Turkey

Overview

"Coming in gallop from far Asia stretched forward like a mare's head into Mediterranean Sea - this is our country."

This is the way Nazim Hikmet described Turkey and a look on the map shows you immediately that the country is surrounded on three sides by the sea: The Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the west coast, the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in the south and the Black Sea in the north.  The population of the country is around 70 million. Turkey has little land in Europe (24.000 square kilometers), and most of its land in Asia (756.000 square kilometers) Thrace being the name of the European part and Anatolia being the name of the Asian part.  Istanbul is the most important city in Turkey and rest of the world, the polulation is more than 12 million. Asian continent is connected to Europe in Istanbul, with two impressive suspented bridges across the Bosphorus, connecting European and Asian parts of Istanbul . It is hardly surprising that sea side resorts like Antalya , Alanya, Marmaris, Bodrum or Kusadasi are very popular with tourists from Europe . This may lead you to believe Turkey is very much oriented on the sea. You couldn't be more wrong: "Anadolu", the anatolian high central plateau is where turkish culture is rooted. The soul of the country is to be found in the green pastures of the hinterland, where shepherds still move their herds with the seasons.

This is why you shouldn't be surprised that the Turkish Republic...more

History

Turkey as a nation has been influenced by rich variety of tribes and cultures since 6500 B.C. with Greeks probably having the greatest impact  (from Byzantines to Lydians and Macedonians) Hattis, Hittites, Phrygians, Urartians, Аrmenians, Persians, Romans, Seljuks and Ottomans have all held important places in Turkey's history. Ancient sites and ruins throughout the country attest to each civilization's unique character.

The legendary Mustafa Kemal a Turkish World War I hero later known as "Ataturk" or "father of the Turks founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923 after the collapse of the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire. The empire, which at its peak controlled vast stretches of northern Africa, southeastern Europe, and western Asia, had failed to keep pace with European social and technological developments. The rise of nationalism impelled several ethnic groups to seek independence, leading to the empire's fragmentation. This process culminated in the disastrous Ottoman participation in World War I as a German ally. Defeated, shorn of much of its former territory, and partly occupied by forces of the victorious European states, the Ottoman structure was repudiated by Turkish nationalists who rallied under Ataturk's leadership. The nationalists expelled invading Greek forces from Anatolia after a bitter war which saw Turkish forces also slaughter Greeks which had peacefully coexisted within Turkey for over 1,000 years. The temporal and religious ruling institutions of the old empire (the sultanate and caliphate) were abolished.

The new republic concentrated on westernizing the empire's Turkish core -- Anatolia and a small part of Thrace. Social, political, linguistic, and...more