schools. The Republican People's Party was defeated by the newly formed Democrat Party in the 1950 free elections. The Democrats, who then held power for 10 years, were considered to be more sympathetic to rural interests than their predecessors had been. After 1955, as economic problems such as inflation increased, they resorted to repressive measures in order to still criticism and were eventually ousted by the military in 1960.

The Second Republic

The military council which ruled following the May 27, 1960, coup outlawed the Democrat Party and tried many of its leaders. It also appointed a commission to rewrite the constitution so as to prevent a recurrence of political repression and to assure continuation of the Atatürk programs. The type of government, democratic in form, was carried over from the previous constitution, adopted in 1923. The legislative branch, the Grand National Assembly, consists of two houses elected by universal suffrage. The Grand National Assembly selects the President of the Republic, who must be a member of parliament and who serves a 7-year term. The President in turn appoints the Prime Minister, who is usually the leader of the majority party. The Constitution further provides for a system of checks and balances between the legislative and executive branches.

Government returned to civilian hands with the ratification of the new constitution and the elections of 1961. Because no party won a majority in that election, Turkey was governed for four and one-half years by a succession of four coalition governments. In 1965 the Justice Party, which replaced the Democrat Party, won a majority and was consequently able to provide a more stable government. The Justice Party, which is middle-of-the-road and pro-Western, continues to govern the country in late 1968. The largest opposition party is the Republican People's Party, led by Ismet İnönü. The Communist Party is outlawed, but a small growing Turkish Labor Party advances a leftist program.

THE PEOPLE AND THE SOCIETY

Religiously and ethnically, the Turks are a homogeneous people. Over 98 percent of the population gives at least nominal allegiance to Islam and over 92 percent uses Turkish as their primary language. These two characteristics, Islam and the Turkish language, constitute the core of Turkish nationalism and identity. There are no official statistics about the Kurds, the largest nonTurkish-speaking Moslem minority. The religious minorities, such as the Jews and the Christians, are heavily concentrated in urban regions, primarily in Istanbul, where they are active in commerce,

but they have little impact on the national culture (see ch. 5, Ethnic Groups and Languages).

In social terms, however, the country can be said to be divided between the urbanized, modernized sector and the rural, traditional sector. They represent different social structures, values, and attitudes. The urban sector has been most affected by the Atatürk revolution and the secular, modern attitude associated with it. Moreover, the urban citizen is more likely to be better educated than his rural counterpart. Political power has been, and is, largely exercised by this group (see ch. 14, Political Dynamics).

On the other hand, the Atatürk reforms largely bypassed the villages until the end of World War II, because of a combination of poor communication facilities and a lack of administrators. The villages, where life continued according to traditional models, were largely self-contained units, organized on a household basis. Respect within the community was given those who exhibited the religious virtues of piety and honesty. Village life, which involves some two-thirds of the population, still conforms to this general pattern, but increases in communications, such as roads, and political liberalization since 1946 have brought village and city into closer touch (see ch. 16, Public Information).

Furthermore, economic development is creating intermediate stages between the extremes. Rural workers, for example, are drawn into cities and towns; there they are exposed to urban influences, such as secularism, while still retaining some traditional values. Turkey, therefore, can be considered a transitional society, neither wholly modern nor wholly traditional, and one in which new social and economic groups, such as labor, are likely to increase in size and importance.

Within this transitional society, the educational system in late 1968 played an important role in the transmission of national values within the limits imposed by available facilities and teachers. Atatürk emphasized the role of education in the creation of the modern state; he desired and made substantial efforts to implement this program. Despite the great progress made in education since 1924, present facilities can handle only 73 percent of primary-age children with the adequacy of the system radically decreasing for secondary and university ages. Literacy has increased, however, from 10 percent to 48 percent. More than 10 percent of the national budget (second only in size to defense) is devoted to education, notwithstanding a shortage of teachers and classrooms. In late 1968 education remained a sector in which considerable investment would continue to be made.

