•	The Republic of Turkey was established on some of the territories of the Ottoman Empire in 1923
•	Population of over 76,800,000 (2009)
•	Independence date – October 29th, 1923
•	National Holiday – Republic Day, October 29th
•	World’s 15th largest GDP-PPP and 17th largest Nominal GDP
•	World Bank classifies Turkey as an upper-middle income country in terms of per capita GDP
•	Founding member of the OECD (1961) and of the G-20 Major Economies (1999)
•	Exports of over $102 Billion (2009)
•	GDP by sector: Agriculture 9.4%, Industry 25.9%, Services 64.7%
•	Home to 9 properties inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List (including the Archaeological Site of Troy; Historical Areas of Istanbul; Great Mosque; etc)
•	History of Turkey tells of a 10,000 year old civilization and hence tourism is rapidly growing with revenues of over $22 Billion U.S. annually with over 30 Million tourists visits per year
•	Among the world’s leading producers of agricultural products, textiles, motor vehicles, ships & other transportation equipment, construction materials, consumer electronics and home appliances, mining, steel production, lumber and paper
•	Has emerged as a major hub for the transportation of oil and gas linking the consuming energy markets of Europe with the energy producers suppliers of the Caspian region (two recently completed pipelines include: the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline (oil), and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipeline (gas)
•	One of only a few countries to receive a debt rating upgrade of two notches by Fitch in 2010
•	Capital is Ankara (Turkey’s second largest city with a population of over 4.6 million)
•	Financial capital is Istanbul (Turkey’s largest city with a population of over 12.9 million) and home to 35 billionaires
•	Ataturk International Airport (Europe’s 9th busiest airport servicing over 25 million passengers per year) is located 24 km’s west of Istanbul’s city centre (the airport is home to Turkish Airlines which services 120 international and 37 domestic cities)