Essay - Turkey Introduction an Old Saying About Turkey Says, 'Turkey is...

Turkey

*****

An old saying about Turkey says, "Turkey is an Eastern country if you come to it from the West, and a Western country ***** you ***** to ***** from the East." (Aliriza, 2003) Th***** describes modern day Turkey well. It is an Islamic country with a secul*****r government. ***** has strong ties to ***** East but also to the West, ***** identifies with the ***** strongly enough to not only work hard to remain a secular nation ***** to seek entr*****ce to ***** European Union as well.

***** day ***** rose from the remains of the Ottoman Empire. It reorganized from the beginning ***** a secular government. It was one of ***** first members of the United Nations, joining in 1945, and in 1952, in response to fears that ***** U.S.S.R. might want to take over Turkey as it had many of Turkey's neighbors, joined The North Atlantic Treaty Association -- NATO -- in ***** (CIA, 2003). This w***** a mutually beneficial agreement between NATO and Turkey.

Turkey's economy has generally grown over recent years, ***** in some years its Gross National Product (GNP) ***** been higher the last decade ***** ***** has shown significant declines (CIA, 2003). Turkey's economy cannot be viewed as stable.

***** is an emerging nation-power facing significant challenges, including an unpredictable economy where the gap is widening *****tween the poor and ***** not-poor, and a co*****lition government that could experience major shifts in the relatively near future (Samberk, 2001).

A unifying factor is the desire of the great *****ity of political and military leaders to see Turkey eventually enter the ***** Union, and th***** ***** guides many decisions, ***** brings opposing parties ********** to work for that common goal.

GOVERNMENT

***** ***** form is a democracy with a form *****what different than other democracies. The ***** of the National Assembly, which h***** ***** one house, are elected for five years. ***** president is then ***** by the 550-seat National Assembly, and ***** president appoints the Prime Minister ***** deputy Prime ministers. The president actually has little real power beyond those appointments (CIA, *****). In addition, the National Security Council, consisting ***** military and cabinet officers, advises the government. This group is presided over by the President, but he must be nominated to ***** spot by the Prime minister (CIA, 2003).

The president also appoints judges ***** prosecutors (*****, 2003). Thus Turkey is a democr*****cy but lacking some of the checks and balances we have in the United States, where the Judiciary and Executive branches are completely separate from the legislative branch. *****'s system gives Assembly members considerable power.

***** PARTIES

Political parties *****clude ***** Justice and Development Party (called AKP or JDP); the Democratic Left Party; ***** M*****land Party; the ********** Action Party; The True Path (or "Correct Way") party, and the Young Party (CIA, *****). In *****, Turkey has several groups that ***** be characterized as "***** pressure" groups, of ***** the military is a prominent mem*****r (Aliriza, 2003).

The Justice *****