Turkey

=**__ Turkey __**= = =

==__ Background: __ The Republic of Turkey was first founded back in the year of 1923, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kemal was the first president of the republic, who has now been crowned as "Ataturk" or "The Father of the Turks" because of his many accomplishments before and during his years in power. Turkey has been some what of a democratic nation ever since the 1950's, although there have been several military coups in the country at various times.==

__Ethnic Groups:__ //80% Turkish 20% Kurdish (estimated)//
==__Type of Government:__==

= = __Historical Timeline in the Twentieth Century__

** 1914: **** Ottoman Empire joins Central Powers in WWI. 1915 : ** ** The Armenian Genocide begins with the "Young Turk" government in control. ** ** 1918: **  ** Central Powers lose WWI and the Ottoman Empire dissolves. ** **    The Armenian Genocide ends with over 1.5 million Armenians dead. 1923: The Republic of Turkey is born and Mustafa Kemal is the 1st President. 1928: Turkey becomes secular. ** ** 1938: Ataturk dies and his 15 year rule over the nation is ended 1945: ** ** Turkey remains neutral through out all of WWII. **** Joins UN. 1952: Turkey joins NATO. 1960: ** ** Military Coup against ruling Democratic Party. 1970: Another military coup forces 7- time prime minister Demirel to resign. ** **  1974: Turkey invades northern Cyrus. 1980:  Military coup after political deadlock. 1984: ** ** Turkey recognizes "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus." Kurdistan Workers' Party begins separatist guerrilla war. 1999: Devastating earthquake in Izmit kills 17,000. **

The head of state of the Republic of Turkey is President Abdullah Gul and his Prime Minister is Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President Gul has been in office since 2007, while Prime Minister Erdogan has been the head of the government since 2003 after being re-elected for a second term in 2007. The president is elected by the Turkish people and can only serve for a single seven year term. The prime minister is appointed by the president, but he/she is almost always the head of the the party that has the most seats in the parliament.The current political party which is in power is "The Justice and Development Party", which is a moderate-conservative political party with an islamist ideaology. Many have expressed their concern that the party is anti-secular, but the supreme court of Turkey has yet to find the AKP guilty.The Republic has followed and will most likely continue to follow the ideaology of "Kemalism." This was first proposed by Ataturk, whose main focus was to develope Turkey into a modern, secular, and democratic state.**
 * __The Nation at Present:__**
 * //__Leadership:__//

Environment__//** Such actions will certainly include: 1. Energy effiency & Green energy 2. Natural gas is to replace coal 3. Taxes to promote cleaner fuels 4. Educating the public about green energy and effiency
 * //__Current Issues:
 * Today, one of Turkey's major problems involves it's environment. Although it has been a nation which has certainly experienced high levels of economic growth over the past few decades, pollution has risen with the industrial boom that Turkey is experiencing. **
 * Year by year, Turkey is importing more oil and gas to meet it's needs. As a result, air pollution and even water pollution from dumping harzardous wastes into the seas has given Turkey a rather poor environmental record. Fortunately, these problems will most likely be adressed as soon as possible as Turkey desperately wants to enter the European Union. In order to enter the EU, Turkey has already been warned that it will certainly need to improve it's environmental policies for membership. Turkey has planned to overcome these issues by taking actions similar to many other nations from across the world.

//__Secularism__// ** There are 11 judges that are present and in order to give a guilty cerdict on a certain issue, 7 or more of them agree on the guilty verdict. If found guilty, the party will be dissolved with the help of the military. In some cases, the leaders of such parties or extremist people against Kemalism and secularism will be forced away from political activities by law. For example, in recent history two parties, the Welfare and Virtue party, have both been dissolved for trying to reshape the secular nature of the nation. The international response to such laws have been usually negative because Turkey has taken extreme steps to ensure secualrism is followed. For example, religious women that work in the public sector who wish to wear head scarves are legally not allowed to or they will be simply fired. Many nations, like Spain, have expressed their concern over some freedoms that are being violated in Turkey, such as freedom of religion.
 * Kemalism has been Turkey's path towards modernization the past seven eight decades. One of the most important and key points of Kemalism is the fact that the nation must be secular if it wants equality among all it's people. As Turkey is a nation that is dominated by a huge muslim population (99.8%), anti-secular or even extremist islamist parties certainly exist. To make sure such people or parties are prevented from gaining power, the constitutional court of Turkey decides whether the party or person is guilty of such a crime or not.

//__Kurdish Peoples__// There has been a long conflict dating back to the 1920's between the Kurds and the Turks. Approximately 20% of Turkey is composed of Kurdish people, more than any other nation with a Kurdish population. Many Kurdish people all over the middle-east over the years have tried to establish their own nation known as, "Kurdistan." In Turkey, writting or even speaking Kurdish was banned until 1991 by the government. Though speaking or writting in Kurdish is no longer illegal, it is not allowed to be taught in schools. As a result of this oppressive attitude towards the Kurdish culture in the past, separitist groups like the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) have emerged and have occassionally been at guerilla warfare with the military since the 1980's. Also, many pro-Kurdish political parties have been dissolved by the military and many politicans have even been stripped of their position for the slightest pro-Kurdish movements. As for the international community, middle-eastern nations that have a Kurdish population like: Iran, Iraq, and Syria have often supported to fight against the PKK because none of them believe that there should be a "Kurdistan" nation. On the other hand, many "Western" nations have often denounced the Turkish treatment of the Kurds, arguing that they fail to provide them with the basic freedoms. **



Generally speaking, Turkey is looked upon as an middle-class nation. It's foreign policy over the past 75 years have clearly shown that Turkey is a "pro-western" nation, secular, and some-what democratic with many internal problems. Lastly, Turkey would probably be best described as a nation that is on it's way to become a first world nation with a great future and great influence in it's region. **
 * __ Foreign Relations __**
 * Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952. It has had very good relations with the "West" over the Cold War and the Post Cold War era, especially with nations like the U.S., Germany, and Britain. Other non-NATO allies of Turkey are nations like S.Korea, Israel, Pakistan, and Iran. Over the years relations between Turkey and other Middle-Eastern nations have improved, but major differences in policies such as secularism exist.