Useful Insider Information about Türkiye

Turkey - Türkiye - Republic of Turkey - Türkiye Cumhuriyeti

Turkey (Turkish Türkiye; officially the Republic of Turkey, officially in Switzerland and in formal German communication the Republic of Türkiye, Turkish Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, abbreviated T.C.) is a unitary state in Anatolia in Western Asia and in East Thrace in South-Eastern Europe.

Geographically, the country is usually divided into seven regions. More than 85 million people (as of 2022) live in Türkiye on an area of 783,562 km². Almost a fifth of the population lives in the Istanbul metropolitan area; in addition, there are seven other cities with over a million inhabitants: the capital Ankara as well as Izmir, Bursa, Adana, Gaziantep, Konya and Denizli. The degree of urbanisation was 77 % in 2021.[8] Türkiye has 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and numerous national parks.

Measured by the Human Development Index (HDI), Türkiye is one of the very highly developed countries. With around 50 million tourists, Türkiye ranks fourth among the most visited countries in the world (third in Europe).[9] Türkiye is a middle-income emerging economy, ranking 17th in the world by gross domestic product and 11th by purchasing power parity. Among other things, it is a member of the OECD, NATO, the United Nations, the G20 and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Since 1999, Türkiye has also officially been an EU accession candidate. In addition, it is one of six independent Turkic states and an active member of the Organization of Turkic States and the TÜRKSOY community.

Since the founding of the Republic in 1923 as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, Türkiye has been secular and Kemalist in orientation. The founder of the state, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, initiated a modernisation of Türkiye through social and legal reforms modelled on various European nation states. Since 2003, the current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been at the head of the country. Since around 2012[10][11] he has been leading the country in an increasingly authoritarian manner. Freedom of opinion and freedom of the press in particular are considered severely restricted. The currency and debt crisis triggered by his economic policy, as well as high inflation, have persisted since 2018.

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