Separating Anatolia and Thrace are the Sea of Marmara and the Turkish Straits (the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles), which are commonly reckoned to delineate the boundary between Europe and Asia, thereby making Turkey (Turkiye) a country of significant geostrategic importance. Ethnic Turks form the majority of the population, followed by the Kurds. The predominant religion in Turkey (Turkiye) is Islam. The official language is Turkish.

Turkey (Turkiye) is the successor state to the Ottoman Empire. It is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic, whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Since then, Turkey (Turkiye) has become increasingly integrated with the West through membership in organizations such as the Council of Europe, NATO, OECD, WEOG, OSCE and the G-20 major economies.

Turkey (Turkiye) began full membership negotiations with the European Union in 2005, having been an associate member of the EEC since 1963, and having reached a customs union agreement in 1995. Turkey (Turkiye) has also fostered close cultural, political, economic and industrial relations with the Eastern world, particularly with the rest of the Middle East and states of Central Asia, through membership in organizations such as the OIC and ECO. Turkey (Turkiye) is classified as a developed country by the CIA and as a regional power by political scientists and economists worldwide.