Historical profile
Istanbul (or Constantinople as it was known) was the center of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire for more than 1,000 years until its capture by the Ottomans. From the eleventh century, invasions from Central Asia changed the demographic and social structure of the region, a process culminating in the defeat of the Byzantines by the Ottomans in the Battle of Baphaeon in 1301 and extending into their centuries long rule during which the heritage of Byzantium would be made anew.
· 1453 The Ottomans captured the Byzantine capital, gradually expanded their areas of territorial control and remade their small state into the Ottoman Empire.
· 1500-1900s The Empire expanded rapidly in the 15th and 16th centuries incorporating in its territory vast areas in the Near East, Africa and Europe. At one point the sultan Süleyman the Magnificent challenged the Habsburg dynasty at Vienna but Ottoman armies were defeated. The empire went through a period of standstill during the European Enlightenment of the 18th century and focused its efforts on emulating the West to recover in the 19th century. Its decline continued through the brief intermissions of constitutional monarchy and experimentation with political parties at the turn of the century leading to the deposition of the monarch and the abolition of the empire in the early 1920s.
· 1914 Reeling under the defeat of the Balkan Wars when many of its territories in Thrace were lost to Greece, the Ottomans entered the First World War on the side of the Germans in order to recuperate their losses. Their defeat marked the beginning of the end of the Empire.
· 1923 The independence of the Turkish state was recognized by the Treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923. The Republic of Turkey was established in place of the defunct Ottoman Empire on 29 October 1923. Mustafa Kemal, renamed Atatürk (father of all Turks), became the first president of the country. The Republican People’s Party established by Atatürk continued to function as a single party under his rule and that of his successor ?smet ?nonü. The caliphate was abolished and Turkey was declared to be a secular state. Legal and educational institutions were overhauled in line with this step.
· 1945 ?nönü kept Turkey out of the Second World War through a delicate balance of power policy. Turkey suffered economically from the war and was perceptibly impoverished. The Capital Tax designed to increase tax revenues turned out to be a traumatic experience.
· 1947/1948 The US committed itself to protect Turkey and Greece from possible attacks from their communist neighbors under the Truman doctrine.
· 1950 The first free elections were held and the Democratic Party took power.
· 1952 Turkey joined NATO.
· 1960 - 1961 The government was overthrown in a military coup. A constitution was approved by referendum, elections were held and civilian rule was restored.
· 1971 The political fragmentation of the past decade led to a period of military supervision of government which lasted for two years.
· 1980 - 1981 Martial law was declared throughout the country. This development was foreshadowed by a series of assassinations in the late 1970s and the martial law that was declared in 13 provinces two years ago. All political parties were disbanded at the time.
· 1982 A new constitution was approved by referendum.
· 1983 New political parties were allowed, subject to strict rules. The Anavatan Partisi (ANAP) (Motherland Party) won the parliamentary election and Turgut Ozal became prime minister. Özal was the architect of the IMF-backed austerity programs. His rule also saw a period of liberalization in the economy.
· 1987 Martial law, which had continued in many provinces, ended, enabling Turkey to become a full and active member of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in addition to being an associate member of the EU.
· 1991 Süleyman Demirel, a well-known political figure of the 1970s, had reentered politics and his Dogru Yol Partisi (DYP) won the national elections.
· 1993 Demirel became president after Özal.
· 1995 The general election resulted in a coalition government led, for the first time, by an Islamist prime minister. The Islamist Refah Partisi (RP) (Welfare Party) formed a coalition with the DYP.
· 1997 The coalition government led by Erbakan collapsed and new government which included the ANAP, the Demokratik Sol Partisi (DSP) (Democratic Left Party) and the Demokrat Türkiye Partisi (DTP) (Democratic Turkey Party) was formed, with the ANAP’s Mesut Y?lmaz as prime minister.
· 1998 The RP was declared illegal and was banned. Its MPs joined the newly-formed Fazilet Partisi (FP) (Virtue Party) which became the largest single party in parliament. Y?lmaz’s government lost a vote of no-confidence and was forced to resign early.
· 1999 A coalition government led by Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit (DSP) won a vote of confidence. An earthquake in the Marmara region with epicenter in ?zmit killed around 15,000 people including heavy casualties in ?stanbul.
· 2000 After the failure of a move to change the constitution to allow Demirel to continue as president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, former head of the Constitutional Court, was elected.
· 2001 The FP was banned. Turkey’s parliament voted to change the constitution to help bring it closer to the constitutions in EU countries.
· 2002 The resignation of a large number of MPs from the leading coalition partner DSP led to snap parliamentary elections. Prior to the elections the parliament voted for wide reforms, including rights for the Kurdish language and the property rights of the foundations of non-Muslim minorities.
· Results of the November parliamentary elections: the recently established Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi (AKP) (Justice and Development Party), led by Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, won 34.3 percent of the vote (363 seats out of 550), the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP) (Republican People’s Party) 19.4 percent (178 seats), with the remaining nine seats going to independents. Prime Minister Ecevit resigned and Abdullah Gül (AKP) was appointed prime minister by the president as Erdo?an’s political ban was in effect at the time.
· 2003 Erdo?an was appointed as prime minister by the president; he took office on 14 March and his government won a vote of confidence on 23 March. On 21 June, parliament adopted a package of human rights reforms to comply with EU criteria for starting membership talks. The legislation grants the practice of cultural rights for Kurds and other ethnic groups, including education and broadcasting in languages other than Turkish. Laws were passed in August to reduce the ability of the army to interfere in politics and to give a partial amnesty to fighters of the Kürdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Education
Education is compulsory for eight years between ages 6-14. This law was enacted in the mid- 1990s before which compulsory education continued until fifth grade. Primary school education consists of mostly public and some private schooling. Although public education is free, facilities are extremely limited, forcing a number of students to attend night school or take private tuition to improve their chances of gaining a place at one of Turkey’s 29 universities. The universities are supervised by the Institute of Higher Education (YÖK) that was established after the military coup in 1980.
In 2000 the adult illiteracy rate was estimated at 6.5 per cent and 23.4 per cent for men and women respectively. According to the World Bank estimates in 1997, total primary school enrolment of the relevant age group stood at 107 percent (including repetition rates), and 58 percent of children were enrolled in secondary school. There were typically 24 pupils per primary school teacher.
Public expenditure on education was equivalent to approximately 2.2 per cent of annual Gross National Income (GNI) in 1997 and included subsidies to private education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. World Bank estimates show that in 2000 Turkey spent 0.5 percent of GNI on research and development.
Main cities
Ankara (capital, estimated population 3.5 million in 2003), Istanbul (9.4 million), ?zmir (2.4 million), Bursa (1.3 million), Adana (1.2 million).
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