ABSTRACT
Turkey located between Europe, the Middle East and Asia and it is one of the most strategic in the world. Control of the Turkish Straits was vital during the Cold War and remains crucial in the context of the economic development of the Black Sea region and the Caspian Sea Basin. Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire and World War I, Turkey, as a new state, was created as a result of a nationalist struggle from 1919 to 1922. In the final internal struggle, the radicals of Kemal Ataturk were successful and a republic was established on 29 October 1923. The ruling party of Ataturk was the Republican Peoples Party (RPP) and in 1924 the caliphate was abolished and Turkey became a secular state, the first Muslim country to disestablish Islam. A key factor in the imposition of sanctions following the Gulf War has the closure by Turkey of the Iraqi pipeline to Dortyol on the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
