2. • Turkey is considered to be one of the richest countries in
terms of archaeology and is the biggest "open air
museum" of the world.
• It has been a bridge between the East and West and has
been noted by scholars as the "melting pot" of various
cultures from the first known urban city settlement of
"Çatalhöyük" to the historically famous Troy and from
the Ionians (the Anatolian Greeks) to the greatest
empires of the world, the Roman, Byzantine, and
Ottoman, many cultures were established and indeed
flourished in Turkey.
• It has been repeatedly settled by colonists and overrun
by conquering armies for thousands of years and has
experienced the passage of the world’s greatest
generals: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and
Tamerlane.
• Equally it has been home to some of the very greatest
artists: architects, philosophers, poets, sculptors, and
writers - Sinan, Thales of Miletus, Homer, Praxiteles, and
Herodotus, to name but a few.
3. • Turkey is home to one of the earliest
settlements in the world. Built 8,800 years ago,
Catal Hoyuk was a labyrinth of 150 mud homes
joined together. There were no streets in
between, so people had to enter the homes
through holes in the roof!
• After World War I, the country was invaded by
Greece, which led to the Turkish war of
Independence in 1920, led by Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk
• In 1923 the Turkish assembly declared Turkey a
republic.
• The city formally became Istanbul in 1923.
Turkey became a secular country, meaning there
is a separation between religion and
government.
• Women gained the right to vote in 1934.
4. • Turkey is a large peninsula that bridges the continents of
Europe and Asia. Turkey is surrounded on three sides by the
Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea.
• Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey, is built on land in the
Bosporus seaway. The city is partly in Europe and partly in
Asia.
• Turkey is one of the most earthquake prone areas on Earth and
has suffered from 13 earthquakes in the past 70 years.
• Turkey's highest mountain, Mount Ararat peaks at, 16,945 feet.
The mountain is considered sacred by many and is believed to
be where Noah beached his ark after the great flood.
Climate: temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters;
harsher in inland
• Natural resources: coal, iron ore, copper, chromium, antimony,
mercury, gold, barite, borate, celestite (strontium), emery,
feldspar, limestone, magnetite, marble, perlite, pumice, pyrites
(sulfur), clay, arable land, hydropower
• Environmental problems: water pollution from dumping of
chemicals and detergents; air pollution, particularly in urban
areas; deforestation; concern for oil spills from increasing
Bosporus ship traffic
5. • Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the
defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL.
• Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging
social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an
experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the
opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power.
• Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has
been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups
(1960, 1971, 1980), In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster
- popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented
government.
• Turkey was a founding member of the UN since 1945 and has been an
associate member of the European Union since 1963, but it has not been
accepted as a full member.
• Member of (NATO) which is a defence alliance – 1952.
• Turkey is strategic in world affairs due to its location in the Middle East.
• Over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its
democracy and economy; it began accession membership talks with the
European Union in 2005.
• Chief of state: President Abdullah GUL (2007)
• Prime Minister: Recep Tayyip Erdagon (2004)
6. Population: 80,694,485 (July 2013 est.) – 18th in the world
HDI: 0.722 (90th in world - 2012) 0.684 (2005) 0.569 (1990)
Literacy rate: total: 94.1% male: 97.9% female: 90.3%
Children under 5 underweight: 3.5% (2004) –
HIV/AIDS: Less than 0.1% - 4,600 in total (120th in the world)
Obesity rate: 27.8%
Life expectancy: 73.03 years – 126th in the world
Ethnic groups: Turkish 70-75%, Kurdish 18%, other 7-12%
Religion: Muslim 99.8% (Sunni), other 0.2% (Christians and Jews)
Drinking water source: urban: 100% rural: 99.1%
Sanitation: urban: 97.2% rural: 75.5%
Below Poverty Line: 16.9 %
Stage 3:
Increasing life expectancy
High working population
Birth and death rates declining
7. • GINI INDEX: 40.0 - 2012
• Below poverty line: 16.9 %
• Richest 20 percent of Turkey's 74 million people
accounted for almost half of national income
• The poorest 20 percent had just 6 percent. (2011)
• Analysts blame Turkey's inequality, in part, on a
lopsided tax system that draws two-thirds of its
revenue from indirect taxes such as an 18 percent
sales tax on most goods and services, rather than
direct levies such as income tax.
• The sales tax itself seems distorted; the rate for
clothing and caviar is 8 percent, and zero for some
precious stones.
• Other factors are the limited rights of trade unions,
and barriers to women seeking work in a traditional
Muslim society.
