Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males age 18-49: 679,734
females age 20-49: 659,090 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$12.155 billion (2003)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
5.3% (2003)
Military - note:
in the early 1990s, the Turkish Land Force was a large but badly
equipped infantry force; there were 14 infantry divisions, but only
one was mechanized, and out of 16 infantry brigades, only six were
mechanized; the overhaul that has taken place since has produced
highly mobile forces with greatly enhanced firepower in accordance
with NATO's new strategic concept (2005)
Transnational Issues Turkey
Disputes - international:
complex maritime, air, and territorial disputes with Greece in the
Aegean Sea; status of north Cyprus question remains; Syria and Iraq
protest Turkish hydrological projects to control upper Euphrates
waters; Turkey has expressed concern over the status of Kurds in
Iraq; border with Armenia remains closed over Nagorno-Karabakh
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 350,000-1,000,000 (fighting from 1984-99 between Kurdish PKK
and Turkish military; most IDPs in southeastern provinces) (2005)
Illicit drugs:
key transit route for Southwest Asian heroin to Western Europe and
- to a far lesser extent the US - via air, land, and sea routes;
major Turkish, Iranian, and other international trafficking
organizations operate out of Istanbul; laboratories to convert
imported morphine base into heroin are in remote regions of Turkey
and near Istanbul; government maintains strict controls over areas
of legal opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw
concentrate; lax enforcement of money-laundering controls
This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006
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