The Turkish Republic, founded on the socio-economic heritage of the Ottoman Empire, inherited a heavy burden of debts and an economic structure strictly based on agriculture. A new economic policy was started with the creation of basic industry (iron, steel, textiles, cellulose and paper, ceramics, chemicals). New laws were introduced, banks and financial institutions were founded. The private sector, playing an important role in the national economic scene, was supported by the state. Many new enterprises partly or completely owned by the state, were opened for the public’s benefit.

Turkey economically suffered from the Second World War. In 1948, under the framework of the Western countries’ reconstruction (Marshall Plan), and against the Soviet threat, Turkey was one of the countries receiving aid, and became a member of the IMF and NATO. A liberal economic system was founded and exportation increased. In spite of all this, in the second half of the 1950s, following the political instability of the time, economy reached a stalemate. In 1963, under the new constitution, a five year development state plan was created, restarting economy and accelarating the expansion of the industrial sector.

After the military coup of 1980, Turgut Özal came onto the political scene and thanks to his innovating ideas and his liberal tendencies, he redressed and vivified economy and allowed Turkey to carve out a place in the world market.

Following a same policy, Tansu Çiller, the first woman to become Prime Minister, tried to overcome the deficit in the budget and to reduce the high rate of inflation. In 1994 Turkey started to loose economic stability, and her government was forced to take emergency measures, levying a wealth tax and closing non profitable state enterprises.

In 1996, the Customs Union agreement with the European Union came into operation.

In december 1999, Turkey was officially admitted as a candidate to the European Union (full membership has been applied for since 1987).

In addition to its European partners, Turkey is a supplier to many Moslem countries, and collapsing of communism designated it as a logical partner of the ex USSR and slav countries for food and manufactured articles supplying.

Following a crisis that occured in February 2001 in the banking sector, leading to the devaluation of the Turkish Lira by more than 30 percent, Kemal Dervis, a World Bank vice president, was appointed as a minister of state for the economy and started an anti-inflation economic program.

Since 2002, Turkey has engaged in harmonizing its legislation and institutional basis to match EU standards and requirements. The government is also implementing a structural reform, including tighter fiscal policy, and economic stabilization program with the support of international financial institutions including a stand-by agreement with the International Monetary Funds (the IMF).

On January 1, 2005, six zeros have been removed from the Turkish Lira (Türk Lirasi). The new currency unit is the YTL and the international currency code of the YTL has been determined as TRY instead of the previous TRL (see Useful Tips).
The arrival of the new Turkish Lira confirms the success of the plan for economic recovery set up with the support of the IMF. The country has experienced a growth rate of about 10 percent and a new agreement of three years duration with the IMF, accompanied by 10 billion dollars credit, that will replace the current program after February 2005, should allow Turkey to complete the restructuring of its economy. Inflation, fallen to approximately 10% at the end of 2004, reached its lowest level in nearly thirty years.




The major industries include textiles and clothing (largest export), and leather goods, foodstuffs, mining, automobile industry, cement, construction, lumber and petroleum products, iron and steel, fertilizers.

The major exports include cotton, clothing, textile articles, tobacco, citrus fruit, pistachios, hazel nuts, raisins, figs, apricots, aromatic herbs, rose-water, honey, tomato-sauce, red pepper, dried vegetables, pastas, biscuits, olive oil. Stock farming products, meat and wool, leather goods. Also iron and metals, ceramics and glass, machinery, buses, chemicals.

The major imports include foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, iron, steel, natural gas, vehicles.


The main resources are:

- Agriculture: because of the variety of the soils and climates, produces are numerous and varied. Due to extensive agriculture, Turkey is self-sufficient and exports a fair amount of its resources:


Cotton Flowers

Sunflowers - Region of Edirne


* Cereals come first in the production with wheat, barley,
corn, rye, rice and oat.

* Industrial plants include tobacco, cotton, sesame-seeds, sunflower, potato, sugar-beet.

* Roses for fragrance and rosewater and rose oil (Isparta).

* Opium-poppies are grown under strict state control. 75% of poppies are grown in Afyonkarahisar, Burdur, Eskisehir, Isparta, Kütahya and Usak.

* Pistachio-trees (southeastern Anatolia) and hazel trees (Black Sea region).