8. • Rural poverty has declined in the Republic of Turkey over the past
ten years, but extreme disparities of income and poverty levels
persist across the country.
• In poor rural areas, family size is nearly twice the national average,
adult literacy rates are far lower than the national average, there
are fewer doctors, agricultural production per capita is lower, and
fewer women are among the employed.
• The overall poverty rate in rural households is 35 per cent,
compared to 22 per cent in urban households. That margin is
diminishing as more and more rural people migrate to urban
areas, mainly in the more prosperous western parts of the
country.
• The poorest rural people are self-employed and unpaid family
workers. They include small-scale farmers and their households
and people who live in remote and isolated areas. Women and
unemployed young people are particularly disadvantaged.
WHY?
• the large size of families and the small size of landholdings
• long-term environmental problems such as overgrazing and soil
erosion
• lack of infrastructure such as roads and markets in remote areas
• lack of an effective welfare safety net for very poor people
9. • Turkey is home to a sizeable Kurdish minority, which by some
estimates constitutes up to a fifth of the population. The Kurds
have long complained that the Turkish government was trying to
destroy their identity and that they suffer from economic
disadvantage and human rights violations.
• The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the best known and most
radical of the Kurdish movements, launched a guerrilla campaign
in 1984 for a homeland in the Kurdish heartland in the southeast.
Thousands died and hundreds of thousands became refugees in
the ensuing conflict with the PKK, which Turkey, the US and the
European Union deem a terrorist organisation.
• Kurdish guerrilla attacks briefly subsided after the 1999 capture of
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, but soon began to increase again.
• Partly in a bid to improve its chances of EU membership, the
government began to ease restrictions on the use of the Kurdish
language from 2003 onwards. As part of a new "Kurdish initiative"
launched in 2009, it pledged to extend linguistic and cultural rights
and to reduce the military presence in the mainly Kurdish
southeast of the country.
• Although fighting continued, the PKK signalled its readiness to
cease fire in 2010. After months of talks, Abdullah Ocalan ordered
his fighters to stop attacking Turkey and withdraw from the
country from May 2013, effectively ending the insurgency.
10. GDP (PPP): $1.109 trillion (2012 est.) – 17th
GDP (Nominal): $820.827 billion (2013)
GDP growth rate:
2.2% (2012) 8.8% (2011) 9.2% (2010)
GDP per capita: $14,800 – (91st) - 2012
Inflation: 6.16 (April 2013)
By sector: agriculture: 9%. industry: 27.2%, services: 63.8%
Labour force: 27.43 million (23rd)
Unemployment: 9.2% (103rd)
Industries: textiles, food processing, autos,
electronics, mining, steel, petroleum,
construction, lumber
Occupations:
agriculture: 25.5% ,industry: 26.2%
services: 48.4% (2010
25.5
26.2
48.4
0
Agriculture
Industry
Services
11. Current Account balance: US$ $-47.75 billion 2012)
Exports: apparel, foodstuffs, textiles, metal
manufactures, transport equipment
Partners: Germany 8.6%, Iraq 7.1%, Iran 6.5%, UK
5.7%, UAE 5.4%, Russia 4.4%, Italy 4.2%, France 4.1%
(2012)
Imports: machinery, chemicals, semi-finished goods,
fuels, transport equipment
Partners: Russia 11.3%, Germany 9%, China 9%, US
6%, Italy 5.6%, Iran 5.1% (2012)
Exchange rate: Turkish liras (TRY)/Pound– 0.27
Turkey very reliant on
imported energy. They are
trying to become self
sufficient by creating new
dams (GAP Project) but this
has caused controversy as it
alters water supply to
neighbouring countries.
Self sufficient in food production.
World's largest producer of
hazelnuts, cherries, figs, apricots, quinces and
pomegranates;
12. • Turkey has undergone a deep economic transformation since 2001. It recorded a remarkable GDP
growth rate of almost % 6 in average during 2002-2011. Thus, per capita income increased up to
10,500 USD in 2011, from the modest figure of 3,500 thousand dollars recorded in 2002.
• Due to the global crisis, majority of the emerging markets suffered a significant slowdown in economic
activity. Being an open and free-market economy, integrated with the global economic and financial
system, Turkey was no exception. Turkey was also adversely affected by the declining external demand
and falling international capital flows.
• Global economic conditions and tighter fiscal policy caused GDP to contract in 2009, but Turkey's well-
regulated financial markets and banking system helped it weather the global financial crisis.
• Overall growth rates in 2008 and 2009 materialized well below the remarkable performance that was
achieved between 2002 and 2007. However, Turkish economy bounced back and has achieved a
growth rate of % 9.2 and % 8.5 in the years 2010 and 2011 respectively.
