Turkiye

This article is about the country. For the large gamebird, see Turkey (bird).

Flag of Turkey

Turkey is a state in Asia with a small amount of territory in Europe. Its current president is Ahmet Necdet Sezer. It succeeded the Ottoman Empire after its defeat by the Entente powers in the World War I. Since the establishment of the Republic in 1923, Turkey has pursued policies of secularism and Westernization but it refused to cooperate with the U.S.-led forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom . After a period of one-party rule, multi-party politics was introduced in the late 40's but there have been intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980) . However, human-right abuses, especially against Christians remains a problem and the frequency of violent attacks on Christian ministers and priests is still high .

Turkey and the EU

Turkey is currently negotiating membership with the European Union. This has been met with harsh opposition. Various reasons for this opposition include:

• Serious human rights violations
• Refusal to admit genocide of Armenia
• Refusal to recognize Cyprus
• Only 3% of Turkey is in Europe
• They are a majority Muslim country, conflicting with over one thousand years of Judeo-Christian values in Europe