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Other meanings of turkey:
- turkey (bird)
- In bowling, three consecutive strikes.
- "cold turkey", a withdrawal from drug addiction without gradual tapering off of usage
File:Turkey flag medium.png
Turkey (Türkiye) is a country with territory in Europe and Asia (Asia Minor).
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk created the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923 from the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Secular laws replaced traditional religious ones, and Arabic script was abolished in favour of the Latin alphabet. Ataturk orchestrated a complete language reform and created a new Western-style Turkish language. Turkey joined the United Nations in 1945, and became a member of NATO in 1952.
Turkey is a republican parliamentary democracy with a legal system derived from various European continental legal systems. In 2001, Turkey had 5 political parties. Turkey's secular constitution does not allow for political parties with a religious basis (i.e. fundamentalist). Despite this, fundamentalist religious movements in Turkey have been gaining ground in politics with increased financial support from external Arab states.
The capital city is Ankara (2.6m). Other important cities are Izmir (1.7m), Istanbul (6.6m), Bursa (0.835m).
Total population: 66 million (approx., 2001)
Ethnic background: Approximately 80% Turkish, 20% Kurdish. Small numbers of Greek, Armenian, Arabic, Jewish and others.
Religious background: mostly Sunni Muslims 98% with Orthodox Christians, Armenian Apostolic, Roman Catholic and Protestant minorities (2%).