The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of the writers of the 1988 edition of Turkey: A Country Study , edited by Paul M. Pitman III. Their work provided general background for the present volume.

The authors are grateful to individuals in various government agencies and private institutions who gave of their time, research materials, and expertise in the production of this book. These individuals include Ralph K. Benesch, who oversees the Country Studies/Area Handbook program for the Department of the Army. The authors also wish to thank members of the Federal Research Division staff who contributed directly to the preparation of the manuscript. These people include Sandra W. Meditz, who reviewed all drafts, served as liaison with the sponsoring agency, and managed book production; Marilyn L. Majeska, who managed editing; Andrea T. Merrill, who edited tables and figures; Lauren Morris, who assisted with bibliographic research; Barbara Edgerton and Izella Watson, who did word processing; David P. Cabitto, Stephen C. Cranton, Janie L. Gilchrist, and Izella Watson, who prepared the camera-ready copy; and Rita M. Byrnes, who assisted with proofreading.

Also involved in preparing the text were Vincent Ercolano, who edited chapters; Catherine Schwartzstein, who performed the prepublication editorial review; and Joan C. Cook, who compiled the index.

Graphics were prepared by David P. Cabitto. David P. Cabitto and the firm of Greenhorne and O'Mara prepared the final maps. Special thanks are owed to Hermine Dreyfuss, whose photographs form the basis for the illustrations prepared by Wayne Horne that appear on the title page of each chapter and the cover art.

Finally, the authors acknowledge the generosity of the Turkish Information Office in Washington and the other government and private bodies and individuals who allowed their photographs to be used in this study.

Preface

This edition of Turkey: A Country Study replaces the previous edition published in 1988. Like its predecessor, the present book attempts to treat in a compact and objective manner the dominant historical, social, economic, political, and national security aspects of contemporary Turkey. Sources of information included scholarly books, journals, and monographs; official reports and documents of governments and international organizations; and foreign and domestic newspapers and periodicals. Relatively up-to-date economic data were available from several sources, but the sources were not always in agreement.

Chapter bibliographies appear at the end of the book; brief comments on some of the more valuable sources for further reading appear at the conclusion of each chapter. Measurements are given in the metric system; a conversion table is provided to assist those who are unfamiliar with the metric system (see table 1, Appendix A). Appendix B is a list of selected political parties and labor organizations, with their acronyms. The Glossary provides brief definitions of terms that may be unfamiliar to the general reader.

The authors have attempted to follow standard Turkish spelling of Turkish words, phrases, and place-names. The principal guide used was The Concise Oxford Turkish Dictionary (1971 edition). The place-names used are those established by the United States Board on Geographic Names as of September 1984. A few exceptions were made for well-known geographical features. For example, the study uses Bosporus and Dardanelles instead of Istanbul Bogazi and Çanakkale Bogazi. In addition, although Mustafa Kemal did not become Kemal Atatürk until the Law of Surnames was enacted in 1934, he is referred to throughout as Atatürk. However, the Turkish names appearing in the text of this volume are missing most of the diacritics used by the language. In this case, it is a matter of lagging technology: the typesetting software being used simply cannot produce all of the necessary diacritics in the text (although they appear on the maps). For this the authors apologize and hope that by the time this country study is updated, missing diacritics will no longer be the norm.

The body of the text reflects information available as of January 1995. Certain other portions of the text, however, have been updated. The Introduction discusses significant events that have occurred since the completion of research, and the Country Profile and Appendix B include updated information as available.

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Source: U.S. Library of Congress