MILNET: Country Studies
Data as of September 1987
Other Pages: History | Military
Size: About 779,452 square kilometers, somewhat smaller than Texas and Louisiana combined. In the late 1980s, 3 percent of land area located in Europe had about 8 percent of the population.
Topography: Seven natural regions--Black Sea, Aegean, Mediterranean, folded mountains, Anatolian plateau, eastern highlands, and Arabian platform. Country includes one of the most earthquake-prone areas of the world.
Climate: Periphery of Turkey has Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and hot, moderately dry summers. Interior, shielded from Mediterranean influences by mountains, has continental climate with cold winters and dry, hot summers. Eastern mountainous area has inhospitable climate, with hot, extremely dry summers and bitter winters.
Population: Turkish government gave population in mid1987 as 52.8 million, growing at about 2.5 percent a year.
Education: Steadily increasing enrollments in tuitionfree schools, universities, and numerous technical institutes. Attendance compulsory at five-year primary schools and three-year middle schools. Middle and high schools offer academic, technical, and vocational education. Nineteen major universities form core of higher education system. In 1980 literacy over 67 percent for those over 5 years of age; markedly higher in 10 to 25 age group.
Health: Inadequate sewer systems in some urban areas and poor water supplies in many villages pose continued health threats, but major infectious diseases under control.
Languages: Turkish, the official language, spoken by most citizens; the mother tongue of about 90 percent. Kurdish spoken by 3 to 10 million Kurds; Arabic and Caucasic languages spoken by small minority groups.
Religion: About 99 percent Muslim, the majority adhering to general tenets of Sunni Islam. Between 3 and 8 million Alevis, a sect of Shia Islam. Constitution proclaims Turkey a secular nation.
Gross National Product (GNP): US$58.5 billion in 1986 (US$1,148 per capita). Economy stagnant during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but real growth averaged over 5.5 percent per year after 1983.
Agriculture: Although only about one-fifth of gross domestic product (GDP), still a crucial sector of the economy, providing over 55 percent of jobs, most raw materials for industry, and 25 percent of exports. Wheat and barley main crops; many others important. Cotton, sugar beets, hazelnuts, and tobacco major cash crops. Livestock production extensive and growing. Valuable forest areas poorly managed; fisheries undeveloped. Potential for considerable growth.
Industry: Major growth sector contributing over a third of GDP, but under one-fifth of employment. Food processing and textiles major industries; basic metals, chemicals, and petrochemicals well established. Capital-goods industries starting in the late 1980s. Many industrial firms facing severe difficulties under post-1980 liberalization program.
Imports: US$11.2 billion in 1986. Main imports included machinery and equipment (35.4 percent), investment goods (11.7 percent), and petroleum (7.9 percent).
Exports: US$7.5 billion in 1986, consisting of 25.3 percent farm produce, 71.4 percent industrial products (largely textiles and processed agricultural products), and 3.3 percent minerals.
Major Trade Partners: Industrialized countries, especially the members of European Economic Community. During early 1980s, trade with Middle Eastern countries rose to about 40 percent of total trade; fell to about 25 percent by 1986.
Balance of Payments: Country continued to suffer from foreign exchange shortages during the 1980s but met large debtservice payments. Trade in merchandise remained in deficit, but services earned a surplus, in large part because of sizable remittances from Turkish workers abroad.
General Economic Conditions: In 1986 economy grew at over 8 percent but continued to suffer from 30-percent inflation and 15-percent unemployment. Profits, however, high and capacity utilization rates in industry good: many firms had successfully adapted to government's outward-oriented economic strategy.
Exchange Rate: 1 September 1987, TL890 to US$1. Exchange rate fixed daily by Central Bank of Turkey, and currency moving toward convertibility.
Roads: Nearly 61,000 kilometers of all-weather highways in 1982 (54,619 paved) in addition to dirt roads. Highways main means of transport. Government planned large highway expansion by the year 2000.
