet İnönü (İnönü, İsmet), led the Social Democratic and Populist Party (SDPP; founded 1985), which gained one-fourth of the vote. Erbakan's new Welfare Party (WP; an Islamic party) and Türkeş's right-wing National Endeavour Party (NEP) also took part, although they failed to obtain at least 10 percent of the vote and thus were not represented in parliament.
After 1987 the popularity of the MP fell rapidly. Fractures developed—especially between liberals and Islamists—and Özal was heavily criticized for nepotism and corruption. In October 1989 Özal was elected president, succeeding Evren, while within the MP the internal struggle continued and was eventually decided in favour of the liberals, whose young leader, Mesut Yılmaz, became prime minister.
The 1990s
Despite considerable fluctuations from year to year, Turkey maintained the economic advance that had begun in 1950. Increasingly, Turkey was becoming an urbanized, industrialized country and a major exporter of manufactured goods, especially to Europe. Yet the pace of economic change was an underlying cause of much of the social and political unrest that beset Turkey during the 1990s.
The MP was defeated in the elections of 1991 but secured about one-fourth of the vote. The remainder of the centre-right vote went to the TPP, which emerged as the largest party in the new assembly. Mainly because of personality differences between Özal and Demirel, the obvious coalition government of the MP and the TPP was not possible; instead, the TPP formed a coalition government with the third largest party, the SDPP. The declining centre-left vote was divided between the SDPP and the Democratic Left Party (DLP) of Ecevit. The program of the new government, with Demirel as prime minister, represented a compromise between the economic liberalism of the TPP and the political liberalism of the SDPP, but the lack of fundamental agreement made it difficult to tackle the economic and political problems that troubled Turkey. In addition to the continuing Kurdish war, there was a recrudescence of the political violence by the radical left and right. After Özal's death in 1993, Demirel was elected president. Tansu Çiller (Ciller, Tansu), a liberal economist, became Turkey's first woman prime minister. Çiller emphasized more-rapid economic privatization and closer links with the European Union (EU). The coalition government collapsed in September 1995 when the SDPP withdrew from the government after protracted internal divisions. Çiller failed to form a new coalition and called an election for December 1995.
The most striking feature of the 1995 election was the extent of support for the WP, which emerged as the largest single party, with about one-fifth of the vote. The political success of the WP reflected the increasing role of Islam (Islāmic world) in Turkish life during the 1980s and '90s, as evidenced by changes in dress and appearance, segregation of the sexes, the growth of Islamic schools and banks, and support for Sufi orders. Support for the WP came not only from the smaller towns but also from major cities, where the WP drew support from the secular left parties. The WP stood for a greater role for Islam in public life, state-directed economic expansion, and a turning away from Europe and the West toward the Islamic countries of the Middle East. Despite its electoral success, the WP was unable to find a coalition partner to form a government, and in March 1996 a coalition government of the MP and TPP was formed, although it was dependent on voting support from the centre left. Yılmaz and Çiller agreed to share the prime ministership; Yılmaz took the first turn, in 1996.In June 1996 Erbakan's Islamist WP formed a short-lived coalition government, which was opposed by secularists and the armed forces. By mid-1997 Erbakan was succeeded by Yılmaz and the MP. However, two years later the MP lost power to the DLP, still led by Ecevit. The DLP government benefited from the capture of PKK leader Öcalan, who was sentenced to death.
Late in 1997, a pair of powerful earthquakes shook eastern Turkey, killing thousands.
Challenges of the 21st century
In 2002 the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi; AKP), a party with Islamist roots, swept the parliamentary elections. It came to power under the ostensible leadership of Abdullah Gül, since party leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Erdoğan, Recep Tayyip) was ineligible to serve in parliament or as prime minister because of a 1998 conviction; a constitutional amendment in late 2002 removed this ineligibility. Erdoğan won a seat in parliament in early 2003 and quickly replaced Gül as prime minister. That same year, Turkey refused to grant transit through its territory to the U.S. military during the Iraq War, though it did extend rights to air transport.In January 2007, Armenian journalist and community leader Hrant Dink was murdered outside his office in Istanbul in what many viewed as a political attack, as Dink had received a number of death threats for his position on the early 20th-century treatment of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire—a highly sensitive topic and a source of tension between both Turkish and Armenian communities.
