GDP of Turkey⁶⁹ per capita is Intl $5,830. This falls within the range of $21,223 ( Israel) and $600 (Palestinian Authority Gaza Strip) in the 6 MECC countries of the Middle East (Table 7).

Table 7: GDP per capita (Intl $): 6 MECC countries of the Middle East, 2001

Source WHO (2001) *CIA World Factbook (2003est.)**(2002est.)

Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Turkish remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa Kemal, who was later honoured with the title Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks." Under his leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of largely one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the " Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives, but since the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents have withdrawn from Turkey, mainly to northern Iraq. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community and is currently undertaking substantial legal and economic reforms in pursuit of full membership in the European Union.⁷⁰