1992 Edition
CIA World Factbook 1992 (Project Gutenberg)
Geography
Climate
temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters; harsher in interior
Coastline
7,200 km
Comparative area
slightly larger than Texas
Disputes
complex maritime and air (but not territorial) disputes with Greece in Aegean Sea; Cyprus question; Hatay question with Syria; ongoing dispute with downstream riparians (Syria and Iraq) over water development plans for the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Environment
subject to severe earthquakes, especially along major river valleys in west; air pollution; desertification
Exclusive economic zone
in Black Sea only - to the maritime boundary agreed upon with the former USSR
Land area
770,760 km2
Land boundaries
2,627 km total; Armenia 268 km, Azerbaijan 9 km, Bulgaria 240 km, Georgia 252 km, Greece 206 km, Iran 499 km, Iraq 331 km, Syria 822 km
Land use
arable land 30%; permanent crops 4%; meadows and pastures 12%; forest and woodland 26%; other 28%; includes irrigated 3%
Natural resources
antimony, coal, chromium, mercury, copper, borate, sulphur, iron ore
Note
strategic location controlling the Turkish straits (Bosporus, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas
Terrain
mostly mountains; narrow coastal plain; high central plateau (Anatolia)
Territorial sea
6 nm in the Aegean Sea, 12 nm in Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea
Total area
780,580 km2
People and Society
Birth rate
27 births/1,000 populatition (1992)
Death rate
6 deaths/1,000 population (1992)
Ethnic divisions
Turkish 80%, Kurdish 17%, other 3% (est.)
Infant mortality rate
55 deaths/1,000 live births (1992)
Labor force
20,700,000; agriculture 49%, services 30%, industry 15%; about 1,500,000 Turks work abroad (1989)
Languages
Turkish (official), Kurdish, Arabic
Life expectancy at birth
68 years male, 72 years female (1992)
Literacy
81% (male 90%, female 71%) age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.)
Nationality
noun - Turk(s); adjective - Turkish
Net migration rate
0 migrants/1,000 population (1992)
Organized labor
10% of labor force
Population
59,640,143 (July 1992), growth rate 2.1% (1992)
Religions
Muslim (mostly Sunni) 99.8%, other (Christian and Jews) 0.2%
Total fertility rate
3.4 children born/woman (1992)
Government
Administrative divisions
73 provinces (iller, singular - il); Adana, Adiyaman, Afyon, Agri, Aksaray, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya, Artvin, Aydin, Balikesir, Batman, Bayburt, Bilecik, Bingol, Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Canakkale, Cankiri, Corum, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Edirne, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Hatay, Icel, Isparta, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahraman Maras, Karaman, Kars, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kirikkale, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Kocaeli, Konya, Kutahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mugla, Mus, Nevsehir, Nigde, Ordu, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Siirt, Sinop, Sirnak, Sivas, Tekirdag, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Urfa, Usak, Van, Yozgat, Zonguldak
Capital
Ankara
Chief of State
President Turgut OZAL (since 9 November 1989)
Constitution
7 November 1982
Diplomatic representation
Ambassador Nuzhet KANDEMIR; Chancery at 1606 23rd Street NW, Washington, DC; 20008; telephone (202) 387-3200; there are Turkish Consulates General in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York US: Ambassador Richard C. BARKLEY; Embassy at 110 Ataturk Boulevard, Ankara (mailing address is PSC 88, Box 5000, Ankara, or APO AE 09823); telephone [90] (4) 126 54 70; FAX [90] (4) 167-0057; there are US Consulates General in Istanbul and Izmir, and a Consulate in Adana
Executive branch
president, Presidential Council, prime minister, deputy prime minister, Cabinet
Flag
red with a vertical white crescent (the closed portion is toward the hoist side) and white five-pointed star centered just outside the crescent opening
Grand National Assembly
last held 20 October 1991 (next to be held NA October 1996); results - DYP 27.03%, ANAP 24.01%, SHP 20.75%, RP 16.88%, DSP 10.75%, SBP 0.44%, independent 0.14%; seats - (450 total) DYP 178, ANAP 115, SHP 86, RP 40, MCP 19, DSP 7, other 5
Head of Government
Prime Minister Suleyman DEMIREL (since 30 November 1991); Deputy Prime Minister Erdal INONU (since 30 November 1991)
Independence
29 October 1923 (successor state to the Ottoman Empire)
Judicial branch
Court of Cassation
Legal system
derived from various continental legal systems; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
Legislative branch
unicameral Grand National Assembly (Buyuk Millet Meclisi)
Long-form name
Republic of Turkey
Member of
AsDB, BIS, CCC, CE, CERN (observer), COCOM, CSCE, EBRD, ECE, FAO, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, IDA, IDB, IEA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LORCS, NATO, NEA, OECD, OIC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIIMOG, UNRWA, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
National holiday
Anniversary of the Declaration of the Republic, 29 October (1923)
Political parties and leaders
