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Turkey at a Glance

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  • Turkey at a Glance

    Turkey at a Glance

    Posted on Sun, Oct. 03, 2004
    WWW.philly.com

    Population: 69 million

    (July 2004 estimate)

    Per-capita income: $6,700

    (2003 estimate)

    Median age: 27.3 years

    Religion: 99.8 percent Muslim, mostly Sunni

    Ethnic breakdown: Turkish, 80 percent; Kurdish 20 percent (estimated);
    small numbers of Greeks, Jews and Armenians

    History

    Istanbul, formally Constantinople, was the seat of the Greek-speaking
    Eastern Roman Empire (later the Byzantine Empire) and Eastern Orthodox
    Christianity. The central Asian Ottoman Turks took the city in 1453
    and established their own empire (including the Islamic caliphate),
    which came to control much of the Middle East and parts of Europe.

    Turkish troops were repulsed from Vienna in 1683, and the Ottoman
    Empire fell into decline and was defeated fighting alongside Germany
    in World War I. Most of the two million Christian Armenians who had
    lived in the empire were forcibly deported or killed in a series of
    massacres from 1915 to 1920.

    In 1923, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the Republic of Turkey after
    driving out the Greek army and overturning the draconian Treaty of
    Sevres. The remnants of a thriving Greek merchant community fled after
    anti-Greek riots in the 1950s.

    The Turkish military overthrew elected governments in 1960, 1971 and
    1980, and in the 1997 "post-modern" coup, the military forced the
    resignation of an Islamic fundamentalist prime minister.

    Preparations for EU Membership

    In the last two years, in an effort to comply with EU standards,
    Turkey:

    Banned the death penalty.

    Allowed broadcasting and classes in the Kurdish language.

    Banned sex discrimination, torture and honor killings.

    Scrapped state security courts and reduced the military's role in
    government.

    Eased bureaucratic restrictions on non-Muslim religious groups.

    Lifted free-speech restrictions.
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