Turkey

TURKEY IS A COUNTRY that links both Europe and Asia and the Christian and Islamic worlds. It has a territory of 301,000 square miles and occupies both Asia Minor and a small portion of mainland southeast Europe, on which is built the city of Istanbul, which in the past was an important center of European civilization, when it was known first as Byzantium and then Constantinople.

Turkey's history as the center of the Ottoman Empire was long and prestigious, but the empire fell into a long decline from which Kemal Ataturk (1881–1938) recreated it as a modern, secular, parliamentary democracy. In the early years of the 21st century, Turkey was pulled between conservative Islamic forces and liberal, secular forces who see the future of Turkey in Europe as a member of the European Union (EU). Currently, acceptance into the EU is dependent on improvements to the country's human rights record and the occupation of north Cyprus. Turkey is bordered on the western side in Europe by Bulgaria and Greece, and on the eastern and southern Asian side by Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

Much of the southeastern part of Turkey is home to ethnic Kurds, who represent around 20 percent of the total population of approximately 70 million, and [Page 1079]who are part of the world's largest ethnic minority without a home country. The Kurdistan Worker's Party began a separatist insurgency in 1984 that continued into 2005 and has resulted in perhaps 30,000 deaths. Kurds complain of unequal access to economic opportunities and government services in the areas in which they live and, largely involved in agriculture, are generally poorer than the majority of the population.

A major earthquake in 1999 led to a banking crisis, which then triggered a more general economic crisis as years of inflation and resource misallocation brought about the near collapse of the country. An International Monetary Fund (IMF)-administered economic reform program has assisted in providing stability and a basis for future growth. However, the country continues to follow a form of dual development, with higher levels of growth and development in the generally western, secular areas than in the more conservative, religious, or ethnically Kurdish areas.

Turkey has comparatively low levels of absolute poverty but high levels of vulnerability. Approximately 1.8 percent ofthe population live in poverty and this has declined in the past decade. However, secondary levels of poverty have increased since the banking crisis in 2001.

The country's strategy report stresses the need to make the economy more resilient to minimize dangers from sudden external shocks and to plan for the sustainable economic development that will be necessary to bring people out of poverty. The strategy further emphasizes equitable access to health and education services and to economic opportunities, and points to reducing inequalities through regional development.

Inequality levels are high and are regionally based. Families with children are more vulnerable than the elderly, and some families have had to withdraw children from school or reduce their attendance. Rural-to-urban migration has represented an important method of alleviating poverty, but this has also had the effect of reducing family networks and support, as well as informal agricultural sector subemployment. Urban poverty has risen slightly in the aftermath of the crisis and is evident in such phenomena as increased risk and incidence of disease.

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