Turkey

The Turkish Republic was established in 1923, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The Empire had been slowly declining for several centeries, this can be attributed to its inablity to keep up scientificaly and the socail and political wars. Finally the Lausanne Peacem Treaty of July 24, 1923 established the international status and boundaries of the new country. The Republic of Turkey was formally declared on October 29, 1923. It immediately

started on a course of modernization in all walks of life. Turkey would base its political and legal sytems on the modern secular models as well as strengthening its political relations with the West to reach its goals as a new republic. The goals as expressed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the leader of the nationalist movement and first president of the Turkish Republic, were "to reach the level of contemporary civilization". To achieve these goals, a doctirne for foreign relations was created; as Atarurk said, "Peace at home, Peace in the world."

This has not been and easy task, the history and geographical location of Turkey. It lies at a "crossroads" where the two large continents of Europe and Asia meet. This unique location gives Turkey a very diverse populations, Balkan, Mediterranean, Middle Eastersn, Caucasian and Asian identities. This has highly influenced its Foreign Polocy. Its primary objective is in short to develop

friendly relations with all countries, most particularly neighboring countries. Not only does Turkey have to deal with complex foreign policy, but its large land area needs much internal governing.

The total area of Turkey inclusive of all its lakes is approximately 814,578 square kilometers. 790,200 are located in asia and 24,378 are located in Europe. Although Turkey is situated in a geographical location where climatic conditions are quite temperate, the diverse landscape, and the existence of the mountains that run parallel to the coasts, there are significant differences in climatic conditions from one region to the other. While the coastal areas enjoy milder climates, the inland Anatolian plateau experiences extremes of hot summers and cold winters with limited rainfall. Turkey has been divided up into seven different

regions, the Black Sea Region, the Marmara Region, th Aegean, The Mediterraneanm, Central Antolia, The East and Southeast Anatolia regions.Because of its geographical location the mainland of Anatolia has always found favour throughout history, and is the birthplace of many great civilizations. It has also been prominent as a centre of commerce because of its land connections to three continents and the sea surrounding it on three sides. Although the Anatolia region has been a main center of commerce, Turkish commerce itself has been strong.

Turkey has a very diverse economy with a complex mix of modern industry and commerce along with a traditional agriculture sector that accounts for 40% of its employment. The private sector of Turkey's economy is strong and growing rapidly, although the state plays a major role in the basic industry, banking, transport, and communications, but the strongest industry is the textile and clothing industry, which is almost completly in private hands. Recently the economic status of the country has been set by erratic economic growth as well as serious imbalances. The GNP growth of Turkey has exceeded 6% in many years, but this expansion has been interrupted by sharp declines in output in 2001. Alson inflation in recent years has been in the high