Ports: Five major ports, ten secondary ports; eighteen minor ports. Freight-handling facilities inadequate.
Civil Airports: In 1987 106 usable airports, 62 with paved runways.
Telecommunications: In 1987 telephone system overloaded; modernization program promised to make telephones available and eliminate waiting for circuits.
Government: Democratic, secular, and parliamentary, according to provisions of the 1982 Constitution. Divided into legislative, executive, and judicial establishments, with legislative power vested in a unicameral Grand National Assembly consisting of 450 deputies elected every 5 years. Executive authority greater than under the 1961 constitution; independent judiciary.
Politics: Ruling political party in 1987 the centerright Motherland Party (MP). Its major challenge came from the True Path Party (TPP), seen as a successor to the banned Justice Party (JP). Left-of-center opposition fragmented by the split between the Social Democratic Populist Party (SDPP) and Democratic Left Party (DLP). Constitutional provisions governing the functioning of political parties more restrictive than under the 196l constitution.
Administrative Divisions: In 1987 centralized administrative system of 67 provinces, 572 districts, and 35,995 subdistricts. Provinces headed by governors appointed by the executive branch of government and responsible to the central administration.
Judicial System: Independent of other state organs; autonomy protected by High Council of Judges and Public Prosecutors. Higher courts include the Constitutional Court, the Council of State, the Court of Jurisdictional Dispute, the Court of Cassation, the Military Court of Cassation. For the purpose of civil and criminal justice, the Court of Cassation serves as supreme court of the land.
International Affairs: Allied with the West through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Tensions with NATO allies followed 1980 military takeover but reduced after 1983. Continued conflicts with Greece over Cyprus and control of Aegean waters and airspace. In 1980s relations with Soviet Union improved, ties to Middle East strengthened.
Armed Forces (1987): Total personnel on active duty 654,000, including 576,000 draftees serving for 18 months. Reserves total 951,000. Component services: army of 542,000 (497,000 conscripts), air force of 57,000 (37,000 conscripts), and navy of 55,000, (44,000 conscripts). Gendarmerie of 125,000 trained in paramilitary operations.
Major Tactical Military Units (1987): Army: sixteen infantry divisions (two mechanized), one armored division, eleven separate infantry brigades, four mechanized brigades, six armored brigades, one airborne brigade, one commando brigade, and one surface-to-air missile (SAM) battery being formed. Equivalent of two infantry divisions deployed in Cyprus. Air force: nineteen fighter-bomber attack squadrons, two fighter-interceptor squadrons, two reconnaissance squadrons, four transport squadrons, and eight squadrons of Nike Hercules SAMs. Equipment inventory included about 450 combat aircraft. Navy: thirteen destroyers, four frigates, seventeen submarines, twenty-six fastattack craft, an antisubmarine air squadron, minesweepers, and landing craft.
Military Equipment (1987): Heavy dependence on United States and other Western allies for armored fighting vehicles, artillery, aircraft, missiles, and fighting ships. Modernization programs underway stressing improved antitank and air defense capability. New effort to meet needs through domestic manufacture, including F-16 fighter planes on coproduction basis, artillery, tank upgrades, communication and navigation equipment, frigates, and submarines.
Military Budget (1986): About TL1,307 billion or 18.4 percent of total government budget. Represented 4.5 percent of GNP in 1984, among highest in NATO.
Foreign Military Treaties: Member of NATO since 1952.
Internal Security Forces: Principal security agencies: National Police, oriented to urban areas, and gendarmerie, a force of 125,000, oriented primarily to rural and border areas. Gendarmerie under army command in wartime and in areas where martial law prevails; deploys three mobile brigades equipped as light mechanized infantry. Special police units fight drug traffic and terrorism and support gendarmerie and army operations against Kurdish insurgents. National Intelligence Organization primary organization concerned with intelligence on subversive activity.