Turkey
Türkiye — the transcontinental republic of ~86 million that sells its soap operas to 170+ countries, backs its cinema with state millions, and pairs NATO's second-largest army with a record $65 billion tourism engine.
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- Country
- Turkey
- Official name
- Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (the Republic of Türkiye); 'Türkiye' is the official UN name since June 2022
- Capital / largest city
- Ankara (capital); Istanbul (largest city and seaport)
- Population
- 85,954,000 (2026 estimate, 18th in the world); 77.9% urban as of 2024
- Official language and currency
- Turkish; Turkish lira
- Government
- Unitary presidential republic; Grand National Assembly expanded to 600 seats in 2018, the prime minister's post eliminated
- TV exports
- Turkish dramas (dizis) exported to 170+ countries; second-largest exporter of television series by hours sold, after the United States
- 2025 tourism record
- 63.94 million visitors and $65.23 billion in tourism income — both all-time highs (Turkish Statistical Institute / Tourism Ministry)
Turkey is a transcontinental republic of about 86 million people, with its capital in Ankara and its economic center in Istanbul. It fields NATO’s second-largest military, and it is the world’s second-largest exporter of television series after the United States — a cultural-soft-power export that no standard country profile explains, but that now shapes how hundreds of millions of people see the country (Encyclopaedia Britannica; NPR; Express Tribune/AFP).
Overview
Turkey, officially Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (the Republic of Türkiye), sits at the crossroads of the Balkans, Caucasus, and Middle East — most of it on the Anatolian peninsula in Asia, with Turkish Thrace in Europe (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The capital is Ankara and the largest city is Istanbul. Britannica puts the population at 85,954,000 in a 2026 estimate, 77.9% urban; Turkish is the official language and the lira the currency (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The Turkish Straits — the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles — are the Black Sea’s only outlet, and Turkey’s control of them has shaped its foreign relations (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The modern republic was founded in 1923 after the Ottoman Empire’s collapse, under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Constitutional amendments implemented in 2018 expanded the Grand National Assembly to 600 seats, eliminated the prime minister’s post, and expanded the president’s role (Encyclopaedia Britannica). At the United Nations, Türkiye became official in June 2022, after a letter from Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to Secretary-General António Guterres (NPR).
Dizi diplomacy: the screen as foreign policy
In February 2026, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced incentives worth up to the equivalent of $100,000 in lira per episode for producers of dizis — the soap-style dramas Turkey sells to 170 countries — provided they promote Turkey and the Turkish language abroad (Express Tribune/AFP). Qualifying productions must target priority tourism markets and show strong ratings; in exchange, the ministry accelerates filming permits and opens historical and cultural sites free of charge (Express Tribune/AFP). Global demand rose 184% between 2020 and 2023, according to Parrot Analytics (Express Tribune/AFP). AFP’s reporting puts Turkey second only to the United States as an exporter of television series by hours sold, with annual export revenues past the $1 billion mark; Daily Sabah’s cited academic ranks it third by production volume (Express Tribune/AFP; Daily Sabah). An hour of dizi sells for $20,000–$30,000 against roughly $1 million for prime U.S. or British drama, while production teams deliver up to 140 minutes of content a week (Express Tribune/AFP).
A state-backed cinema industry
The Culture and Tourism Ministry has financed Turkish cinema at scale. The number of Turkish films screened nationwide rose from nine in 2002 to 180 in 2018, while the audience for Turkish films jumped from 2 million to 44 million filmgoers in the same period — and with 63% of moviegoers choosing domestic films in 2018, Turkey ranked first in Europe for preferring its own productions (Hürriyet Daily News). Between 2010 and 2017 the ministry granted roughly 235 million lira to film productions (Hürriyet Daily News). The pipeline’s flagship is Ayla: The Daughter of War, which sold 5-million-plus tickets in 2017 and became Turkey’s official Oscar entry (Hürriyet Daily News; Hürriyet Daily News). Directed by Can Ülkay and based on the real-life story of Sergeant Süleyman Dilbirliği, it stars İsmail Hacıoğlu, Çetin Tekindor, and Lee Kyung-jin (Hürriyet Daily News). Ministry-backed films also traveled: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2018, Buğday (Grain) won the Grand Prix in Tokyo, and Anons took the Horizons Special Jury Prize at the 75th Venice Film Festival (Hürriyet Daily News).
