FACTBOX: Facts about Turkey

(Reuters) - Turkey's ruling AK Party celebrated a decisive victory in Sunday's parliamentary election, but strong nationalist gains dented its majority and could hamper reforms crucial to its European Union bid.

Here are some key facts about Turkey:

GEOGRAPHY - Area 769,630 sq km (297,200 sq miles). Turkey is bordered by Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest and Iran, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to the east and Iraq and Syria to the southeast.

CAPITAL - Ankara.

LANGUAGE - Turkish is the official language. Ethnic minorities speak some 30 languages, including Kurdish.

POPULATION - 74.2 million.

ETHNIC GROUPS - Most identify themselves as Turks. There is a large Kurdish minority (up to 20 percent) and much smaller groups of Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Georgians and Armenians.

RELIGION - Ninety-nine percent are Muslims, four fifths of those Sunni and one fifth non-orthodox Alevi. Turkey is also home to a small Christian minority, including about 35,000 Catholics, and to a small Jewish population.

ECONOMY - After a 2001 financial crisis, the Turkish economy has made strong gains, backed by IMF loans and a tighter fiscal policy. Its latest $10 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expires in May 2008.

-- The country's GDP in 2006 was estimated to be $358.2 billion with a real growth rate of 5.2 percent.

-- Agriculture employs more than a third of the workforce. Turkey's private sector is dominant in industry, banking, transport and communications.

RECENT HISTORY:

-- The Turkish Republic was declared in 1923 from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire by Mustafa Kemal, later named Ataturk (Father of Turks).

-- A member of NATO since 1952, Turkey became a formal European Union candidate in 1999 and began accession talks in October 2005. But the EU has frozen negotiations in eight of 35 areas of discussion because of a row over Cyprus.

-- EU member Cyprus has been blocking progress until Turkey opens its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic. Cyprus also wants Turkey to remove its 35,000 troops in the Turkish north of the divided island. Ankara says the EU must first honor its promise to lift trade restrictions against the north.

-- Security forces have been battling PKK Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed more than 30,000 lives. Turkey fears Iraqi Kurds plan to set up their own state which could embolden Turkish Kurds. It has mobilized at least 140,000 soldiers along its border to stop PKK fighters crossing into Turkey from mountain bases in northern Iraq.