I.

Introduction

Turkey (country), officially the Republic of Turkey (in Turkish, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti), south-eastern Europe and south-western Asia, bordered on the north-west by Bulgaria and Greece; on the north by the Black Sea; on the north-east by Georgia and Armenia; on the east by Iran; on the south by Iraq, Syria, and the Mediterranean Sea; and on the west by the Aegean Sea. The capital of Turkey is Ankara. The area of Turkey is 779,452 sq km (300,948 sq mi).

The modern Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from a portion of the Ottoman Empire, following the empire’s collapse as a result of World War I. Turkey became a secular state in 1928, and a multi-party system was established in 1946. Apart from a brief period of government by a military junta in 1960 and 1961, Turkey remained under civilian rule until 1980, when, in a period of political instability, inflation, and acts of terrorism, the army again took control. Civilian rule was restored to Turkey at the end of 1983.