Tensions also simmered later that year when tens of thousands of secularist protesters, wary of Erdoğan's Islamist roots, demonstrated in Ankara in an attempt to discourage him from seeking the presidency; Erdoğan acquiesced. The AKP then nominated Gül as its candidate, even though he shared a similar political history with Erdoğan: both began their careers in a pro-Islamic party, since banned, and both were married to women who opted to wear the head scarf, a visible marker of religion in a resolutely secular republic and a major source of contention in modern Turkish society. Gül's marriage to a woman who wore the head scarf was received as but one signal of his Islamist leanings, an unnerving proposition for many voters.
Though many suggested that the Islamist roots of the AKP might represent a challenge to Turkey's secular democracy, others felt that the periodic intrusion of the military into Turkish politics posed a greater threat. The military, which had maneuvered Turkish political proceedings in the past, issued a memorandum on the Internet criticizing the rising role of Islamists in the government and indicating military readiness to act if an unapproved candidate, such as Gül, won the presidency; this approach was dubbed an “e-coup” by pundits.
Gül went on to receive the majority of the votes in parliament's election for the presidency, but the CHP opposition boycotted the vote and caused Gül to fall short of the necessary quorum by a narrow margin. Consequently, the election results were later overturned in court, and a stalemate ensued. Erdoğan worked to resolve the standoff by calling for early parliamentary elections, in which the AKP secured a decisive victory. In spite of the previous political standoff, the AKP then once more nominated Gül as its candidate, and in the parliamentary elections that followed he won the presidency by a wide margin.
The PKK, quiescent since the capture of Öcalan, resumed guerrilla activities in 2004 under a new name, Kongra-Gel, chosen in 2003. Although the organization reverted to its former designation (PKK) in 2005, some elements continued to make use of the new name. The group was thought to be the source of a number of subsequent attacks, and in October 2007 the Turkish parliament approved military action for one year against PKK targets across the border in Iraq; a series of strikes began in December, and a ground incursion was initiated in February. Although the United States indicated its support for the limited maneuvers against the PKK by sharing intelligence with Turkey, it encouraged the development of a long-term resolution to the conflict.
In February 2008 the parliament voted to amend Turkey's constitution by eliminating a ban barring the head scarf from being worn on university campuses. The amendment aggravated a long-standing fault line within Turkish society; while portions of the population supported the liberty to wear the head scarf, others feared that the change endangered Turkey's secular ideals and could lead to increasing pressure upon those women who choose not to wear the garment. Galvanized by the amendment, opponents of the AKP renewed charges that the party's Islamist agenda threatened Turkish secular order. In March 2008 the constitutional court voted unanimously to hear a case that called for the disbanding of the AKP and a five-year ban of Erdoğan and dozens of other party members from Turkish politics, and in early June it annulled the amendment. The AKP successfully retained its position, however, when in July 2008 the court ruled narrowly against the party's closure.
Foreign affairs since 1950
Until the 1960s, Turkish foreign policy was wholly based on close relations with the West, particularly the friendship of the United States. Turkey sent troops to fight in the Korean War and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO; 1952) and the Central Treaty Organization (1955). This Western-oriented policy derived from Turkey's fear of its enormous northern neighbour, the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), from its dependence on U.S. military and economic aid, and from its desire to be accepted as a secular, democratic, Western state. After 1960, however, this policy came into question as a consequence of East-West détente, the rise of economic and political cooperation in western Europe, and the growing economic importance of Middle Eastern countries.
Doubts also began to creep into Turkish political thought about the reliability of the United States as an ally, especially in consequence of events in Cyprus. The independence of Cyprus had been arranged through the Zürich and London agreements of 1959. Turkey sought to protect the interests of the Turkish community on Cyprus, and, when these were threatened by disputes between Turkish and Greek Cypriots in 1963 and again in 1967, Turkey contemplated intervention. In July 1974 the Greek (Greece, history of) government supported the leaders of a coup that overthrew the Cypriot president, Makarios III, and proclaimed the union of Cyprus with Greece. Failing to persuade either Britain or the United States to take effective action, Turkey acted unilaterally and occupied the northern part of the island, refusing to withdraw until a new arrangement satisfactory to the Turkish Cypriots was agreed to and guaranteed. These events, which were followed by disputes over the extent of territorial waters, underwater resources in the Aegean Sea, sovereignty over uninhabited islands, and airspace, led to bad relations with Greece and a cooling of relations with the United States, which Turks believed had favoured Greece. In 1987 and 1996 Turkey and Greece came to the brink of war over the Aegean.
