Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey, is an Eurasian country placed in the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe.
The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north.
It is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
The area of Turkey is 783 000 km2 approximately and its capital is Ankara, although the most famous city is, obviously, Estambul. We are more than 71 million people and the growth rate is 1,31% based on the 2008 census. The official currency is the Turkish lira.
The main language in Turkey is Turkish, but some people also speak Anatolian (and Balkan) Turkish.
Turkey is a parliamentary democracy, since its foundation as a republic in 1923 thanks to Atatuk, the leader who created the modern Turkey. The President of the Republic is Abdullah Gül and the Prime Minister is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkey has become very integrated with the West through membership in organizations such as the Council of Europe, NATO, OECD, OSCE. We began full membership negotiations with the European Union in 2005 without success so far.
The migration of Turkish people to other countries has mainly been into Germany and United States. The immigration is formed by large numbers of Bosniak and Chechen refugees entering Turkey as a consequence of wars in Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s. Large numbers of Kurds fled north from Iraqi Kurdistan during the First Gulf War in 1991.
Life expectancy stands at 70 years for men and 75 years for women.
We are quite satisfied with our quality of life despite the fact that that there are major differences when it comes to education, employment, healthcare and public services.
According to the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) in May 2009, the official unemployment rate in Turkey reached to a new historical high of 16.1 percent. The number of unemployed people is now 3,802,000. GIP of Turkey on 2007 was USD 1,178,205 millions and the IDH was 0.798.
The main Environmental problems in Turkey are:
• water pollution from the dumping of chemicals and detergents;
• air pollution, particularly in urban areas;
• deforestation;
• the potential for spills from the 5,000 oil- and gas-carrying ships that pass through the Bosporus annually.
