Abstract
The Republic of Turkey is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by eight countries and five main seas. Istabul is the largest city in Turkey, and Turkey’s capital is Ankara. About 48% of the population lives in the cities or towns. The rest lives in rural areas. Most of people in Turkey are Muslim, which are followers of Islami.
Also, in this paper, the culture of Turkish, the life in Turkey such as health care system, transportation, and education system are also mentioned. The Turkey republican parliamentary democracy and the economy are discussed later in the paper. The last part is business etiquette talking about some important customs that business foreigner should know.

Background
Turkey, also known as the Republic of Turkey, is a land-bridge linking Europe and Asia. The history of Turkey encompasses, first, the history of Anatolia before the coming of the Turks and of the civilizations – Hittite, Thracian, Hellenistic, and Byzantine – of which Turkish nation is the heir by assimilation. Second, it includes the history of Turkish people including Seljuks, who brought Islam and Turkish language into Anatolia. Third, it is the history of the Ottoman Empire, a cosmopolitan – Islamic state that developed a small Turkish amirate in Anatolia. Finally, Turkey was established in 1923, after the fall of Ottoman Empire, under “Father Turk”. It is immediately started on a course of modernization in all walks of life (Turkey, 2011.)
Turkey is a Middle Eastern nation locating in both Eastern Asia and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the Northwest; Greece to the West; Georgia to the Northeast; the Soviet Union and Iran on the East; Iraq and Syria on the Southeast. The Black Sea is to the North; the Aegean Sea to the West; and the Mediterranean Sea to the South. It also contains the Sea of Marmara in the Northwest. Turkey’s area is about 300,948 square miles, including lakes, in which 291,773 square miles are in Southwest Asia and 9174 square miles are in Europe. Turkey is the world’s 37th largest country (Turkey, 2013.)
By 2010, with a population of 73,722,988, which is increasing by 1.3% every year, Turkey is the third-largest country by population in Europe, after Russia and Germany. Turkey is geographically divided into seven regions: Marmara, Aegean, Black Sea, Central Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia, Southeastern Anatolia, and the Mediterranean, and subdivided into 81 provinces for administrative purposes. Each province is then divided into districts, with a total of 923 districts. Turkey has a Mediterranean temperature climate, with hot, dry summer and mild, wet, and cold winter (Turkey, 2011.)
Demographics
The official currency in Turkey is the Turkish Lira. One U.S. dollar is equal to 1.5 Turkish Lira (Mistry, n.d.) Turkey’s capital is Ankara, and the largest city is Istabul. Its official language is Turkish, which is spoken by approximately 85% of the population as mother tongue, 12% of the population speaks Kurdish as mother tongue, another 2% speaks Arabic and Zara, and several other languages spoken by a smaller parts of the population. There are two main ethnic groups, the Turkish and the Kurdish, and a small percentage of Arabs, Christian, and Jews (Turkey, n.d.)
Although Turkey is a secular state with no official religion, 99% of the Turkish population is Muslim, adhering to the Sunni branch of Islam. A small size of minority of the population is Shia Alevi and Sufi sects. The remainder follows Christianity and Judaism and close to 3% of the population is atheist (Turkey, n.d.)
Religion Islam is a monotheistic religion practiced by Muslim. They believe that Allah gave revelations to the Prophet Muhammed through the Angel Gabriel around A.D. 600. Jesus Christ and the prophets of the New Testament are accepted as Islamic precepts. During their rule of the Ottoman Empire, Islamic laws dictated the way of life for the Turks. In 1924 with the new republic government, Islamic Law was abolished as a state religion. The government removed religion from public policy and restricted it exclusively to personal faith (Metz, 1995.) Even though the state has no official religion nor promotes any, it actively monitors the area between the religions. Religious communities are placed under the protection of the state, but the constitution states that they cannot become involving in the political process or establishing faith-based schools. There is not a party can claim that it represents under any religious form. Turkey also forbids female to cover their heads in government buildings, schools, and universities (Turkey, 2011.)