As a result, Turkey—while remaining faithful to the Western alliance—broadened its options. From 1964 it developed better relations with the Soviet Union, leading to a friendship agreement in 1978; following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, Turkey was quick to establish relations with the newly independent Transcaucasian and Central Asian states (many of which had Turkic-speaking majorities). Turkey recognized the government of mainland China in 1971, improved relations with the Balkan states (although relations with Bulgaria were disturbed by an exodus of 300,000 Turkish refugees from that country in 1989), and cultivated closer connections with the Arab and Islamic worlds. In the former Yugoslavia, popular Turkish sympathy for the Bosnian Muslims led Turkey to advocate international action on their behalf, and Turkish forces took part in the United Nations (UN) and NATO operations there. Turkey cooperated with Iraq in suppressing Kurdish (Kurd) disorder, although it supported the UN against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, allowing use of U.S. air bases in Turkey. In return, the United States extended the defense agreement that was due to expire in 1990 and increased military and economic aid. International sanctions against Iraq cost Turkey hundreds of millions of dollars a year in oil pipeline revenues. Turkey's relations with Syria were adversely affected by Syria's support for Kurdish rebels and by Syrian concern over the construction of the Atatürk Dam in southeastern Turkey, which threatened to divert the Euphrates River, whose flow is shared by Turkey, Syria, and Iraq.
Turkey applied to join the European Community (now embedded in the EU) in 1959, and an association agreement was signed in 1963. In 1987 Özal applied for full membership. The increasing economic links between Turkey and the EU (European Union)—more than half of Turkey's trade was with the EU in the 1990s—gave the application a stronger economic justification. However, doubts persisted in the EU, where Turkish policy on human rights and on Cyprus was criticized, and in Turkey, where the Islamists opposed membership. Nevertheless, in 1996 a customs union between Turkey and the EU was inaugurated. In the final years of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st, Turkey continued to flirt with membership in the EU. To strengthen its bid, the Turkish government began pursuing a number of key changes. In the early 21st century the emphasis on freedom of speech and Kurdish-language rights was accompanied by a reformed penal code and a decrease in the role of the military in politics. In 2004 the death penalty (capital punishment) was banned, a move largely lauded by the EU community.
That same year the EU called upon Turkey to intervene in the ongoing Turkish-Greek Cyprus standoff by encouraging the Turkish north to support a UN-sponsored unification plan that was to precede Cyprus's admittance to the EU. Although Turkey was successful in its efforts and the Turkish north voted strongly in favour of the plan, the Greek south overwhelmingly rejected it. In May 2004 Cyprus entered the EU as a divided territory: EU rights and privileges were extended only to the southern region, because it alone was under the administration of the internationally recognized Cypriot government. Late in the following year, formal negotiations over Turkey's EU membership were officially opened. Though it has since recognized Cyprus as a member of the EU, Turkey's failure to extend full diplomatic recognition subsequently posed a recurrent stumbling block in its EU bid; talks were stalled in late 2006 by Turkey's continued failure to open its air- and seaports to Cypriot passage.
In addition, Turkey's bid was slowed by a number of challenges from standing EU members, with opposition from France and Austria traditionally being among the most vocal; French President Nicolas Sarkozy (Sarkozy, Nicolas) expressed the opinion that Turkey did not belong in the EU. In addition, Sarkozy sought to establish new limitations on future expansion of the EU community. Austria, France, and Slovakia, among others, suggested that Turkey be extended a “privileged partnership” in the place of full membership.
Additional Reading
General works
A general introduction that contains a useful bibliography is Helen Chapin Metz (ed.), Turkey: A Country Study, 5th ed. (1996). A helpful shorter work is Dankwart A. Rustow, Turkey: America's Forgotten Ally (1987). Older, still useful works include Lord Kinross (patrick Balfour, Baron Kinross), Turkey (1960); Cedric Salter, Introducing Turkey (1961); and Andrew Mango, Turkey (1968).
