| Kemal Ataturk led Turkey away
from Sharia and toward a secular republic in 1924 |
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Cities |
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- Istanbul (10,895,257)
- Ankara (3,945,627)
- Izmir (2,699,721)
- Bursa (1,642,020)
- Adana (1,529,302)
- Gaziantep (1,279,607)
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- Konya (988,155)
- Antalya (945,049)
- Kayseri (786,644)
- Mersin (700,736)
- Eskisehir (618,184)
- Diyarbakir (614,310)
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The United States contributed a significant amount of aid to the
Armenians during the Armenian
Genocide. Shown here is a poster for the American Committee for Relief in the Near
East vowing that they (the Armenians among others) "shall not perish."
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| Demographics |
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- Population: 70,413,958
- Life Expectancy: 72.62 years
- Literacy: 86.5%
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- Median Age: 28.1 years
- Suffrage: 18 years - universal
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| You have to understand that from
thestandpoint of water, which is the most important resource in the region, perhaps
more important then oil, that triangle: southeastTurkey, northern Syria and northern
Iraq,is the most strategic point in the Middle East," he said. "The Kurds are
sitting on the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the most important source of
water in the region," he went on to say. "TheTurks know this and have said
so. If anything happens in Iraq, they want to maintain control of that region." |
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| Geographics |
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- Land Size: slightly larger than Texas
- Total: 780,580 sq km
- Water: 9,820 sq km
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| History |
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- Coup against Turkish Prime Minister Suleyman
Demirel, 1971
- Another coup against Turkish Prime Minister Suleyman
Demirel, 1980
- 16 June terrorist group firebombed the government yacht
"Hiawatha" (Dec 1989)
- Turkey acting like takeover of northern Iraq October 10, 1992
- General Dogan Gures, commander-in-chief of the Turkish armed forces warned "If we cannot render the PKK ineffective by the end of winter, the
possibility of martial law will be seriously considered."July 16, 1993
- Turkey outlawed the Kurdish People's Workers Party (HEP), accusing it of
being too close to the PKK. Two years earlier, the HEP elected 18 deputies in the 1991
parliamentary elections. July 16, 1993
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| Language |
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- Turkish (official)
- Kurdish
- Dimli (or Zaza)
- Azeri
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- Kabardian
- note: there is also a substantial Gagauz
population in the Europe part of Turkey
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