Correct Way Party (DYP), Suleyman DEMIREL; Motherland Party (ANAP), Mesut YILMAZ; Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), Erdal INONU; Refah Party (RP), Necmettin ERBAKAN; Democratic Left Party (DSP), Bulent ECEVIT; Nationalist Labor Party (MCP), Alpaslan TURKES; People's Labor Party (HEP), Feridun YAZAR; Socialist Unity Party (SBP), leader NA; Great Anatolia Party (BAP), leader NA; Democratic Center Party (DSP), Bedrettin DALAN; Grand National Party (GNP), leader NA
Suffrage
universal at age 21
Type
republican parliamentary democracy
Economy
Agriculture
accounts for 18% of GDP and employs about half of working force; products - tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets, pulses, citrus fruit, variety of animal products; self-sufficient in food most years
Budget
revenues $41.9 billion; expenditures $49.7 billion, including capital expenditures of $9.9 billion (1992)
Currency
Turkish lira (plural - liras); 1 Turkish lira (TL) = 100 kurus
Economic aid
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $2.3 billion; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $10.1 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $665 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $4.5 billion; note - aid for Persian Gulf war efforts from coalition allies (1991), $4.1 billion; aid pledged for Turkish Defense Fund, $2.5 billion
Electricity
14,400,000 kW capacity; 44,000 million kWh produced, 750 kWh per capita (1991)
Exchange rates
Turkish liras (TL) per US$1 - 6,098.4 (March 1992), 4,171.8 (1991), 2,608.6 (1990), 2,121.7 (1989), 1,422.3 (1988), 857.2 (1987)
Exports
$13.0 billion (f.o.b., 1990) commodities: industrial products (steel, chemicals) 81%; fruits, vegetables, tobacco and meat products 19% partners: EC countries 49%, US 7%, Iran 5%
External debt
$49.0 billion (1990)
Fiscal year
calendar year
GDP
purchasing power equivalent - $198 billion, per capita $3,400; real growth rate 1.5% (1991 est.)
Illicit drugs
one of the world's major suppliers of licit opiate products; government maintains strict controls over areas of opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate
Imports
$22.3 billion (c.i.f., 1990) commodities: crude oil, machinery, transport equipment, metals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, plastics, rubber, fertilizers, grain partners: EC countries 49%, US 7%, Iran 5%
Industrial production
growth rate 10% (1990 est.); accounts for 29% of GDP
Industries
textiles, food processing, mining (coal, chromite, copper, boron minerals), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper
Inflation rate (consumer prices)
71.1% (1991)
Overview
The impressive stream of benefits from the economic reforms that Turkey launched in 1980 have begun to peter out. Although real growth in per capita GDP averaged 5% annually between 1983 and 1988, recent economic performance has fallen substantially. Moreover, inflation and interest rates remain high, and a large budget deficit will continue to provide difficulties for a country undergoing a substantial transformation from a centrally controlled to a free market economy. Agriculture remains an important economic sector, employing about half of the work force, accounting for 18% of GDP, and contributing 19% to exports. The government has launched a multibillion-dollar development program in the southeastern region, which includes the building of a dozen dams on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to generate electric power and irrigate large tracts of farmland. The planned tapping of huge additional quantities of Euphrates water has raised serious concern in the downstream riparian nations of Syria and Iraq. The Turkish economy emerged from the Gulf War of early 1991 in stronger shape than Ankara had expected. Although the negative effects of the crisis were felt primarily in the politically sensitive southeast, aid pledges by the coalition allies of more than $4 billion have helped offset the burden.
Unemployment rate
11.1% (1991 est.)
Communications
Airports
109 total, 104 usable; 65 with permanent-surface runways; 3 with runways over 3,659 m; 30 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 27 with runways 1,220-2,439 m
Civil air
52 major transport aircraft (1991)
Highways
49,615 km total; 26,915 km paved; 16,500 km gravel or crushed stone; 4,000 km improved earth; 2,200 km unimproved earth (1985)
Inland waterways
about 1,200 km
Merchant marine
353 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 4,056,455 GRT/7,143,096 DWT; includes 7 short-sea passenger, 1 passenger-cargo, 191 cargo, 1 container, 5 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 3 refrigerated cargo, 1 livestock carrier, 37 petroleum tanker, 9 chemical tanker, 3 liquefied gas, 10 combination ore/oil, 1 specialized tanker, 80 bulk, 4 combination bulk
Pipelines
crude oil 1,738 km, petroleum products 2,321 km, natural gas 708 km
Ports
Iskenderun, Istanbul, Mersin, Izmir
Railroads
8,401 km 1.435-meter gauge; 479 km electrified
Telecommunications
fair domestic and international systems; trunk radio relay network; limited open wire network; 3,400,000 telephones; broadcast stations - 15 AM; 94 FM; 357 TV; 1 satellite ground station operating in the INTELSAT (2 Atlantic Ocean) and EUTELSAT systems; 1 submarine cable
Military and Security
Branches
Land Forces, Navy (including Naval Air and Naval Infantry), Air Force, Coast Guard, Gendarmerie
Defense expenditures
exchange rate conversion - $5.2 billion, 3-4% of GDP (1992 budget)
Manpower availability
males 15-49, 15,274,591; 9,330,851 fit for military service; 597,814 reach military age (20) annually