Of all the variables that dictate the fate of nations, demography might just be the most decisive. The pace of populations—how they grow, change and decline—helps shape a country’s political outlook, its internal makeup, and its place in the world. It can also provide useful insights into a nation’s foreign policy priorities. Turkey is a case in point. In late April, TurkStat, Turkey’s official statistics agency, released its latest survey of the country’s population. That study found that the national fertility rate, at 2.08, remains more or less stable. The trend, however, isn’t uniform. In the country’s west, birth rates generally fall significantly below the 2.1 live births per woman needed for “replenishment.” Births in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast, by contrast, are significantly higher. In other words, Turkey’s Kurdish minority is growing, while the rest of the country is not.
The Turkish American leadership expresses its sincere commendations for the forthright action of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who apologized to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a mishandled Israeli military operation that resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish civilians, including a Turkish American, on a cruise ship, Mavi Marmara, in the eastern Mediterranean. The ship was heading for Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. We had called upon Turks to reserve judgement, neither condemning nor condoning Israel, and calling upon a multilateral commission of inquiry. Please see ATAA Release.
Mexico City, 14 March 2013—Arab States could reap a major “demographic dividend” if they can convert their advances in education into employment opportunities for youth, says the 2013 Human Development Report. But a failure to accelerate job growth could further exacerbate social and economic tensions in the region, the Report warns. The 2013 Human Development Report— The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World—is being launched in Mexico City today with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
