Turkey is a huge, geographically and culturally diverse country, sharing
borders with Greeks, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Nakhitchevan, Iran, Iraq
and Syria.
It has almost 8400 km of coastline and several mountain ranges, the highest peak being 5165m (Mount Ararat).
Due to its size Turkey enjoys a variety of climates, changing from the
temperate climate of the Black Sea Region, to the continental climate of
the interior, to the Mediterranean climate of the Aegean and Mediterranean
coastal regions. With its large range of mountains, forests, lakes, rivers,
flora, and fauna,
Turkey is an outdoor enthusiast's paradise. The opportunities for activities such as cycling, trekking, horse-riding, skiing and white water rafting are endless in this uncrowded country covering 774.815 square kilometers, and between the lush greenery of the Black Sea Coast and the hot, dry Mediterranean coast, there are a multitude of landscapes to choose from. With more than 10 000 years of history, Turkey is also rich in culture and ancient sites, which together with its natural beauty make this country a fascinating place to explore.
A country as old as history, a paradise of sun, sea, mountains and lakes.
Turkey has a magnificent past, and is a land full of historic treasures.
Turkey's land mass is 814.578 sq. km.
The European and Asian sides are divided by the Istanbul Bogazi (Bosphorus)
and the Canakkale Bogazi (Dardanelles). Anatolia is a high plateau region
rising progressively towards the east, broken by the valleys of about 15
rivers, including the Dicle (Tigris) and the Firat (Euphrates).
There are numerous lakes and some, such as Lake Van, are as large as inland
seas. In the North, the Eastern Black Sea Mountain chain runs parallel
to the Black Sea; in the South, the Taurus Mountains sweep down almost
to the narrow, fertile coastal plain along the Turkish Riviera, following
the ancient Lycian and Pamphylian coasts.
Anatolia has been called ‘the cradle of civilization’ and by
travelling through this historic land, one would discover what exactly
is meant by this phrase.
The world's first town, a Neolithic city at Catalhoyuk dates back to 6500
B.C. From the Neolithic days up to the present,
Turkey boats a rich culture that has made an everlasting impression on
modern civilization through the centuries. The heir to many centuries of
cultures makes Turkey a paradise of information and cultural wealth. Hattis,
Hitites, Phrygians, Urartians, Lycians, Lydians, Ionians, Greeks, Persians,
Macedonians, Romans, Byzantinians, Selchuks, and Ottomans have all made
important contributions to Anatolian and Turkish histories, and ancient
sites and ruins scattered throughout the country give proof of each civilization's
unique distinction.
Country Profile
The lands of Turkey are located at a point where the three continents making up the old world. Asia, Africa and Europe are closest to each other, and straddle the point where Europe and Asia meet.
Geographically, the country is located in the northern half of the hemisphere
at a point that is about halfway between the equator and the north pole,
at a longitude of 36 degrees N to 42 degrees N and a latitude of 26 degrees
E to 45 degrees E.
Turkey is roughly rectangular in shape and is 1,660 kilometers wide.
Because of its geographical location the mainland of Anatolia has always found favour throughout history, and is the birthplace of many great civilizations. It has also been prominent as a centre of commerce because of its land connections to three continents and the sea surrounding it on three sides.
Area
The actual area of Turkey inclusive of its lakes, is 814,578 square kilometres, of which 790,200 are in Asia and 24,378 are located in Europe.
Boundaries
The land borders of Turkey are 2,573 kilometres in total, and coastlines
(including islands) are another 8,333 kilometres, Turkey has two European
and six Asian countries for neighbours along its land borders.
The land border to the northeast with the commonwealth of Independent States is 610 kilometres long; that with Iran, 454 kilometres long, and that with Iraq 331 kilometres long. In the south is the 877 kilometre-long border with Syria, which took its present form in 1939, when the Republic of Hatay joined Turkey. Turkey's borders on the European continent consist of a 212-kilometre frontier with Greece and a 269-kilometre border with Bulgaria.
Geographical Regions
Turkey is generally divided into seven regions: the Black Sea region, the Marmara region, the Aegean, the Mediterranean, Central Anatolia, the East and Southeast Anatolia regions. The uneven north Anatolian terrain running along the Black Sea resembles a narrow but long belt. The land of this region is approximately 1/6 of Turkey's total land area.
The Marmara region
The Marmara tegion covers the area encircling the Sea of Marmara, includes the entire European part of Turkey, as well as the northwest of the Anatolian plain.
Whilst the region is the smallest of the regions of Turkey after the Southeast Anatolia region, it has the highest population density of all the regions.
The most important peak in the region is Uludag (2,543 metres), at the
same time it is a major winter sports and tourist centre. In the Anatolian
part of the region there are fertile plains running from east to west.
The Aegean region
The Aegean region extends from the Aegean coast to the inner parts of western Anatolia. There are significant differences between the coastal areas and those inland, in terms of both geographical features and economic and social aspects. In general, the mountains in the region fall perpendicularly into the sea. and the plains run from east to west. The plains through which Gediz, Kücük Menderes and Bakircay rivers flow carry the same names as these rivers.
The Mediterranean region
In the Mediterranean region, located in the south of Turkey, the western and central Taurus Mountains suddenly rise up behind the coastline. The Amanos mountain range is also in the area.
