TURKEY : A COUNTRY PROFILE

This report profiles Turkey, highlighting the country"s climatological and geographic diversity and its seismic activity. Temperature and rainfall patterns vary from sub-desert conditions in the Central Anatolian Plateau to semi-tropical conditions along the Mediterranean coast. Temperature extremes range from minus 22 degrees F in Erzurum in western Turkey to 109 degrees in Adana near Syria. Precipitation can exceed 100 inches annually along the Black Sea coast or total as little as 13 inches near Ankara. Earthquakes pose the most serious natural threat: six earthquakes occurred between 1969 and 1979. The most serious of these have been in eastern Turkey, while floods, epidemics, and snowstorms also pose occasional problems in various parts of the country. Other topics discussed in the profile include, inter alia: population; economy; agriculture; transportation facilities; and government. An 18-item bibliography ends the document.