Turkey
...on
one side, while maintaining the Islamic and Ottoman Empire’s traditions on the other side
make Turkey “strange”, “controversial”, “incomprehensible”, “dangerous” or “backward”
but also “interesting”, “amazing”, “fascinating” and “important”. Not only because of all
these attributes should we deal with that euro-asian country.
Since the negotiation of Turkey’s accession to the EU started in October 2005 Turkey is
in the spotlight of the whole world. The first time in the EU accession history the majority
of EU citizens is against the admission of a new nation to the EU. In autumn 2005 only
31% of EU citizens approved the Turkish EU joining, while 55% argued against it. In
Germany only 21% supported the European states’ decision.
Luckily I have a “family” in Turkey and therefore I have the chance to see people’s behaviour
in daily life, to get to know the huge contrasts between city and country life and
experience their special, traditional and fascinating way of living. Personally I am impressed
by the country that shows such great potential, such great hospitality and openmindedness
to foreigners, business men and tourists from all over the world.
With this country paper I want to give you a macroeconomical, political, social and external
understanding of the country, that, if the EU accession negotiation ends positively,
will be the second largest country in the EU and thus will have a great influence on the future
EU development and its role in the world.
2. Country Profile
2.1 Geography
The Republic of Turkey has an outstanding geographical position. It is a transcontinental
country between Europe and Asia1. The land area has 779,452 square km (Germany
357,031 square km2), from which 3% are in Europe and 97% are located in Asia3. The
European part, also known as “Thrace” and the Asian part, also known as “Anatolia” are
separated...
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