Terrain: mostly mountains; narrow coastal plain; high central plateau
(Anatolia)
Natural resources: antimony, coal, chromium, mercury, copper, borate, sulphur, iron ore
Land use: 30% arable land; 4% permanent crops; 12% meadows and pastures; 26% forest and woodland; 28% other; includes 3% irrigated
Environment: subject to severe earthquakes, especially along major river valleys in west; air pollution; desertification
Note: strategic location controlling the Turkish straits (Bosporus,
Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas; Turkey and
Norway only NATO members having a land boundary with the USSR
- People
Population: 56,704,327 (July 1990), growth rate 2.2% (1990)
Birth rate: 29 births/1,000 population (1990)
Death rate: 8 deaths/1,000 population (1990)
Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1990)
Infant mortality rate: 74 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)