THE ECONOMY

The characteristic of the Turkish economy which has continued to be foremost, despite increasing industrialization, is agriculture. Approximately two-thirds of the labor force are still engaged in agricultural activity, which generates about 33 percent of the gross national product as compared to industry and accounts for about 14 percent of the gross national product. In late 1968, 76 percent of all exports came from the agricultural sector (see ch. 20, Industry). Cereals were the largest part of agricultural production: mineral production included chrome ore, lignite, coal, and copper. The earnings of these commodities are somewhat precarious because of the fluctuations which often occur in the world prices of agricultural goods and mineral ores and products. Earnings from tourism and remittances of Turks working abroad supplemented earnings of foreign exchange.

On the other hand, considerable progress has been made in industrialization, especially since World War II. After World War I, independent Turkey was saddled with part of the debt of the Ottoman Empire and the damages resulting from World War I, which added to the problems of development. Recalling the privileges enjoyed by European countries under the Ottoman capitulations, the Turks made autarky, or national self-sufficiency, the goal of foreign economic policy in the 1920's and 1930's. In the 1930's this was combined with a statist approach, in which the government assumed the burden of economic development through state ownership.

After World War II, these policies were changed, as Turkey became more receptive to foreign investment and as the growing business class demanded more freedom for private initiative. Loans and aid from abroad helped the country bear the double burden of development and defense. This aid came not only from the United States but also from such organizations as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. For example, the OECD Aid Consortium to Turkey, established in 1958, continued to function in late 1968. The position of the United States and West Germany as its largest suppliers also illustrated the economic ties with Europe and the West.

The creation of the State Planning Council in 1961 and the adoption of a 15-year development plan symbolized the effort to systematize the development process after years of unfocused planning. The first plan, completed in 1967, was largely successful and the second plan in late 1968 appeared to be meeting most of its goals. In addition, Turkey was moving toward full membership

in the European Economic Community as the result of an association agreement concluded in September 1963, a step that was expected to accelerate economic development generally.

Despite continuing progress, many of the major problems to be faced by the government were economic in late 1968. They included the need to overcome serious shortages in foreign exchange, to maintain economic growth, to combat unemployment resulting from the high population growth rate, and to keep inflation within reasonable limits. Sustained effort was required for agricultural production to keep pace with population growth. This effort was complicated by reliance on primitive methods of cultivation and by the system of fragmented land holdings that prevailed in most of the agricultural sector. A further burden to development programs has been the Cyprus issue, which increased the defense outlays and decreased the amount of money available for other purposes.

DEFENSE AND DIPLOMACY

The defense and foreign policy questions of Turkey in late 1968 continued to stem from its geographical position. Immediately after World War II, the Soviet Union was the major defense problem. To meet this threat, not only did the United States provide economic and military assistance as a result of the Truman Doctrine, but Turkey became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1952 and the Central Treaty Organization in 1955, the latter being the successor of the Baghdad Pact. Such a policy of active engagement with the West contrasted with the policy of noninvolvement, which largely prevailed in the interwar period and for most of World War II. Turkey became a member of the United Nations in 1945.

In late 1968 the Cyprus issue dominated problems relating to foreign policy and defense. At the same time, as fear of the Soviet Union and the seriousness of the Soviet threat appeared to diminish, the appeal of neutralism has increased. Officially, the government maintains an adherence to the Western alliance. Nevertheless, it was conceivable that neutralism could become an increasingly significant political issue in the future. An effect of the decrease in tensions has been a search for improved relations with the Soviet Union, as exemplified by increasing discussions on political and economic problems in 1967 and 1968.

The country looks to the East as well as to the West. Relations with Iraq have been strained, while those with Iran have been good. Despite the predominance of Islam among its citizens, Turkey has neither pursued a Moslem foreign policy nor courted its

Arab neighbors, as illustrated by Turkey's early diplomatic recognition of Israel. With the emergence of the Cyprus issue with Greece, centering on the conflict between a Greek majority and a Turkish minority on that island, however, there has been a tendency to seek support for the country's position among the Arab states (see ch. 15, Foreign Relations).