• In 2012, Istanbul ranked 5th in the world with 30 billionaires, behind Moscow, New York City, London
and Hong Kong
• Today, Turkey is the 17th largest economy in the world with a nominal GDP of $820.827 billion (2013)(
13. Monetary Policy
Monetary policies of the Turkish Central Bank played a crucial role in securing macroeconomic
balances, and most importantly reining in inflation over the last decade. Having been one of the major
concerns of the Government for more than 3 decades, inflation has finally been brought down to single
digits by mid-2000s.
• CPI inflation was % 6.16 last year. It is forecasted to settle down around % 5 in 2014
Fiscal Discipline
Turkey has been extremely careful with its budget for the last decade. Once peaked at almost % 17 in
2001, EU-defined general government budget deficit/GDP ratio was % 2.6 in 2011 and Turkey met the
Maastricht criteria of % 3 while outperforming 18 EU Countries (Central government budget deficit/GDP
ratio was % 1.3 in Turkey in 2011 and Turkey outperformed 23 EU Countries).
• While net public debt to GDP ratio was % 90.5 in 2001, it decreased to % 39.4 in 2011, which was
below the level in 21 EU Countries and the Maastricht Criterion of % 60. The composition of the debt
stock has also been improved and become more resilient to fluctuations in interest and exchange rates
as well as capital flows.
Public Debt (% of GDP)
14. Foreign Trade
Turkey has been pursuing an export-led growth since 1980. By virtue of
economic reforms, restrictions on imports have been lifted, safeguard
practices were reduced, and foreign exchange transactions were
liberalized.
As a result of the economic reforms carried out during the last
decade, both the volume and composition of the Turkish trade have
radically changed. The volume of Turkish exports increased to 152,6
billion USD in 2012 from 36 billion USD in 2002.
• The total trade volume accounted for 389.1 billion USD in 2012.
Exports increased by % 13.9 on an annual basis up to 152,6 billion
USD. Imports shrank by % 1.6 decreasing to 236.5 billion USD.
Foreign Direct Investment
Turkey’s successful economic performance, young population, qualified
and competitive labour force, liberal and reformist investment
climate, highly developed infrastructure, advantageous geographic
position, low tax rates and incentives and large domestic market, as
well as customs union with the EU since 1996 provide ample
opportunities for foreign investors.
• As of 31 December 2012, the number of foreign firms active in
Turkey is 32,146. 881 foreign firms have liaison offices in Turkey.
• The total amount of foreign direct investments exceeded 130 billion
USD by the end of 2012
15. Privatization
• Privatization has been among the top priorities of the Government’s
agenda.. Privatization revenues reached 8 billion Dollars in the period of
1986-2003 and 36.2 billion Dollars between 2003-2012
• The main idea of privatization is to confine the role of the state in areas
such as health, basic education, social security, national defence, and large
scale infrastructure investments. This is in line with Turkey’s target of
creating a truly competitive market economy driven by the private sector.
Turkish Business Abroad
Turkish businessmen have been increasingly active in neighbouring countries
as well as other regional countries. This is most visible in construction
business. Turkish contractors have successfully completed 7000 projects in 100
countries across the globe by the end of 2012.
• Total turnover of the Turkish construction and engineering sector has
reached 242 billion USD. 33 Turkish firms were listed among the top 225
international contractors in 2012 coming second after Chinese companies.
Tourism
with its natural beauties, unique historical and archaeological sites, ever-
developing hotel and touristic infrastructure and a tradition of
hospitality, Turkey has so much to offer to its visitors. Turkey has recently
become one of the world's most popular tourism destinations.
• In 2012 31.8 million foreign visitors entered Turkey and tourism revenues
exceeded 23.4 billion USD.
16. • Until sharia-compliant banking was introduced to Turkey in
the 1980s, many individuals kept their money "under the
mattress," because of mistrust of traditional banking, and a
desire to avoid breaking religious beliefs regarding interest.
• Turkey at present has four Islamic banks -- three that are
partially owned by companies based in the Persian Gulf --
which accounted for 5 percent of Turkey's 1-trillion-lira ($559
billion) banking sector in late 2010.
• Islamic banks do not charge interest, and share the profit and
loss risks of their customers
• Turkey's booming real estate sector accounts for the bulk of
Islamic banking activity, but the banks also provide working
capital and equipment to companies involved in
construction, trade and industry, three of the country's
strongest economic sectors.
• To encourage the development of Islamic banks, Turkey's
governing Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party
(AKP) has granted them tax-neutral status.
