Description: Turkey was founded in 1923 from the remnants of the Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, honored with the title Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." The country adopted radical social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democrat Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of formal political power to civilians. (For more see CIA.GOV) Late 2015 and the first half of 2016 witnessed an uptick in terrorist violence. In July 2016, elements of the Turkish Armed forces attempted a coup at key government and infrastructure locations in Ankara and Istanbul. An estimated 300 people were killed and over 2,000 injured when Turkish citizens took to the streets en masse to confront the coup forces.