Hard power and a record tourism engine
Turkey pairs cultural export with a large conventional footprint: it fields NATO’s second-largest military, maintains bases in Somalia, Qatar, and Libya, and has cast itself as a mediator in conflicts from Ukraine to Iran (NPR). NPR’s reporting notes that Turkey’s TV shows are watched across the Middle East — the same screens the state now subsidizes — alongside a broadening defense-industrial base (NPR). In 2025, Türkiye drew a record 63.94 million visitors generating $65.23 billion in tourism income (Hürriyet Daily News) — more than sixty times the industry’s estimated television-series export revenues, which means the soft-power push doubles as one of the state’s largest hard-currency earners. Russia sent the most foreign tourists (6.9 million), followed by Germany (6.75 million); Istanbul absorbed 18.97 million foreign arrivals and Antalya more than 16 million (Hürriyet Daily News). The state feeds the funnel directly: Turkish Airlines offers transit passengers in Istanbul complimentary half-day tours of major dizi studio sets (Express Tribune/AFP).
Turkey’s 2025 tourism at a glance
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total visitors (2025) | 63.94 million (+2.7% YoY) | Tourism Ministry via Hürriyet Daily News |
| Tourism income (2025) | $65.23 billion (+6.8% YoY) | TÜİK via Hürriyet Daily News |
| Foreign tourists | 52.76 million | Tourism Ministry via Hürriyet Daily News |
| Turkish citizens residing abroad | 11.17 million (+15.8%) | Tourism Ministry via Hürriyet Daily News |
| Average spending per visitor | $1,008 (+3.7%) | TÜİK via Hürriyet Daily News |
| Top source market: Russia | 6.9 million arrivals | Tourism Ministry via Hürriyet Daily News |
| Istanbul foreign arrivals | 18.97 million (36% of total) | Tourism Ministry via Hürriyet Daily News |
FAQ
Why is the country called Türkiye instead of Turkey? The United Nations adopted “Türkiye” as the official name in all languages in June 2022, after Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu wrote to Secretary-General António Guterres (NPR). The rebrand began in December 2021 with President Erdoğan’s memorandum asking the world to use Türkiye — pitched as brand-building and a way to stop confusing the country with the bird (NPR).
How big is Turkey’s TV-drama export industry? Turkish dizis are sold to more than 170 countries, with global demand up 184% between 2020 and 2023 (Parrot Analytics) and annual export revenues past $1 billion (Express Tribune/AFP). By hours sold, Turkey is the world’s second-largest exporter of television series after the United States (Express Tribune/AFP).
What is Ayla: The Daughter of War? The 2017 Turkish film directed by Can Ülkay, based on the true story of Sgt. Süleyman Dilbirliği and the Korean orphan he sheltered during the Korean War (Hürriyet Daily News). Backed by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, it sold more than 5 million tickets — Turkey’s second most-watched film of 2017 — and was the country’s official Oscar entry (Hürriyet Daily News).
Where do Turkey’s tourists come from? Russians were the largest foreign group in 2025 at 6.9 million, followed by Germans (6.75 million), Britons (4.27 million), and Americans (1.58 million, up nearly 10%) (Hürriyet Daily News). Istanbul took 18.97 million foreign arrivals — 36% of the national total — and Antalya more than 16 million (Hürriyet Daily News).
What this profile does not claim
- It does not assert a GDP ranking for Turkey; GDP-rank figures (e.g. 16th nominal) appear only in lower-tier profile sources, and this profile uses Britannica’s GNI figure without a rank.
- It does not reconcile the TV-export ranking: sources report second-largest by hours sold (AFP) and third-largest by production volume (Daily Sabah’s academic interviewee) — both are attributed, not averaged.
- It does not cover 2026 macroeconomic indicators (inflation, interest rates, lira valuation); those were not part of this research pass.
- It does not assert the recent, fast-moving geopolitics in the September 2026 NPR piece (defense agreements, regional wars); only its stable Turkey-specific facts are used.
- Ayla’s box-office figures and the domestic-preference statistic are 2017–2018-era ministry-compiled data, and are dated as such.
Timeline
- 1300s
- The Ottoman Empire begins its long expansion from Anatolia, eventually peaking in the 17th century.
- 1923
- The modern Turkish republic is founded after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
- 2017
- Ayla (The Daughter of War), financed by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, sells 5M+ tickets as the year's second most-watched film in Turkey and is selected as the country's official Oscar entry.
