People International

After years of mounting difficulties which brought the country close to economic collapse, a tough recovery programme was agreed with the IMF in 2002. Since then, Turkey has seen impressive progress. Economic growth has been strong and inflation has fallen dramatically. However, huge foreign debt remains a major burden.

Turkey's powerful military - which sees itself as the guardian of the secular system - has a long history of involvement in politics. In recent years, as Ankara has set its sights firmly on European Union membership, the profile of the military has been lower in public life.

However, the military questioned the government's commitment to secularism in the run-up to presidential elections in 2007, amid a stand-off between the Islamist-rooted administration and secularists. The army warned that it would defend Turkey's secular system. The latest step in the stand-off with the secularists came in March 2008, when the Constitutional Court only narrowly rejected a petition by the chief prosecutor to ban the governing Justice and Development Party and 71 of its officials, including President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for allegedly seeking to establish an Islamic state.

Turkey has long been at odds with its close neighbour, Greece, over territorial disputes in the Aegean and the divided island of Cyprus.

It became an EU candidate country in 1999 and, in line with EU requirements, went on to introduce substantial human rights and economic reforms. The death penalty was abolished, tougher measures were brought in against torture and the penal code was overhauled. Reforms were introduced in the areas of women's rights and Kurdish culture, language, education and broadcasting. Women's rights activists have said the reforms do not go far enough and have accused the government of lacking full commitment to equality and acting only under EU pressure. After intense bargaining, EU membership talks were launched in October 2005. Accession negotiations are expected to take about 10 years. So far, the going has not been easy. The breakthrough came just weeks after Turkey agreed to recognise Cyprus as an EU member and despite unfavourable comment over its declaration that this was not tantamount to full diplomatic recognition.

Turkey is home to a sizeable Kurdish minority, which by some estimates constitutes up to a fifth of the population. However, they complain that the government has tried to destroy their Kurdish identity and that they suffer economic disadvantage and human rights violations. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the best known and most radical of the Kurdish movements, launched a guerilla campaign in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in the predominantly Kurdish southeast. Thousands died and hundreds of thousands became refugees in the conflict between the PKK and the army in the 1980s and 1990s. The past few years have seen an upsurge in rebel attacks, which had subsided after the 1999 capture of the group's leader, Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK is considered a terrorist group in Turkey, the US and the European Union.