Geographic location
Geography location: South-western Asia (that part west of the Bosphorus is sometimes included with Europe), bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria.

Geographic coordinates: 39 00 N, 35 00 E

Area
Total area: 780,580 sq km
Land area: 770,760 sq km
Water area: 9,820 sq km
Comparative area: slightly larger than Texas, or larger than France and UK put together, or 2.5 times bigger than Italy.

Land boundaries
Total: 2,648 km
Border countries: Armenia 268 km, Azerbaijan 9 km, Bulgaria 240 km, Georgia 252 km, Greece 206 km, Iran 499 km, Iraq 352 km, Syria 822 km.
Coastline: 7,200 km

Names
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Turkish long form); Türkiye (Turkish short form); Republic of Turkey (formal English); Turkey (English short form); Turchia (Italian); Türkei (German); Turkiet (Swedish); Turkije (Dutch); Turkki (Finnish); Turquia (Portuguese); Turquia (Spanish); Turquie (French); Tyrkia (Norwegian); Tyrkiet (Danish); Tyrkland (Icelandic)

Maritime claims
Exclusive economic zone: in Black Sea only - to the maritime boundary agreed upon with the former USSR

Territorial sea: 6 nm in the Aegean Sea, 12 nm in the Black Sea and in the Mediterranean Sea.

Climate
Climate: temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters; harsher in interior.

Terrain
Terrain: mostly mountains; narrow coastal plain; high central plateau (Anatolia)
Lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
Highest point: Mount Ararat 5,166 m

Largest lake: Lake Van 3,713 square km

Natural resources: coal, iron ore, copper, chromium, antimony, mercury, gold, barite, borate, celestite (strontium), emery, feldspar, limestone, magnesite, marble, perlite, pumice, pyrites (sulfur), clay, arable land, hydropower.

Land use
Arable land: 32%
Permanent crops: 3%
Other: 66% (2006)

Environment
International agreements: party to - Air Pollution, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Environmental Modification.
Current issues are: water pollution from dumping of chemicals and detergents; air pollution, particularly in urban areas; deforestation; concern for oil spills from increasing Bosphorus ship traffic.

Geographic note
Strategic location controlling the Turkish Straits (Bosphorus, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas. Mount Ararat, the legendary landing place of Noah's Ark, is in the far eastern portion of the country, in the city of Agri. The country is divided into 7 fictional geographic regions.

Population
Officially 70,586,256 as of 1st January 2008 (67,803,927 in 2000), effectively is around 73 million, average of 92 inhabitants live per square kilometer, 70.5% of the total population live in the cities and 29.5% in villages or small towns in the countryside.
Istanbul: 12,573,836 as of Jan 2008 (10,033,478 in 2000), 17.8 % of the total population, 2420 people per square kilometer
Ankara: 4,466,756 as of Jan 2008 (4,007,860 in 2000), 6.3 % of the total population
Izmir: 3.739.353 as of Jan 2008 (3,387,908 in 2000), 5.3 % of the total population, 311 people per square kilometer

Age structure
Total population: male 35,376,533; female 35,209,723
0-14 years: 26,4% (male 9,570,773; female 9,071,618)
15-64 years: 65.5% (male 23,655,657; female 23,288,033)
65 years and over: 7.1% (male 2,150,103; female 2,850,072)
Median age: total 28.3 years (male: 27.7 years; female: 28.8 years). More than half of the population is under the median age (as of Jan 2008)
Population growth rate: 1.24% (2006)
Birth rate: 18.7 births/1,000 population (2006)
Death rate: 6.3 deaths/1,000 population (2006)

Nationality
Noun: Turk(s)
Adjective: Turkish
Ethnic divisions: Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20%
Religions: Muslim 99% (mostly Sunni), other 1% (Christian and Jews)
Languages: Turkish (official)
Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 87%
Male: 94.3%
Female: 78.7% (2006 est.)

Government
Conventional long form: Republic of Turkey
Conventional short form: Turkey
Local long form: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti
Local short form: Türkiye
Data code: TU or TR
Type of government: republican parliamentary democracy
Capital: Ankara

Administrative divisions
81 provinces (iller, singular - il); Adana, Adiyaman, Afyon, Agri, Aksaray, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya, Ardahan, Artvin, Aydin, Balikesir, Bartin, Batman, Bayburt, Bilecik, Bingol, Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Canakkale, Cankiri, Corum, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Duzce, Edirne, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Hatay, Icel, Igdir, Isparta, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Karabuk, Karaman, Kars, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kilis, Kirikkale, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Kocaeli, Konya, Kutahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mugla, Mus, Nevsehir, Nigde, Ordu, Osmaniye, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Siirt, Sinop, Sirnak, Sivas, Tekirdag, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Usak, Van, Yalova, Yozgat, Zonguldak

Independence
Independence: 29 October 1923 (successor state to the Ottoman Empire)
National holiday: Anniversary of the Declaration of the Republic, 29 October (1923)
Constitution: 7 November 1982 , amended on 17 October 2001 by TBMM

Legal system
Derived from various European legal systems; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations. Member of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

Executive branch
Chief of state President Abdullah GUL (ex-presidents were Ahmet Necdet SEZER, Suleyman DEMIREL) was elected in August 2007 for a five-year term (used to be seven years before 2007) by the National Assembly. (note: with the new articles of the Constitution, next President will be elected by the public vote.)