- 2018
- Constitutional amendments take effect: the Grand National Assembly expands from 550 to 600 seats, the prime minister's post is eliminated, and the president's role is expanded.
- 2022
- The United Nations adopts "Türkiye" as the country's official name in all languages after a request from Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
- 2025
- Tourism hits records: 63.94 million visitors and $65.23 billion in tourism income, the highest figures in the republic's history.
- 2026
- The government announces incentives of up to the equivalent of $100,000 per episode for TV dramas broadcast overseas that promote Turkey and the Turkish language.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- TV-export ranking is reported differently by metric: AFP reporting (via Tribune, 2026) calls Turkey the second-largest exporter of television series by hours sold after the U.S., while Prof. Ebulfez Süleymanlı (via Daily Sabah, 2026) ranks Turkey third by total production volume. Both figures are presented with attribution rather than reconciled.
- Population figures differ slightly across sources (Britannica's 2026 estimate of 85,954,000 vs. TÜİK's 86 million for 2025); this profile uses Britannica's figure.
- The 'ninth/second most-watched' style domestic box-office rankings and the 63% domestic-preference figure are 2018-era ministry-compiled data; they are dated, not current.
- GDP rankings (e.g. 16th nominal) appear only in lower-tier profile sources and are deliberately not asserted here; the profile uses Britannica's 2024 GNI figure context instead.
Sources
8 sources (4 tier 1, 4 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
This profile rests on four tier1 sources (Encyclopaedia Britannica, two NPR pieces, and an AFP wire report via the Express Tribune) and four tier2 sources (two Hürriyet Daily News articles, one Daily Sabah article). Where ministry or state figures are quoted (tourism data, cinema grants, incentive sums), they are labeled as such and are not independently audited here. Daily Sabah is owned by the pro-government Turkuvaz Media Group; its academic interview material is used with attribution, not asserted as fact. Wikipedia served only as a lead index; nothing from it is cited.
- Supports: All baseline country facts — official name, capital, population (2026 est.), geography and neighbors, Turkish Straits, 1923 founding, Atatürk, 2017/2018 constitutional amendments, language, currency, GNI Open original source
- Supports: $100K/episode incentives, minister Ersoy's announcement, eligibility criteria, 170 countries, Parrot Analytics +184% demand 2020–2023, top-three sales/export power, $1B+ export revenue, second-largest exporter by hours sold after the U.S., Gümüş/Noor on MBC, Ömer Bolat's 800M viewers figure, Turkish Airlines studio-set tours, $20–30K/hour economics, 140 minutes/week output Open original source
- Supports: NATO's second-largest military, military bases in Somalia, Qatar, Libya, TV shows as cultural soft power in the Middle East, mediator role in Ukraine and Iran conflicts, broadening defense-industrial base Open original source
- Supports: June 2022 UN name change; Çavuşoğlu's letter to Guterres; Erdoğan's December 2021 memorandum, 'Made in Türkiye,' 'Hello Türkiye' tourism campaign, Cambridge Dictionary and bird-conflation rationale Open original source
- Supports: Turkish films 9→180 (2002–2018), filmgoers 2M→44M, 63% domestic preference (top in Europe), ministry cinema-law support, Ayla's 5M+ tickets and 2017 second place, Dağ II 2.8M tickets, Buğday's Tokyo Grand Prix, The Wild Pear Tree at Cannes 2018, Güvercin at Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Anons at Venice 75, ~235M lira in grants 2010–2017 Open original source
- Supports: Ayla selected as Turkey's Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film; directed by Can Ülkay; based on the real-life story of Sergeant Süleyman Dilbirliği; script by Yiğit Güralp; score by Fahir Atakoğlu; stars İsmail Hacıoğlu, Çetin Tekindor, Lee Kyung-jin Open original source
- Supports: 2025 records — 63.94M total visitors (+2.7%), 52.76M foreign tourists, 11.17M Turkish citizens abroad, $65.23B revenue (+6.8%, TÜİK), $1,008 average spending, top source markets Russia (6.9M) and Germany (6.75M), Istanbul 18.97M foreign tourists, Antalya 16M+ Open original source
- Supports: Dizi exports to 170+ countries; third-largest exporter of television productions per Prof. Ebulfez Süleymanlı (Üsküdar University); soft-power instrument; language and tourism effects; image debate over mafia/chaotic-relationship themes Open original source
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