Ethnic tensions will always exist where there is a lack of mutual respect and understanding, a lack of education and a lack of legislation to protect those affected. Tensions between the Turks and the large minority Kurdish population in the country are ongoing. The PKK—a rebel Kurdish group—has been fighting against the Turkish state since 1984 with the aim of greater autonomy for Turkish Kurds. The government, as well as the United States government, regards the PKK as a terrorist organization. In August 2010, the PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire for Ramadan, and in October, the cease-fire was extended at least after 2011 general elections. Nonetheless, the latter half of 2010 saw the death of 37 people by way of suicide bomber and roadside bombs (Metz, 1995.)
The Culture
Traditionally, Turkish women do most of housework. They should not work in public or with unrelated men. Turkish law guarantees to pay equally and open most education programs and occupations for women. However, men tend to dominate in high-status occupations in government, business, military, and etc. Most of public places such as movie theaters, beaches, and restaurants have a section for men and a section for families and single women separately (Turkey, 2013.)
Social status in Turkey is determined by wealth and education. It has wealthy urban educated class, the urban middle class, the urban lower class, the large rural landowner class, and the general rural population. A college education is the minimum qualification to enter into the urban educated class. Most people in the urban upper classes are familiar with European and American lifestyle and culture, and also speak at least one Western language. The urban lower classes are the unskilled labor workers, low-paid workers, and the unemployed (Turkey, 2011.) Turkey’s culture is a mixture of Turkic, Ottoman, and Western traditions. This blend is a result of immigration of Turks with the people who were in their path from Central Asia to the West. The government invested in museums, theaters, and architectures in the early years of republic. Turkish music is crossroads between Middle Eastern, modern European and American popular music, Persian classical music, and Central Asian folk music (Turkey, n.d.) Turkish’s most popular sport is soccer. Many other sports are also played such as basketball, volleyball, handball, and motorsports recently. Turkey’s national sport is wrestling, a tradition from the Ottoman times. Weightlifting has been played by both men and women and broken many world records (Turkey, 2013.)
Life in Turkey
Turkey’s education is free from ages six to 15. Children may attend kindergarten at age of six. Education system in Turkey has mainly three parts: primary school, high school, and higher education. The primary school, also called elementary school, includes eight years of education for children between the ages of seven and 15. There are two types of primary schools: public, which is governmental and free and private. When students reach the last year of primary schools, they have to take OKS exam. Based on their scores, they are placed to different kinds of high schools. These are Public high schools, Anatolian high schools which improve students’ language skills by adding part of science courses in foreign language such as English, German, or French, science high schools focusing on science education, vocational high schools focusing on tourism, industry, and electrical work, Imam-Hatip high schools educating imams, and private high schools which established by private enterprises (Turkey, 2011.)
When students complete tenth grade, they choose tracks that lead them to a certain specializations. These four tracks are Turkish-math, science, social science, and language track. At the end of high school, students are required to pass high school finishing examination in order to take the OSS and continue their studies in universities.
For undergraduate studies, universities provide two years or four years of education. For graduate studies, another two years is necessary. With a total student enrollment of over one million, there are around 820 higher education institutions including universities. The literacy rate is 95.3 percent for men and 79.6 percent for women, for an overall average of 87.4 percent. Turkey is struggling to sustain effective education. Their education system has many problems in connection to the other problems in other institutions such as terror in the east, population increase, and economic trouble (Turkey, 2011.)
The life expectancy of Turkish is 72.70 years while American’s life expectancy is 78.490 years (United States vs. Turkey, n.d.) Turkey health care system is very complex because of the existence of different plans and departments in this sector. The Ministry of Health coordinates all the health care and related social welfare activities in Turkey. There are three different agencies ministered Turkey’s health care system: Social Insurance Institution (SSK) which covers employees, Pension Fund for Civil Servants (Emekli Sandigi) which covers retired government workers, and Social Security Institution for the Self-employed (Bag-Kur). The Ministry of Health is responsible for providing health care for people, build and operate hospitals, supervise private hospitals, train medical personnel, regulate prices of all the medical drugs, and control the drug production and all pharmacies. Comparing to the past, the health care system in Turkey is better today, but still not reaching the expected quality, especially in most of the state hospitals. On the other hand, most of private hospitals are raising their quality of services and physicians, and investing more money in their medical equipment (Sansal, 2011.)