Geography
The land
Works in European languages dealing specifically with Turkey are somewhat restricted. The only text devoted solely to the geography of Turkey is John C. Dewdney, Turkey (1971); but much additional geographic information is available from broader studies, including George Babcock Cressey, Crossroads: Land and Life in Southwest Asia (1960); William C. Brice, South-west Asia (1966); Stephen H. Longrigg, The Middle East: A Social Geography, 2nd ed., rev. by James Jankowski (1970); W.B. Fisher, The Middle East, 7th ed., completely rev. (1978); Alasdair Drysdale and Gerald H. Blake, The Middle East and North Africa: A Political Geography (1985); and Peter Beaumont, Gerald H. Blake, and J. Malcolm Wagstaff, The Middle East: A Geographical Study, 2nd ed. (1988). Numerous aspects of Turkey's physical and human geography are mapped and analyzed in Gerald H. Blake, John C. Dewdney, and Jonathan Mitchell (eds.), The Cambridge Atlas of the Middle East and North Africa (1987). The standard national atlas is Ali Tanoğlu, S. Erinç, and Erol Tümertekin, Türkiye Atlasi (1961).
The people
The country's population is discussed in John C. Dewdney, “Turkey: Recent Population Trends,” in John I. Clarke and W.B. Fisher (eds.), Populations of the Middle East and North Africa (1972), pp. 40–67. Village life is described in Mahmut Makal, A Village in Anatolia, trans. from Turkish (1954); Joe E. Pierce, Life in a Turkish Village (1964, reissued 1983); and Paul Stirling, Turkish Village (1965). Migration is treated in Nermin Abadan-Unat et al., Turkish Workers in Europe, 1960–1975 (1976); and in Ruşen Keleş, “The Effects of External Migration on Regional Development in Turkey,” in Ray Hudson and Jim Lewis (eds.), Uneven Development in Southern Europe (1985), pp. 54–75.
The economy
Economic development is the main focus of Oddvar Aresvik, The Agricultural Development of Turkey (1975); Edwin J. Cohn, Turkish Economic, Social, and Political Change (1970); Z.Y. Hershlag, Turkey: The Challenge of Growth (1968), and Economic Planning in Turkey (1968); Caglar Keyder, The Definition of a Peripheral Economy: Turkey, 1923–1929 (1981); Malcolm D. Rivkin, Area Development for National Growth: The Turkish Precedent (1965); and Bertil Wålstedt, State Manufacturing Enterprise in a Mixed Economy: The Turkish Case (1980). John C. Dewdney, “Agricultural Development in Turkey,” in John I. Clarke and Howard Bowen-Jones (eds.), Change and Development in the Middle East (1981), pp. 213–223, surveys agriculture's role in the economy.Much attention has been paid to the modernization of Turkey and the changes that followed the establishment of the republic, most notably in Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 2nd ed. (1968, reprinted 1979); but also in David Barchard, Turkey and the West (1985); Peter Benedict, Erol Tümertekin, and Fatma Mansur (eds.), Turkey: Geographic and Social Perspectives (1974); William M. Hale (ed.), Aspects of Modern Turkey (1976); William M. Hale, The Political and Economic Development of Modern Turkey (1981); Jacob Landau (ed.), Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey (1984); and Huseyin Ramazanoglu (ed.), Turkey in the World Capitalist System (1985).
Administration and social conditions
Political aspects are dealt with in detail by C.H. Dodd, The Crisis of Turkish Democracy, 2nd, enlarged ed. (1990); Michael N. Danielson and Ruşen Keleş, The Politics of Rapid Urbanization: Government and Growth in Modern Turkey (1985); Kemal H. Karpat, Social Change and Politics in Turkey (1973); Lord Kinross (Patrick Balfour, Baron Kinross), Ataturk: The Rebirth of a Nation (1964, reissued 1993); and Robert E. Ward and Dankwart A. Rustow, Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (1964). Binnaz Toprak, Islam and Political Development in Turkey (1981), studies the role of religion in Turkey's development.