Head of government
Head of government: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (ex-premieres were Abdullah GUL and Bulent ECEVIT) re-elected by universal suffrage and appointed by the President in July 2007.

National Security Council
Advisory body to the President and the cabinet

Cabinet
Council of Ministers appointed by the President on nomination of the prime minister

Legislative branch: unicameral
Grand National Assembly of Turkey: (Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi), abbrev. TBMM (550 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)

Judicial branch
Constitutional Court, judges appointed by the President; High Court of Appeals (Yargitay) and Council of State (Danistay), judges are elected by the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors. Court of Accounts (Sayistay); Military High Court of Appeals; Military High Administrative Court.

Political pressure groups
Confederation of Public Sector Unions or KESK; Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions or DISK; Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association or MUSIAD ; Moral Rights Workers Union or Hak-Is; Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association or TUSIAD; Turkish Confederation of Employers' Unions or TISK; Turkish Confederation of Labor or Turk-Is; Turkish Confederation of Tradesmen and Craftsmen or TESK; Turkish Union of Chambers of Commerce and Commodity Exchanges or TOBB.

International organization participation
AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CERN (observer), EAPC, EBRD, ECO, EU (applicant), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIK, UNMIL, UNMISET, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC.

Transportation
Railways
total: 10,985 km (2005)
standard gauge: 8,671 km 1.435-m gauge (2,122 km electrified) (2003)
New high-speed train tracks are under construction between Istanbul-Ankara.

Highways
( Detailed Road Map )
total: 354,421 km
paved: 147,404 km (including 1,851 km of expressways)
unpaved: 207,017 km (2002)
Waterways: about 1,200 km (2003)
Pipelines: gas 3,177 km; oil 3,562 km (2003)
Ports: Gemlik, Hopa, Iskenderun, Istanbul, Izmir, Izmit, Mersin, Samsun, Trabzon

Merchant marine
total: 526 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 4,666,895 GRT/7,311,504 DWT
ships by type: bulk carrier 108, cargo 228, chemical tanker 45, combination ore/oil 1, container 25, liquefied gas 6, passenger 5, passenger/cargo 50, petroleum tanker 33, refrigerated cargo 2, roll on/roll off 22, specialized tanker 1
foreign-owned: 8 (Cyprus 3, Denmark 2, Greece 1, Italy 1, Switzerland 1)
registered in other countries: 231 (2005 est.)

Airports
total: 120 (2004 est.) (88 with paved runways and 32 with unpaved runways)
with paved runways over 3 047 m: 15
with paved runways 2 438 to 3 046 m: 32
with paved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 19
with paved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 18
with paved runways under 914 m: 4
with unpaved runways over 3 047 m: 1
with unpaved runways 2 438 to 3 046 m: 1
with unpaved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 2
with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 8
with unpaved runways under 914 m: 20 (2005 est.)
Heliports: 16 (2005 est.)

Communications
Country code: 90
Telephones: 18,978,223 (2005)
Telephone system: fair domestic and international systems, area codes
Mobile Phones: GSM 60,000,000 approximately (2007), three nets; Turkcell, Vodafone (ex-Telsim), Avea (Aria and Aycell have merged)
Domestic: trunk microwave radio relay network; limited open-wire network
International: international service is provided by three submarine fiber-optic cables in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, linking Turkey with Italy, Greece, Israel, Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia; also by 12 Intelsat earth stations, and by 328 mobile satellite terminals in the Inmarsat and Eutelsat systems (2002). Turkey has three communication satellites; Turksat 1B (31 degrees East) , Turksat 1C (42 degrees East), and the third one (Turksat 2A).
Radio broadcast stations: 36 National, 102 Regional, 955 Local, a total of 1,093 (2005)
Radios: 19.4 million (1997 est.)
Television broadcast stations: 24 National, 17 Regional, 218 Local, a total of 259 (2005)
Internet country code: .tr
Internet hosts: 355,215 (2004)
Internet users: 5.5 million (2003), 8.5 million (2005)

Sources: CIA - The World Fact book 2006, Turkish Statistical Institute, World Bank.