Turkish is the mother tongue of more than 86% of the country's population. Other major minorities are Kurds and Arabs. Kurdish, the mother tongue of the Kurds, is spoken by about 11 percent of the population, mainly in the rural areas of the east and southeast. Arabic is spoken by about 2% of the population, mainly in southeastern Anatolia.
Almost all Turks are Muslims, predominantly Sunni. Small numbers of Christians and Jews live mainly in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
Turkey has a high birth rate but not a very high death rate and a relatively high population growth rate. Nearly 40 percent of the country's population is under the age of 15. Birth rate: 16.15 per 1,000 (2008 statistics), death rate: 6.02 per 1,000 (2008 statistics) Total population: 71,892,807 (July 2008 statistics), with Turks making up more than 80% of the population, and Kurds making up about 15%. Turkish is the national language, and 99% of the inhabitants are Muslim. Of these, 85% are Nihilists and the remainder are Alawites. Political system Editorial section The administrative division of Turkey is hierarchically divided into provinces, districts, communes and villages. The country*** is divided into 81 provinces, about 600 districts and more than 3.6 million villages.
The current constitution was adopted and came into force on November 7, 1982, and is the third constitution of the **** and the country. The Constitution states that the country is national, democratic, secular and governed by the rule of law. The Grand National Assembly is the supreme legislative body. Universal and direct elections are held, and citizens aged 18 and over have the right to vote. Only parties with more than 10 per cent of the national vote may hold seats in the Assembly. The GNAT*** has 550 seats, and its members are elected for a five-year term in accordance with the proportion of the population of each province. The government is also known as the Council of Ministers. Turkey's parliament adopts a new penal code to pave the way for EU accession． President Abdullah Gül was inaugurated on August 28, 2007, after former President Sezer's seven-year term expired on May 16, 2007, and a general election was held in which Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gül was elected president and sworn in. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Recep Tayyip Erdogan), who took office in March 2003. Turkey is a developing economy with both private and public components, based primarily on agriculture and manufacturing. Although GDP growth has been faster than population growth, GDP per capita is still lower than in European countries.
Agriculture accounts for nearly one-fifth of GDP and uses about half of the labor force. In general, Turkey is self-sufficient in most food crops. Most of the arable land is used to grow food crops, with wheat and barley being the most widely grown. Cash crops (cotton and tobacco) are important export commodities. The lowlands of the narrow coastal area are extensively irrigated and produce hazelnuts, small grapes without seeds, raisins and fruits (including oranges, lemons and melons), and vegetables are also grown for foreign markets. Sheep, a small number of cattle and goats are herded in pastures where grass grows all year round. The forests are mainly coniferous, accounting for about 1/4 of the country's area, mainly around the Black Sea, and have been little exploited so far.
The mining industry is dominated by state-owned companies and accounts for only 1% of GDP. Locally mined iron ore, coal, lignite, bauxite and copper provide raw materials for the country's important new industries. Turkey is a major producer of chromite, mostly for export. The country has to spend a lot of foreign currency on oil imports due to limited domestic oil resources (only 1/6th of the demand is met).2/3rd of the electricity is produced by thermoelectric power plants, and about 1/3rd is provided by hydroelectric power plants.
Manufacturing uses about 1/10th of the labor force and accounts for 1/5th of GDP. despite low productivity, the textile industry (including yarn, fabrics, and carpets) continued to be a fast-growing, albeit low-productivity industry in the 1970s and 1980s, due to the fact that cotton was grown locally and workers' wages were low. The petrochemical industry grew rapidly in the early 1980s. Turkey has become a major steel producer in the Middle East. The construction machinery industry also grew rapidly. Tourism is an important source of national income.
Unemployment is worse in the countryside than in the cities, but outside Istanbul there is still a shortage of skilled labor and management. Trade unions are legal under a labor law enacted in 1947 and have grown rapidly since then; the Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions is the largest organization.In the 1970s many of Turkey's unskilled workers traveled to Western European countries, mainly West Germany, in search of work, but after the 1980s the trend toward working abroad shifted from Europe to Middle Eastern countries. The government's austerity programs in the 1980s, along with increased remittances from workers abroad, allowed Turkey to significantly offset its chronic trade deficit.
Turkey's railroad system totals 8,400 kilometers, and only about one-seventh of its road system is paved, but automobile transportation still dominates. International and domestic shipping relies on the ports of Istanbul, Izmir and Mersin, but the main sea terminal for petrochemicals is near Iskenderun. International airports are located near Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
Agricultural and industrial products make up roughly half of the major exports. Major export trading partners include Germany, Italy and the United States. Iraqi oil is the main imported good. Germany provides Turkey with a large amount of imported machinery and equipment.
Industries: textiles, food processing, automobiles, electronics, mining (coal, chromium, copper, boron), iron and steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper.
Unemployment: 9.9%, underemployment: 4% (2007 stats).
Poverty rate: 20% (2002 stats)
Exports: oil, electricity, clothing, food, textiles, metal products, transportation equipment.
Import: electricity, machinery, chemicals, semi-finished products, fuel, transportation equipment. Compulsory education is provided for ages 6-14, and there are about 820 educational institutions of all types, including universities, with a total of about one million students. 15 major state universities are located in Istanbul and Ankara. Non-compulsory education is mainly under the responsibility of the Turkish Council of Higher Education (Tü?K) and is financed by the government. Since 1998, universities have been given more autonomy and are actively cooperating with local business organizations to increase their funds.
There are about 85 universities in total*** in Turkey, which are mainly categorized into state and private funds. State universities charge very low tuition fees, while universities established by private foundations charge higher tuition fees, and there are even schools that exceed 15,000 dollars. The capacity of all universities is roughly 300,000 students, while there are about one million JUPAS students each year. The universities in Turkey are not all equipped with the same resources, some are good enough to be ranked among the best in the world, while others lack even the most basic educational facilities and resources, but in any case, Turkish university students are among the lucky few in the country. University students receive a bachelor's education of 2-4 years, while master's degrees are mostly 2 years.
Turkey's scientific and technological research centers focus on basic scientific research and the total number of research centers and organizations is 64. The research results are concentrated in agriculture, forestry, medicine, biotechnology, nuclear technology, mining, IT and defense.