The Year 1998 witnesses the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic, an event which almost all Turks, no matter what their political beliefs, see as the point at which the idea of 'Turkey' was preserved and the country as a whole brought into the 20th Century. In conversation with Turks you'll often hear the newness or youth of the country referred to as the reason for many things you'll remark upon.

Turkey is a country undergoing radical changes, and has been for the last century. Urbanization and migration from the troubled east to the more developed west are changing the character of the towns and the rural areas and bringing a truckload of social problems with them.

Turkey will continue to look for ways to expand her influence, with the roads to the East and the West temporarily blocked this leaves the Turkic block, recently exposed by the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it is here perhaps that Turkey will find a role as a regional superpower. The exploitation of these regions natural resources will be hard to achieve without Turkey 's involvement and cooperation and natural gas and oil projects are under way.