Turkey Today

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  • TURKEY TODAY


    istanbul panaromic

    POLITICS

    In June 2011, the Justice and Development Party won an inevitable victory, giving the right-wing party, directed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gül, a third term. Since its increase to power in 2002, the AKP has sparked alarm among diehard secularists who say that the party tries to consume the secular legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Some even dispute that the AKP seeks to force Sharia on the country, pointing to its efforts to remove limitations on headscarf-wearing and Erdogan’s vocal competition to tobacco and alcohol use, though party leadership denies this.

    Under the AKP, Turkey has moved toward larger political and economic action with the Arab world, as well as with growing countries in other regions, though the government says it remains assigned to joining the EU. Most member nations are in favor of Turkey’s investment, but there are some strong foes, and the talks have made only slow progress as Turkey faces blame on several issues. Advanced Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus is one major stumbling block; another is the Turkish government's unwillingness to label the deaths of several hundred thousand Armenians during World War I as genocide. Domestically, experts cite criminal laws that punish anyone found guilty of insulting "Turkishness" (amended in 2008 to insulting the Turkish nation) and demands on the media as further difficulties.

    Heated tensions between the AKP and its editors boiled over in the summer of 2013, when the heavy-handed police reply to a peaceful sit-in at a central Istanbul park sparked weeks of antigovernment demonstrations in Istanbul, Ankara, and elsewhere around the country. The two sets of elections listed for 2014—local elections in March and a first-ever popular election for the country’s president in August—will be listened carefully to see if the competition from many segments of society can be transformed into a real test to the AKP at the ballot box.
  • THE ECONOMY

    The AKP's biggest business chip in recent votes has been the upsurge of the Turkish economy since the result of the 1999 Marmara earthquake, but this trend has shown signs of faltering in the last few months. The country still enjoys a different economy: self-sufficient farming production, a massive textile industry, and a burgeoning electronics sector, not to mention leading tourism figures, with the number of foreign visitors nearly tripling between 2000 and 2010. International confidence in the economy has driven considerable foreign property, which has established the Turkish lira. The increase, which for 30 years led to the counting of the lira in millions, cut small enough to let the government lop six zeroes from the old lira in 2005. But while Turkish annual GDP growth equalized more than 6% during most of the 2000s and hit 8.9% in 2010, it lagged sharply to 2.2% in 2012. Meanwhile, increase began to rise again in 2011, nearing 9% in summer 2013, and the lira’s value against the dollar decreased to an all-time low. These trends, combined with Turkey's greatest economic liability—a sizable trade deficit, driven primarily by the country's need to send foreign oil—and concerns about an overheating economy, have caused some renewed jitters among foreign investors.
  • RELIGION

    Turks enjoy themselves on their tolerance of other religions, a legacy of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled people of all faiths. Turkey is a secular republic. However, the community is overwhelmingly (99%) comprised of Muslims; the remaining 1% are Christians (mostly Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic) and Jews. One reason for the near harmony between people of different faiths may be the most relaxed access toward religion found in much of Turkey. Many Turks drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, and on any given day in Istanbul, you’re as likely to find as many scantily clad fashionistas walking down the street as women wearing headscarves (many of whom are plenty stylish themselves).
  • THE ARTS

    Turkey has made many recent gifts to the art world—no surprise from a country that claims such beautiful age. The Istanbul Film Festival will be in its 35rd year as of 2016: held every April, the festival honors prizes for both Turkish and international films. The country's most well-known creative mind may still be novelist Orhan Pamuk, who earned Turkey’s first Nobel Prize in 2006 for his fantastic yet historical books though the stars of other authors—as well as filmmakers, stylists, and musicians—are on the rise as well. Additionally, Turkey's status as a large textile exporter has helped ensure the nation a place in fashion design, and Istanbul's Nisantasi district is a maze of small boutiques selling introduced and Turkish clothing. In the visual arts, Turkey is most renowned for its ceramics and porcelain, especially handmade Kütahya and İznik tiles.

    turkish art
  • SPORTS

    Turkey is a diehard soccer country (we call it football), and heated contests run strong. Turkey's clubs boast lots of homegrown star along with some players imported from Europe and South America. The Turkish national football team has experienced sporadic success in international play. In the last decade, the team reached the rounds in the 2002 World Cup and 2008 European Cup. Basketball is also a frequently popular sport in Turkey, which entertained the 2010 FIBA World Championship—and encouraged its national team of “12 giant men” to a second-place finish..
  • MEDIA

    Turkish media seems always to be on people's lips, mainly since of Article 301 and the Turkish government's propensity for closing down, fining, or otherwise applying force on outlets that offend its awarenesses or offer the judgment that is deemed too harsh. Until 2008, Article 301 forbade anyone from insulting "Turkishness," under pain of criminal pursuance (the crime has now changed to insulting the Turkish nation). Most cases dropped but many notable Turks, including Orhan Pamuk, have been prosecuted.
  • SMOKING

    The Turkish government rules a ban on smoking in enclosed public places, which took effect in May 2008 to curb rampant tobacco addiction.

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