Turkey Country Profile

Turkey General Information

Capital: Ankara

Language: Turkish (official), Kurdish, other minority languages

Religion: Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians and Jews)

Currency: Lira

Cryptocurrency: The Anatolian city of Konya is developing its own cryptocurrency for its 2.4 million inhabitants, dubbed “City Coin.” At the end of 2019, Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan said the government would finish testing a national digital currency in 2020

GMT: (+) 3

Turkey’s strategic location has given it major influence in the region, including control over the entrance to the Black Sea. Membership talks were launched in 2005 for Turkey to join the EU, but have stalled over serious misgivings about Turkey’s human rights record.

About Turkey

The Republic of Turkey is located predominantly in south-western Asia, and partially in south-eastern Europe, and borders Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Greece and Bulgaria. Turkey has a population of 80.85 million people, a large proportion of which inhabit the area around the Bosphorus, including Istanbul’s 14.16 million inhabitants. The Turkish capital, Ankara, has 4.75 million residents whilst further major urban areas include Izmir, Bursa, Adana and Gaziantep.

The official language is Turkish, although a number of minority languages are also spoken, the most notable of which is Kurdish. Although the state is officially secular, 99.8% of Turks identify as Muslims, the majority following Sunni Islam, and there are small Christian and Jewish minorities.

Turkey is rated as a nation with acceptable levels of business and political risk. Although, the Turkish economy and banking system have remained relatively stable and increasingly liberalised, the deterioration of the rule of law, security environment and regional geopolitical environment remain causes for concern.

Corruption is a wide scale issue in Turkey’s public and private sectors, as well as judicial system. Turkey has a range of laws which criminalise corrupt practices, but these are poorly enforced and the relevant authorities are ineffective. As such, Turkey is ranked 75 of 176 Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Index.

Turkey’s GDP currently stands at US$841.21 billion and has steady growth forecasts of 3.5% annually through 2022. The official currency is the Turkish Lira, although it has depreciated sharply in recent years, having lost over half of its value compared to the US Dollar over the last five years.

Turkey is a presidential republic. President Recep Erdogan is the current head of state, whilst Prime Minister Yildirim is the head of government. The president is elected by absolute majority popular vote, over two rounds if required, and the prime minister is appointed by the president from the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

This unicameral assembly forms the Turkish legislative branch and its 550 members are directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation vote; the next election is scheduled for 3 November 2019. In April 2017, however, the Constitution was amended to make Turkey into a presidential republic. From the 2019 election, the position of prime minister and the Council of Ministers will cease to exist, the National Assembly will increase to 600 members and the president will be granted wide ranging new powers.