Country Sheet : Türkiye

Information file

Last Update on July 3rd 2024

TÜRKIYE

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In English - version of July 3rd 2024

Geography

Area : 783,562 km²

Borders : 2,816 km (Armenia 311 km, Azerbaijan 17 km, Bulgaria 223 km, Georgia 273 km, Greece 192 km, Iran 534 km, Iraq 367 km, Syria 899 km)

Coastline : 7,200 km

Capital : Ankara

Official language : Turkish

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Population

Population : 85,882,833 (2023)

Crude natural change rate : 6.4‰ (2023 est.)

Population repartition: 22% under 15 years old, 9.9% over 65 years old (2023)

Foreign residents: EU nationals 0.2%, non- EU nationals 0.8% (2017)

Crude net migration rate: -3.7‰ (2023)

First time asylum applicants: 33,246 (December 2022)

Life expectancy: men 74,1 years, women 78,9 years (2023 est.)

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

Ethnic groups: Turkish 70-75%, Kurdish 19%, other minorities 7-12% (est. 2016)

Source : Eurostat, The CIA World Factbook

Economy

Currency: Turkish Pound (TRY) (exchange rate in July 2024: 1€ = 35.07 TRY)

GDP: $ 1,150 billion (2023)

GDP per capita (PPS): $ 41,890 (2023)

GDP growth : 4% (2023)

Inflation: 75.5% (May 2024)

Public debt: 29.5% of GDP (December 2023)

Unemployment: 8.5% (April 2024)

Stock of foreign direct investment from the entire world: $ 166 million (June 2023)

Budget balance: -5.7% of GDP (March 2024)

Source : Eurostat, FMI, OECD, Trading Economics, Country Economy

Political system

Republic, parliamentary democracy, authoritarian presidential regime (Constitution adopted by referendum on November 7, 1982 and amended in 1995, 2001, 2007 and 2010, 2017). The European Commission for Democracy through Law has estimated that the revision of the Constitution made in 2017 «represents a complete break in the constitutional history of the country. It does not fit into the logic of the separation of powers that characterizes democratic presidential regimes.»

Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reelected on May 28th 2023 for a five-year term.

Prime Minister abolition of the post of prime minister following the new 2017 Constitution and transfer of his powers to the presidency.

Vice-president Cevdet Yilmaz

"Monocameral parliamentary system" The Grand National Assembly (Meclis) is composed of 600 seats; the representatives are elected for five years according to proportional representation; a 10% threshold is required (except for «independent candidates»).

Political representation

Parliamentary composition on 28th May 2023

294 seats: Justice and Development Party (AKP)
144 seats: Republican People’s Party (CHP)
65 seats: People’s Democratic Party (HDP)
49 seats: Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)
42 seats: Good Party (İYİ)
2 seat: Felicity Party (SP)
2 seats: Turkey Worker’s Party (TİP)
1 seat: Democratic Party (DP)
1 seat: Great Unity Party (BBP)

Turkey became candidate for EU membership on 10th-11th December 1999. Negotiations were formally opened on 1st October 2005. Nevertheless, negotiations were impeded on 1st December 2006 because Turkey refused to apply the Additional Protocol of the Ankara Agreement to Cyprus. 15 out of 35 chapters have been opened; the last one (opened on 14th December 2015) is about financial and economy topics.
On 18th March 2016 a deal was signed between EU and Ankara regarding the repartition of Syrian refugees, involving visa liberalisation and re-opening of adhesion negotiations.
Several incidents have taken place between Turkey and the EU. The last one was on 22nd March 2018, when the European Council condemned «Turkey’s continuing illegal actions in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean». On March 26th, 2018, a meeting between Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the leaders of the European Union did not lead to any concrete progress.