It was also the first black African nation in the region to achieve independence from a colonial power, in this instance Britain.

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Despite being rich in mineral resources, and endowed with a good education system and efficient civil service, Ghana fell victim to corruption and mismanagement soon after independence in 1957.

Accra: Capital city and Ghana’s economic hub

In 1966 its first president and pan-African hero, Kwame Nkrumah, was deposed in a coup, heralding years of contact dating free online service rule. In 1981 Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings staged his second coup. The country began to move towards economic stability and democracy.

In April 1992 a adult dating online site
allowing for a multi-party system was approved in a referendum, ushering in a period of democracy.

A well-administered country by regional standards, Ghana is often seen as a model for political and economic reform in Africa. Cocoa exports are an essential part of the economy; Ghana is the world’s online dating rule
producer.

The discovery of major offshore oil reserves was announced in June 2007, encouraging expectations of a major economic boost. However, oil is not expected to flow for some years.

Ghana has a high-profile peacekeeping role; troops have been deployed in Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and DR Congo.

Although Ghana has largely escaped the civil strife that has plagued other West African countries, in 1994-95 land disputes in the north erupted into ethnic violence, resulting in the deaths of 1,000 people and the displacement of a further 150,000.

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A new political order is in place and the economy has recovered and grown since the collapse of 1998. Russia has vast natural resources, not least in oil and gas.

State-run gas monopoly Gazprom is the world’s largest gas producer and exporter, with enormous reserves at its disposal. It supplies around a quarter of Europe’s gas needs and has ambitions on the Asian and US markets. Russia is also one of the world’s largest oil exporters.

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The country impresses with its diversity and size. Spanning 10 time zones, this Eurasian land mass covers more than 17m sq km. Its climate ranges from the Arctic north to the generally temperate south.

The annual Victory Day parade marks the end of World War II

In the privatisation years of the 1990s Russia provided entrepreneurs with the potential for rich pickings. A small number of them, often referred to as oligarchs, acquired vast interests in the energy and media sectors.

Some analysts believed that the then president, Boris Yeltsin, allowed their influence to extend too far into the political field but President Putin soon made it clear that there was no question of that with him in charge.

Some oligarchs found themselves facing criminal 100 dating free internet online
and one or two household names felt it necessary to leave Russia.

One of them, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil company, is now serving eight years in a Siberian penal colony having been convicted on tax and fraud charges.

He had not confined his activities to business but had let his support for liberal politics be known. Yukos’s assets were later acquired by the state owned oil giant, Rosneft.

Chechnya and the West

While Russians make up more than 80% of the population and Orthodox Christianity is the main religion, there are many other ethnic and religious groups. Muslims are concentrated among the Volga Tatars and the Bashkirs and in the North Caucasus.

St Petersburg’s State Hermitage houses a vast art collection

Chechnya remains prominent in the headlines. Many thousands have died since Russian troops were first sent in to put down a separatist rebellion in 1994 and guerrilla fighters continue to mount attacks. However, the Kremlin faced less criticism from the West over its actions in Chechnya in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks on the US.

Since then, Moscow has presented its war against Chechen separatism as part of the global war against international terrorism. It insists that its hard-line policies there are working and that peace is returning.

This has frequently been called into question as violence flares with tragic regularity across Chechnya and the wider North Caucasus.

Russia’s support for the US-led campaign against international terrorism also had an impact on relations with Nato. The two sides agreed in 2002 to set up the Nato-Russia Council, giving Russia a say in counter-terrorism policies.

Nevertheless, Russia firmly opposed the US-led military action against Iraq in 2003, insisting that UN weapons inspectors be given as much time as they needed to do their work.

Despite US concerns, Moscow agreed in 2005 to supply fuel for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor. Amid global concern over Iran’s nuclear programme, Russia opposed sanctions and only backed a UN resolution imposing them after the proposals had been watered down.

It has consistently shown that its desire to build new international relationships will not deter it from going its own way on key issues.

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During the Gulf War it was the base of operations for the French military, who continue to maintain a significant presence.

France has thousands of troops as well as warships, aircraft and armoured vehicles in Djibouti, contributing directly and indirectly to the country’s income. The US has stationed hundreds of troops in Djibouti, its only African base, in an effort to counter terrorism in the region.

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Djibouti’s location is the main economic asset of a country that is mostly barren. The capital, Djibouti city, handles Ethiopian imports and exports. Its transport facilities are used by several landlocked African countries to fly in their goods for re-export. This earns Djibouti much-needed transit taxes and harbour fees.

Djibouti’s Red Sea port is a key African shipping hub

After independence from France in 1977, Djibouti was left with a government which enjoyed a balance between the two main ethnic groups, the Issa of Somali origin and the Afar of Ethiopian origin.

But the country’s first president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, installed an authoritarian one-party state dominated by his own Issa community. Afar resentment erupted into a civil war in the early 1990s, and though Mr Gouled, under French pressure, introduced a limited multi-party system in 1992, the rebels from the Afar party, the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (Frud), were excluded.

Thus, Mr Gouled’s Popular Rally for Progress party won every seat and the war went on. It ended in 1994 with a power-sharing deal which brought the main faction of Frud into government. A splinter, radical faction continued to fight until 2000, when it too signed a peace deal with the government of Gouled’s successor, Ismael Omar Guelleh.

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Straddling the continents of Europe and Asia, Turkey’s strategic location has given it major influence in the region - and control over the entrance to the Black Sea.

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After years of mounting difficulties which brought the country close to economic collapse, a tough recovery programme was agreed with the IMF in 2002. Since then, Turkey has seen impressive progress. Economic growth has been strong and inflation has fallen catholic christian dating online
. However, huge foreign debt remains a major burden.

Turkey must meet strict conditions for EU membership

Turkey’s powerful military - which sees itself as the guardian of the secular system - has a long history of involvement in politics.

In recent years, as Ankara has set its sights firmly on European Union membership, the profile of the military has been lower in public life.

However, the military questioned the government’s commitment to secularism in the run-up to presidential elections in 2007, amid a stand-off between the Islamist-rooted administration and secularists. The army warned that it would defend Turkey’s secular system.

Turkey has long been at odds with its close neighbour, Greece, over territorial disputes in the Aegean and the divided island of Cyprus.

It became an EU candidate country in 1999 and, in line with EU online interracial dating service
, went on to introduce substantial human rights and economic reforms. The death penalty was abolished, tougher measures were brought in against torture and the penal code was overhauled.

Reforms were introduced in the areas of women’s rights and Kurdish culture, language, education and broadcasting. Women’s rights activists have said the reforms do not go far enough and have accused the government of lacking full commitment to equality and acting only under EU pressure.

After intense bargaining, EU membership talks were launched in October 2005. Accession negotiations are expected to take about 10 years. So far, the going has not been easy.

The breakthrough came just weeks after Turkey agreed to recognise Cyprus as an EU member and despite unfavourable comment over its declaration that this was not tantamout to full diplomatic recognition.

Turkey is home to a sizeable Kurdish minority, which by some estimates constitutes up to a fifth of the population. However, they complain that the government has tried to destroy their Kurdish identity and that they suffer economic disadvantage and human rights violations.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the best known and most radical of the Kurdish movements, launched a guerilla campaign in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in the predominantly Kurdish southeast. Thousands died and hundreds of thousands became refugees in the conflict between the PKK and the army in the 1980s and 1990s.

The past few years have seen an upsurge in rebel attacks, which had subsided after the 1999 capture of the group’s leader, Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK is considered a terrorist group in Turkey, the US and the European Union.

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