Gun Trade World - June 2023

BUSiNeSS
TuRKey
D O I N G B U S I N E S S W I T H . . .
You only need to walk the aisles of SHOT Show or IWA OutdoorClassics
to understand that the transcontinental country of Turkey is one of the
global firearms industry’s major players. Gun Trade World investigates
the key characteristics of the country to explore if Turkey could
represent your next business opportunity.
S
Turkey, officially the
Republic of Türkiye, is a
transcontinental country
located mainly on the
Anatolian Peninsula in
Western Asia, with a small
portion on the Balkan
Peninsula in Southeast
Europe. It borders the Black
Sea to the north; Georgia
to the northeast; Armenia,
Azerbaijan, and Iran to the
east; Iraq to the southeast;
Syria and the Mediterranean
Sea to the south; the
Aegean Sea to the west;
and Greece and Bulgaria
to the northwest. Cyprus is
off the south coast. Most
of the country’s citizens are
ethnic Turks, while Kurds are
the largest ethnic minority.
Ankara is Turkey’s capital and
second-largest city; Istanbul
is its largest city and main
fiscal hub.
Turkey’s amazing ecology
and habitat variety has
produced considerable species
diversity. Anatolia is the
home of many plants that
have been cultivated for food
since the advent of farming,
and the wild descendants
of many plants that now
provide staples for people
still flourish in Turkey. The
diversity of Turkey’s fauna
is even greater than that
of its flora. The number of
animal species in the whole
of Europe is around 60,000,
while in Turkey there are
over 80,000 (over 100,000
counting the subspecies).
The Northern Anatolian
conifer and deciduous forests
is an ecoregion which covers
most of the Pontic Mountains
in northern Turkey, while
the Caucasus mixed forests
extend across the eastern
end of the range. The
region is home to Eurasian
wildlife such as the Eurasian
sparrowhawk, golden eagle,
eastern imperial eagle, lesser
42 www.guntradeworld.com