* Leguminous plants are grown in large quantities: lentils, beans, broad beans, chickpeas.

* Tea plantations (Black Sea region), olive-trees (western Anatolia) and vines (Thrace, central and western Anatolia).

* Citrus fruits.

* Aromatic herbs (lavender, laurel, sage, mint, origanum, dill).


Poppy flower

Jujube Tree

Pistachios


Nuts


- Forestry and plants: 99% of the forests belong to the state and they represent 26% of the territory.
The South, West and North-West are covered by Mediterranean vegetation, consisting mainly of thickbrushwoods and conifers. In the humid North are the more densely wooded regions. In the eastern Black Sea regions, oat trees, fir trees, poplars and fruit trees can be found. Central Anatolia is a region of steppes. Forests of oats and coniferous trees only grow on the elavated areas.


Fir trees - Black Sea Region

Cedar trees - Mediterranean Region
 

- Animal husbandry: Turkey is the first wool productor in Europe. There is a great variety of sheeps, of which the Merino, introduced in 1925 and famous for its wool.
Goat breeding is very important. The silky long-haired Mohair goat from Ankara (Angora), produces 1.5 kg of wool per year. In 1950 mohair goats, offered to the English, were first acclimatized to South Africa and later to California.
Buffalos can be found in large droves seeking for water. Oxen are still used as draught animals, donkeys carry burdens, horses are ridden in the steppes, dromedaries carry the nomads’ heavy loads.


- Fishing: there is a big potential of seafood because of the numerous seas, lakes and rivers. However due to the primitive techniques that are still in use, production and consumption of seafood are low. Most of the fishing is done in the Black Sea. Anchovies, small mackerels and bonitos are the most common and then the cheapest fishes. The major freshwater fishes are truits and carps.

 


- The subsoil encloses varied mines:

* Coal, found on the Black Sea Coast (Erigli-Zonguldak) has been exploited since the War of Crimea (1855).

* Lignite is mostly found in western Anatolia (Yatagan, Ula, Soma) and in the North-Est (Kars).Iron in eastern Anatolia.

* Non-ferrous metals are mainly worked by state enterprises and exported : chrome and manganese (Mügla, Fethiye, Köyçeyiz), bauxite (Taurus), boron and magnesite (Eskisehir), kaolin (Izmir), antimony and tungsten (Bursa), nickel (Ankara), silver (Kütahya), gold (Hatay), sulphur, silver bearing lead (Aegean), copper (South-East), emery, quartz (Mersin).

* Petroleum is exploited in the South-East (Batman, Adiyaman). Its production represents about 20% of the domestic consumption. The five main refineries are located in Izmit, Aliaga, Mersin, Kirikkale and Batman.

 


- Hydro-electricity is produced by the major power plant dams : the Atatürk Dam and Keban Dam on the Euphrates, the Sariyar on the Sakarya, the Hirfanli on the Kizilirmak.
GAP (Güney Anadolu Projesi = Southeastern Anatolia Project) is the largest regional development project ever undertaken by Turkey. The multi-sectoral programme aims to develop nine provinces in the Euphrates-Tigris basins and upper Mesopotamia plains, and to contribute to social stability and economic growth. It covers such sectors as irrigation, hydraulic energy production, agriculture, urban and rural infrastructure, forestry, education and health.
Atatürk Dam

The construction of 22 dams (the master-piece is the Atatürk Dam ranking 4th among the world’s largest) and 19 power plants and irrigation schemes cover an area extending 1.7 million hectares / 4.2 million acres. The works are planned to end by 2005 and the annual energy production will reach 27 billion kwh. The total coast of the project is 32 billion US $.

- Thermic energy is produced in the thermal power-stations of Yatagan, Afsin-Elbistan.

- Tourism in Turkey is promoted by two factors:

* The geographical factor with an exceptional situation between Europe and Asia, and coasts extending on 7,200 km / 4,475 miles. The diversity of the climates that has given birth to an extremely varied fauna and flora. And 300 shiny days with the Mediterranean climate.

* The historical factor : favourite land to numerous people whose civilizations have left vestiges and masterpieces.

* 10.5 million tourists came to Turkey in the year 2000.

* Tourism incomings reached 7.8 billion US $ in 1998.

* The number of Turkish tourists going abroad has reached 5 million a year.