Turkey Information

Southeastern Europe/Asia Minor.

GMT + 2 (GMT + 3 from last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October).

783,562 sq km (302,535 sq miles).

70.6 million (2008 estimate).

93 per sq km.

Ankara. Population: 3.9 million (2007 estimate).

Turkey borders the Black Sea and Georgia and Armenia to the northeast, Iran to the east, Iraq to the southeast, the Syrian Arab Republic and the Mediterranean to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Asia Minor (or Anatolia) accounts for 97% of the country's area and forms a long, wide peninsula 1,650km (1,025 miles) from east to west and 650km (400 miles) from north to south. Two east-west mountain ranges, the Black Sea Mountains in the north and the Taurus in the south, enclose the central Anatolian plateau, but converge in a vast mountainous region in the far east of the country. It is here that the ancient Tigris and Euphrates rivers rise.

Republic since 1923.

President Abdullah Gul since 2007.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan since 2002.

Turkey's economy has recovered well from a crisis in 2001. With IMF support, the mildly Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) government introduced structural reforms and sweeping institutional and social reforms in order to initiate EU entry negotiations in October 2005.

The pace of reform has slowed since amid criticism over issues such as human rights and Northern Cyprus. The government also faces pressure from the fiercely secular military, suspicious of the AKP's Islamic credentials.
Abdullah Gul became president in August 2007 - the country's first head of state with a background in political Islam.

The Kurdish separatist PKK (Kurdish Workers' Party) broke their 2006 ceasefire when they ambushed and killed Turkish soldiers near the Iraqi border in September 2007. The subsequent bombing of PKK fighters in northern Iraq by Turkish warplanes drew international criticism in late 2007. Further incursions into Iraqi territory were made in early 2008.

Turkish. Kurdish is also spoken by a minority in the southeast. French, German and English are widely spoken in major cities and tourist areas.

Muslim, mostly Sunni, with a very small Christian minority. Turkey is a secular state which guarantees complete freedom of worship to non-Muslims.

220 volts AC, 50Hz.

Shaking hands is the normal form of greeting. Hospitality is very important and visitors should respect Islamic customs. Informal wear is acceptable, but beachwear should be confined to the beach or poolside. Smoking is widely acceptable but prohibited in cinemas, theatres, buses, coaches and dolmuşes (collective taxis).