Ankara – Turkey holds a snap election on Sunday, a crucial new test for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, AFP reported.
Key facts on the strategically importance of the country;

– Between Europe and Asia –

Turkey shares borders with Syria, Iran and Iraq but also EU members Greece and Bulgaria. With a Black Sea coastline facing Russia, it has been a NATO front-line state for more than 60 years.
Covering about 784,000 square kilometres (300,000 square miles), Turkey is slightly smaller than Pakistan but larger than the US state of Texas.
It has played a key role in Europe’s migrant crisis, having taken in more than two million Syrian refugees, compared with its own population of around 78 million.
A NATO member since 1952, it is strategically placed to take part in the US-led fight against ISIS, but waited for almost a year to join air strikes on Syria and to open its air bases to US planes.
It has criticized Russia’s intervention in Syria, which has provoked several airspace incidents along its border.
Turkey has 510,600 servicemen and women, making it one of the biggest members of the NATO alliance, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 2015.
The capital Ankara has a population of around five million. Istanbul is the largest city and industrial and commercial hub with more than 15 million people.
The Republic of Turkey was created as a secular state in 1923 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I.
Its founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was president until his death in 1938. His successor Ismet Inonu introduced multi-party democracy in 1946.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002. Its leader Erdogan was prime minister from 2003 until 2014, when he became the first Turkish president directly elected by the people.
After the government failed to win an overall majority in legislative polls on June 7, another election was set for November 1.
Since July, Turkey has suffered heavy violence with the resumption of the Kurdish conflict against the background of the war in Syria and a series of bloody attacks, including a twin suicide bombing on October 10 that killed 102 people, the worst in its history.
Turkey is one of the most closely watched emerging market economies. After posting growth of around 10 percent in 2010 and 2011, the economy has slowed, expanding by just 2.9 percent in 2014. Its economy has suffered from fallout from the Eurozone crisis, wars in neighboring Iraq and.