Turkey

**Turkey**, officially the **Republic of Turkey**, is a country located across Europe and Anatolia. Turkey is bordered by Syria, the United Islamic Republic, Russia, Bulgaria and Greece, with the Black Sea along its north and the Mediterranean Sea along its south where it shares a close maritime border with Cyprus.

## History

### Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Century

The occupation of Constantinople and Smyrna by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I prompted the establishment of the Turkish National Movement. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military commander who had distinguished himself during the Battle of Gallipoli, the Turkish War of Independence was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres.

By 18 September 1922, the occupying armies were expelled, and the Ankara-based Turkish regime, which declared itself the legitimate government of the country in April 1920, started to formalize the legal transition from the old Ottoman into the new Republican political system. On 1 November 1922, the newly founded parliament formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of monarchical Ottoman rule. The Treaty of Lausanne of 24 July 1923 led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the continuing state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on 29 October 1923 in Ankara, the country's new capital.

After participating with the United Nations forces in the Korean War, Turkey joined NATO in 1952, becoming a bulwark against Soviet expansion into the Mediterranean. Following a decade of Cypriot intercommunal violence and the coup in Cyprus on 15 July 1974 staged by the EOKA B paramilitary organization, which overthrew President Makarios and installed the pro-Enosis (union with Greece) Nikos Sampson as dictator, Turkey invaded Cyrpus on 20 July 1974. Nine years later the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey, was established.

The single-party period ended in 1945. It was followed by a tumultuous transition to multiparty democracy over the next few decades, which was interrupted by military coups d'état in 1960, 1971, and 1980, as well as a military memorandum in 1997. In 1984, the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group, began an insurgency campaign against the Turkish government.

### Intervention in Syria

*See Full Article: War against ISIS*

In February 2016, the Islamic State militants in Syria took control of Aleppo, prompting the Turkish government to mobilise its troops to the Syrian border in order to contain the potential tide of refugees. In June 2016, Turkey and the US began talks with NATO find a solution to the situation in Syria, meaning a military intervention. Fearing that Iran might beat them to it, the Turkish army launched an attack across the border into Syria on 16 July. NATO began an aerial barrage against IS to support the Turkish on the ground while the US and Jordan organised a second follow-up invasion from the south.

Ten days after the start of their offensive, Turkish troops are hit by a chemical attack from the IS militants. On 27 July, Turkey reported that its forces captured by IS had been massacred and vowed to seek justice. On 8 August, Turkish troops reached the Jordanian-Syrian border, prompting the US-Jordan invasion to follow up a few days later. By the beginning of September, Turkey was in control of most of Syria, and was descending on the outskirts of Damascus. On 12 September, Turkish, Jordanian, American, Israeli and former Syrian rebel forces completely encircled Damascus and by 29 September they had control of the city, ending the existence of IS in Syria.

### Anbar Crisis

*See Full Article: Anbar Crisis*

In April 2019, the UIR launched an invasion of the Syrian controlled Anbar province, stating that Syria had illegally annexed it from Iraq before Iraq unified with Iran. Turkey launched a counter-invasion of the UIR, attacking into the Kurdistan Regional Government territory. However, Turkey was pushed back quickly by well-equipped Peshmerga forces. The crisis ended with the UIR taking control the Syrian Anbar province.

## Government and Politics

The President of the Republic is the head of state and has a largely ceremonial role. The president is elected for a five-year term by direct elections. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister, who is elected by the parliament through a vote of confidence in the government and is most often the head of the party having the most seats in parliament. The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers make up the government, while the legislative power is vested in the unicameral parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, whose 550 members of parliament who are elected for a four-year term by a party-list proportional representation system from 85 electoral districts. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, and the Constitutional Court is charged with ruling on the conformity of laws and decrees with the constitution. The Council of State is the tribunal of last resort for administrative cases, and the High Court of Appeals for all others.

### Administrative Regions

Turkey is divided into seven regions, which are then subdivided into 81 provinces and further divided into 923 districts. The regions are:

* Aegean
* Black Sea
* Central Anatolia
* Eastern Anatolia
* Marmara
* Mediterranean
* South-eastern Anatolia

### Foreign Relations

Turkey is a member of NATO, the UN and G-30 economic forum. In line with its traditional Western orientation, relations with Europe have always been a central part of Turkish foreign policy. The other defining aspect of Turkey's foreign policy was the country's long-standing strategic alliance with the United States. Turkey maintains close military relations with Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine, called the Jerusalem Five to counter the rising threat of the UIR. Turkey also has close economic ties to China and India.

## Military

Turkey maintains a formidable standing army of over half a million men stationed primarily in the Kurdish southeast of the country near the border with the United Islamic Republic. Turkey became a nuclear weapons state in the late 2010s after Tehran acquired the bomb, becoming a powerful buffer between Europe and the UIR. Turkey maintained string defense ties with many nations including the United States, France, Russia, China and Israel and puchased weapons from many nations despite disagreements with many of them on foreign policy.

## Economy

Turkey is often grouped alongside the BRICS nations as a fast growing developing nation and a rising regional economic power. Turkey invested heavily throughout the Middle East in the first two decades of the 21st century and became a crucial link on the Chinese constructed Pan-Asian High Speed Rail System in the early 2020s. Istanbul thrived as Turkey's financial capital and a trade and HSR hub linking Europe to Asia. Istanbul held a place in China's New Silk Road Project similar to the one it held as Constantinople in Medieval times. Ankara also saw enormous development as the capital of Turkey. However, much of the rest of the country lagged behind the two principal cities and remained underdeveloped.

The discovery of natural gas under the Black Sea in the early 2020s increased Turkey's wealth and made it energy independent. However, Russian energy giant Gazprom still operated a pipeline through Turkey supplying southern and central Europe with Russian gas. By the mid 2030s, HVDC cables passing through Turkish territory supplied Europe with clean electricity from solar farms in the United Islamic Republic. Turkey remained a crucial transit point for energy as well as trade between Europe and Asia well into the mid to late 21st century.