Leaders:
Chief of State—President Turgut OZAL (since 9 November 1989);
Head of Government—Prime Minister Yildirim AKBULUT (since 9 November 1989); Deputy Prime Minister Ali BOZER (since 31 March 1989)
Political parties and leaders: Motherland Party (ANAP), Yildirim
Akbulut; Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), Erdal Inonu; Correct Way
Party (CWP), Suleyman Demirel; Democratic Left Party (DLP), Bulent
Ecevit; Prosperity Party (RP), Necmettin Erbakan; National Work Party (MCP),
Alpaslan Turkes; Reform Democratic Party (IDP), Aykut Edibali
Suffrage: universal at age 21
Elections: Grand National Assembly—last held 29 November 1987 (next to be held November 1992); results—ANAP 36%, SHP 25%, CWP 19%, others 20%; seats—(450 total) ANAP 283, SHP 81, CWP 56, independents 26, vacant 4
Communists: strength and support negligible
Member of: ASSIMER, CCC, Council of Europe, EC (associate member),
ECOSOC, FAO, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAC, ICAO, IDA, IDB—Islamic Development Bank,
IEA, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOOC, IPU, ITC, ITU,
NATO, OECD, OIC, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WSG, WTO
Diplomatic representation: Ambassador Nuzhet KANDEMIR; Chancery at 1606 23rd Street NW, Washington DC 20008; telephone (202) 387-3200; there are Turkish Consulates General in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York; US—Ambassador Morton ABRAMOWITZ; Embassy at 110 Ataturk Boulevard, Ankara (mailing address is APO New York 09254—0001); telephone [90] (4) 126 54 70; there are US Consulates General in Istanbul and Izmir, and a Consulate in Adana
Flag: red with a vertical white crescent (the closed portion is toward the hoist side) and white five-pointed star centered on the hoist side
- Economy Overview: The economic reforms that Turkey launched in 1980 continue to bring an impressive stream of benefits. The economy has grown steadily since the early 1980s, with real growth in per capita GDP increasing more than 6% annually. Agriculture remains the most important economic sector, employing about 60% of the labor force, accounting for almost 20% of GDP, and contributing about 25% to exports. Impressive growth in recent years has not solved all of the economic problems facing Turkey. Inflation and interest rates remain high, and a large budget deficit will continue to provide difficulties for a country undergoing a substantial transformation from a centrally controlled to a free market economy. The government has launched a multimillion-dollar development program in the southeastern region, which includes the building of a dozen dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to generate electric power and irrigate large tracts of farmland. The planned tapping of huge quantities of Euphrates water has raised serious concern in the downstream riparian nations of Syria and Iraq.