Just like America, the cost of living in Turkey depends on locations and life choices. Rural villages are cheaper than urban centrals. Turkey’s transportation has been constantly improving, yet still remaining extremely cheap. Buses are the main mean of transportation because it is the easiest and cheapest. Every town and city has a central bus station where it can take you to almost everywhere in Turkey. Railways and buses routes connect almost every destination in Turkey. The roads also have been developed so it is possible to drive. It is pretty easy to get around in Turkey (Mistry, n.d.)
Politics
Turkey is a republican parliamentary democracy. An elected president leads the Republic Turkey, which is similar to the U.S, but it is five-year-term. The Executive branch is made up of the President, Prime Minister who represents the majority party or coalition in Parliament. The Cabinet of Turkey consists of the heads of the Council Ministers appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister. The legislature is the Grand National Assembly, which is the Parliament of Turkey. They have the power to make laws, ratify treaties, and declare war. However, unlike the U.S. Congress, they are a unicameral legislature, which means that they just have one house of legislature (Turkey, 2011.) The Grand National Assembly consists of two chambers, the National Assembly and the Senate. The National Assembly includes 450 members, who are elected for 4-year terms by the people. The Senate has 150 members, plus 40 others who are not elected, but appointed as members for life. Parliaments in Turkey’s electoral system are elected according to the proportion of votes that they attract, rather than with the most votes win. The result is that three parties dominate, Motherland Party, the True Party, and the Social Democrat Populist Party. In the administrative divisions, local government is made up of 80 provinces, which are administered by governors representing the central government. The local governments elect their own mayors and councils, pass the laws in some way similar to our Congress (Metz, 1995.) The judicial branch consists of a Constitutional Court, which examines the constitutionality of laws passes by Parliament. The President appoints the judges of the court. For the Court of Appeals, Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors elect judges. The final Court of Appeal is also known as the Court of Cassation (Metz, 1995.)
Economy
The economy of Turkey is a complex mixed system. There are traditional village agriculture and crafts, modern industry, and commerce. Agriculture is the backbone of the Turkish economy. It once provided all the major exports. Now, it provides only half of what it is used to. The major agricultural products are cotton, tobacco, fruit, cereals, nuts, and opium. It has a strong growing private sector, but the state still has a major role in industry, banking, transport, and communication (Turkey, 2013.)
Turkey implemented a series of financial and fiscal reforms as a part of an IMF program after enduring a serious financial crisis. Throughout the years of 1998 until 2010, Turkey has seen both its highest growth GDP of 6.69% and also its greatest decline of -7.57% in GDP. The reforms were designed to liberalize the Turkish economy and produced a large increase in the private sector, namely the banking, transportation, and communication industries. These privatizing policies also generated an infrastructure of middle-class entrepreneurs. All of this has compounded for an increase in the industry and service markets, which now make up a substantial part of Turkey’s economy, however, 30% of Turkey’s employment remains in its long-established agricultural sector. In the face of aggressive international competition in the textile market, Turkey has also been able to keep its traditional textile industry alive, as it accounts for 1/3 of Turkish industrial employment. Furthermore, the automotive, construction, and electronics businesses have experienced substantial growth and have become main areas of commerce. Since the reforms and support from the IMF, Turkey saw an average of 6% increase to their GDP every year up until 2008 when the global economic environment tightened. In response Turkey adopted a stricter fiscal policy that reduced inflation to just 6.3%, the lowest it has been since 1977. As international markets stabilized and trade resumed, Turkey bounced back in impressive fashion with a 7.3% growth in real GDP (Turkey, 2011.)