History
The best general history covering this period is Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 2nd ed. (1968, reprinted 1979); it is updated by Erik J. Zürcher, Turkey: A Modern History (1993); and by Feroz Ahmad, The Making of Modern Turkey (1993). Niyazi Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey (1964), covers similar ground but concentrates on the development of ideas. Robert E. Ward and Dankwart A. Rustow (eds.), Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (1964), has valuable essays on general themes. Walter F. Weiker, The Modernization of Turkey (1981), covers the period beginning in 1923.R.H. Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856–1876 (1963, reissued 1973); and Carter V. Findlay, Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire: The Sublime Porte, 1789–1922 (1980), discuss the Tanzimat. Robert Devereux, The First Ottoman Constitutional Period (1963), is a careful study of the 1876 crisis and the establishment of the first Ottoman parliament. Şerif Mardin, The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought (1962), is a study of the Young Ottomans; and studies of the Young Turks include Ernest Edmondson Ramsaur, The Young Turks: Prelude to the Revolution of 1908 (1957, reissued 1970); M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, The Young Turks in Opposition (1995); Feroz Ahmad, The Young Turks: The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics, 1908–1914 (1969); and Erik J. Zürcher, The Unionist Factor: The Role of the Committee of Union and Progress in the Turkish National Movement, 1905–1926 (1984). David Kushner, The Rise of Turkish Nationalism, 1876–1908 (1977), considers ideological aspects. The Ottoman public debt is considered in Donald C. Blaisdell, European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire (1929, reissued 1966). Charles Issawi (ed.), The Economic History of Turkey, 1800–1914 (1980); and Donald Quataert, Social Disintegration and Popular Resistance in the Ottoman Empire, 1881–1908: Reactions to European Economic Penetration (1983), are good economic histories.Several chronologies are useful for Turkish history since 1918; they appear in Gotthard Jäschke, Die Welt des Islams, Die Türkei in den Jahren 1935–1941 (1943), Die Türkei in den Jahren 1942–1951 (1955), and Die Türkei in den Jahren 1952–1961 (1965). Economic developments during this period are outlined in Max Weston Thornburg, Graham Spry, and George Soule, Turkey: An Economic Appraisal (1949, reissued 1968); Z.Y. Hershlag, Turkey: The Challenge of Growth (1968); Anne O. Krueger, Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: Turkey (1975); and William M. Hale, The Political and Economic Development of Modern Turkey (1981).Ahmed Emin (Ahmet Emin Yalman), Turkey in the World War (1930), is still the only account of the subject; although relations with Germany can be followed in Ulrich Trumpener, Germany and the Ottoman Empire, 1914–1918 (1968, reprinted 1989); and with Austria in Frank G. Weber, Eagles on the Crescent (1970). Several books consider aspects of Allied war aims in the Middle East. Although outdated in parts, Harry N. Howard, The Partition of Turkey: A Diplomatic History, 1913–1923 (1931, reissued 1966), is comprehensive; but the best modern account is David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914–1922 (1989). E.D. Smith, Origins of the Kemalist Movement and the Government of the Grand National Assembly, 1919–1923 (1959), is also worth consulting. Lord Kinross (Patrick Balfour, Baron Kinross), Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation (1964, reissued 1981; also published as Atatürk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey, 1965, reissued 1978), is a good biography. Political developments in Turkey and particularly the rise of the Democratic Party are detailed in Kemal H. Karpat, Turkey's Politics (1959). Richard D. Robinson, The First Turkish Republic (1963), is a good general account, strongest on economic aspects. Frederick W. Frey, The Turkish Political Elite (1965), is an illuminating and detailed analysis of the membership of the Grand National Assembly.Various periods are examined in the following works: Walter F. Weiker, The Turkish Revolution, 1960–1961 (1963, reprinted 1980), on the 1960 military coup; C.H. Dodd, Politics and Government in Turkey (1969), and Democracy and Development in Turkey (1979), on the period 1961–65; and, for the postwar period generally, Feroz Ahmad, The Turkish Experiment in Democracy, 1950–1975 (1977). Later political movements are analyzed in Jacob M. Landau, Radical Politics in Modern Turkey (1974); Ergun Özbudun, Social Change and Political Participation in Turkey (1976); Lucille W. Pevsner, Turkey's Political Crisis (1984); and Metin Heper and Ahmet Evin (eds.), State, Democracy, and the Military (1988). Political parties are addressed by Metin Heper and Jacob M. Landau (eds.), Political Parties and Democracy in Turkey (1991). Nationalist ideology is discussed in Jacob M. Landau, Pan-Turkism in Turkey (1981); and the role of Islām in politics is explored by Mehmet Yaşar Geyikdaği, Political Parties in Turkey (1984). Richard Tapper (ed.), Islam in Modern Turkey (1991), a collection of essays, is also of interest. Andreas M. Kazamias, Education and the Quest for Modernity in Turkey (1966), may serve as a history of educational developments. A fine study of Turkish foreign relations is Kemal H. Karpat et al., Turkey's Foreign Policy in Transition, 1950–1974 (1975). The Kurdish problem is considered by Martin van Bruinessen, Agha, Shaikh, and State (1978, reissued 1992); and Michael M. Gunter, The Kurds in Turkey (1990). Andrew Mango, Turkey: The Challenge of a New Role (1994), covers political, economic, social, and diplomatic developments since the 1960s.
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