Turkey

Born in 1922, after the overthrow of Sultan Mehmet VI, the Republic of Turkey inherited the core part of the Ottoman Empire, which had been greatly reduced after the First World War. Like the old Ottoman Empire, the modern Republic of Turkey stretches over two continents, with the westernmost part of the country, Thrace, in Europe, and the rest of the country occupying the Anatolian Peninsula in Asia. Thrace and Anatolia are separated by the Bosphorus Strait, which links the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and, by extension, to the Aegean Sea, through the Dardanelles Strait. Turkey is bordered by four seas: the Levant (Mediterranean) Sea to the South, the Marmara and the Aegean seas to the west/south-west and the Black Sea to the north. The country shares its land borders with Greece to the west, Bulgaria to the north-west, Georgia to the north-east, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east, Iraq and Syria to the south-east. The population is about 83 million, 99 percent of whom are Sunnis. About 18 percent of the population has Kurdish origins and lives in the eastern part of the country. There are also small Christian and Jewish minorities. The official language is Turkish.

Thanks to its geographic position, Turkey is one of the gateways to the Mediterranean and the Near East, and has been for centuries a hub for trade and cultural exchanges. For all these reasons, Turkey plays a central role in the broader Mediterranean and it is the only country in the Near East to be a member of NATO, since 1952.

Over the last few decades, Turkey has experienced significant economic growth in a wide range of industrial sectors, ranging from high-tech to manufacturing and agribusiness. With the recent discovery of large off-shore energy fields, Turkey has strongly promoted its national energy industry, with the aim to meet domestic demand and become a key exporter, especially in the gas sector. Italy is Turkey's second largest European trading partner, with an estimated total trade of $ 22,61 billion in 2021. In addition to trade and investment in the agri-food sector, the two countries also cooperate in the energy supply sector, through the construction of several pipelines. Thanks to its important relations with Turkey, Italy plays a prominent role mediating between Ankara and the European Union.