In 1959, the country applied to be an associate member of European Economic Community, and gained the membership in 1963. Turkey reapplied to for a full membership of European Union in 1987. In 999, the European Monetary Union was formed; it is doubtful that Turkey will be soon ready to join that organization. Now, almost a decade later, Turkey is still a candidate for inclusion in the EU. When Turkey will be joining the EU, its potential benefits will include higher growth and investment that will involve a better economic status (Metz, 1995.)
The criteria for joining European Union require that the candidate country has achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rules of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities; has a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with the competition and market forces in the EU; and has the ability to take on and implement effectively the obligations of membership, including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union (Conditions for Membership, 2013.) Let’s look at Turkey now. It is still not a functioning and stable democracy that has rules of law, that is respecting and protecting minorities. Under the democracy and human rights agenda, Turkey is not disturbing actions toward its own Kurdish citizen and their rights in a modern democracy. Also, the geographical position of Turkey is also a concern. It directly borders Iraq and Iran, and has the majority of its territory in Asia more than in Europe. The concern is that admitting Turkey to be a member of EU may also perceiving potential instability and insecurity to other EU members. On the positive side, if Turkey joins the EU, it will have a lot of benefits including breaking of the barriers to trade between the European nations, of both tariff and non-tariff type, and it will be so much easier for Turkey to export their goods. In addition, the country can easily expand their production and get lower cost for their supplies from these European countries. Turkish people are hard workers. They are fishermen, miners, and farmers. The main sources of employment are from shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and machine parts. Turkey is the largest exporter in textiles and clothing, which almost belong to private sectors. They also lead in manufacturing processed food, refined petroleum, iron, steel, and chemicals. Tourism is very important to their national economy. According to Turkish Statistical Institute, the unemployment rate is 10.1% by December 2012 (n.d). The GDP per capita in Turkey is $14,700 in U.S. dollars. On the other hand, the GDP per capita in the U.S. is $49,00 U.S. dollars (United States vs. Turkey, n.d.) There is a big difference. This means that Turkey has low wage rate. This is also a key advantage for labor. For example, in America, an average employee in a corporate gets paid $12.50 per hour while a average worker gets paid generously $3.50 per hour in Turkey. So, employing 300 workers in Turkey will cost an average of $1050 per day comparing to $3600 per day in the U.S. This rate is significantly different.
Turkish Customs and Business Etiquette Before doing business in Turkey or with Turkish people, it is important ad useful to know some of their customs and manners in business. First, when meeting business partner, you should shake hands firmly, which is similar to America to show your confidence and strengths. Elders in Turkey are always respected by kissing their right hand, then placing your forehead onto the hand. When entering the room, you always should greet the elderly first. In social occasions, you can greet person next to you first, then work your way anti-clockwise around the table.
In business, gift giving is not allowed. If you want to build relationship, Turkish likes dining or sigh-seeing trip over lavish gifts. However, if the gift is given, they will accept it well. It is always better to bring gifts from your own country. Because most of people in Turkey are Muslim, make sure that they drink before giving them alcohol. The only time that you can bring gifts is when you are invited to their homes for dinner.
Just like America, most of business entertaining will take place in restaurants. However, the protocol of Turkish hospitality dictates that the host always pays for the meal. The concept of sharing bills is alien, which is totally different from our country. The best way to thank the host is inviting them to a dinner at a restaurant of your choice. One of the most important things when coming to a business dinner is being on time. When they say 7p.m, it means 7p.m.
For business, men should wear conservative suits or a sport coat and tie. In America, you always wear business suits and tie when doing business. Women should wear suits, dresses and heels, not short skirts or shorts. Foreign women are welcomed in Turkey. Conservative attitudes exist in Turkey in general, but Turkish men are very respectful. It is acceptable for a foreign businesswoman to invite a Turkish businessman to dinner, and it is easy for her to pay (Turkey-Turkey Language, Culture, Customs, and Etiquette, n.d.)

References
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