The Central Anatolian region
The Central Anatolian region is exactly in the middle of Turkey and gives the appearance of being less mountainous compared with the other regions. The main peaks of the region are Karadag, Karacadag, Hasandag and Erciyes (3.917 metres).
The Eastern Anatolia region
The Eastern Anatolia region is Turkey's largest and highest region.
About three fourths of it is at an altitude of 1,500-2,000 metres. Eastern
Anatolia is composed of individual mountains as well as of whole mountain
ranges, with vast plateaus and plains. The mountains: There are numerous
inactive volcanoes in the region, including Nemrut, Suphan, Tendurek and
Turkey's highest peak, Mount Agri (Ararat), which is 5,165 metres high.
At the same time, several plains extended along the course of the River
Murat, a tributary of the Firat (Euphrates). These are the plains of Malazgirt,
Mus, Capakcur, Uluova and Malatya.
The Southeast Anatolia region
The Southeast Anatolia region is notable for the uniformity of its landscape, although the eastern part of the region is comparatively more uneven than its western areas.
The Climate
Although Turkey is situated in a geographical location where climatic conditions
are quite temperate, the diverse nature of the landscape, and the existence
in particular of the mountains that run parallel to the coasts, results
in significant differences in climatic conditions from one region to the
other.
While the coastal areas enjoy milder climates, the inland Anatolian plateau
experiences extremes of hot summers and cold winters with limited rainfall.
Please visit our weather in Turkey page
Turkish Language
The Turkish language is spread over a large geographical area in Europe
and Asia; recent studies show that this language goes back 5500 years,and
perhaps even 8500.
At the same time, it is one of the most widely spoken tongues in the world
- the sixth most widely spoken , to be precise. It is spoken in the Azeri,
the Türkmen, the Tartar, the Uzbek, the Baskurti, the Nogay, the Kyrgyz,
the Kazakh, the Yakuti, the Cuvas and other dialects.
Turkish belongs to the Altaic branch of the Ural-Altaic family of languages,
and thus is closely related to Mongolian, Manchu-Tungus, Korean, and perhaps
Japanese. Some scholars have maintained that these resemblances are not
fundamental, but rather the result of borrowings, however comparative Altaistic
studies in recent years demonstrate that the languages we have listed all
go back to a common Ur-Altaic.
Turkish is a very ancient language, with a flawless phonetic, morphological and syntactic structure, and at the same time possesses a wealth of vocabulary. The fundamental features which distinguish the Ural-Altaic languages from the Indo-European are as follows:
- Vowel harmony, a feature of all Ural-Altaic tongues.
- The absence of gender.
- Agglutination
- Adjectives precede nouns.
- Verbs come at the end of the sentence.
The name of the script of the language spoken in Turkey proper, the dialect falls into the southwestern dialects of the Western Turkish language family and also into the dialects of the Oguz Türkmen language group.
When the Turkish spoken in Turkey is considered in a historical context, it can be classified according to three separate periods because of the inherent characteristics of each of the periods:
- Old Anatolian Turkish (old Ottoman - between the 13th and the 15th centuries)
- Ottoman Turkish (from the 16th to the 19th century)
- 20th century Turkish
Atatürk's Life
"There are two Mustafa Kemals. One is the flesh-and-bone Mustafa Kemal who now stands before you and who will pass away. The other is you, all of you here who will go to the far corners of our land to spread the ideals which must be defended with your lives if necessary. I stand for the nation's dreams, and my life's work is to make them come true."
Atatürk stands as one of the world's few historic figures who dedicated their lives totally to their nations.
He was born in 1881 (probably in the Spring) in Selanik, then an Ottoman
city, now in Greece.
His father, Ali Riza, a customs official turned timber merchant, died when
Mustafa was still a boy. His mother, Zubeyde, a devout and strong-willed
woman, raised him and his sister.
First enrolled in a traditional religious school, he soon switched to
a modern school. In 1893, he entered a military high school where his mathematics
teacher gave him the second name Kemal (meaning "perfection")
in recognition of young Mustafa's superior achievement. He was thereafter
known as Mustafa Kemal.
In 1905, Mustafa Kemal graduated from the Military Academy in Istanbul with the rank of Staff Captain. Posted in Damascus, he started, with several colleagues, a clandestine society called "Homeland and Freedom" to fight against the Sultan's despotism. Mustafa Kemal's career flourished as he won fame and promotions because of his heroism in the farflung corners of the Ottoman Empire, including Albania and Tripoli. He also briefly served as a staff officer in Selanik and Istanbul and as a military attache in Sofia.
When the Dardanelles campaign was launched in 1915, Colonel Mustafa Kemal became a national hero by winning successive vistories and finally repelling the invaders. Promoted to general in 1916, at age 35, he liberated two major provinces in eastern Antalia that year. In the next two years, he served as commander of several Ottoman armies in Palestine and Aleppo, achieving anotherr major victory by stopping the enemy advance at Aleppo.
On May 19, 1919, Mustafa Kemal landed in the Black Sea port of Samsun to start the War of Independence. In defiance of the Sultan's government, he rallied a liberation army in Anatolia and convened the Congresses of Erzurum and Sivas which established the basis for the new national effort under his leadership. On April 23, 1920, the Grand National Assembly was inaugurated. Mustafa Kemal was elected to its Presidency.
Fighting on many fronts, he led his forces to victory against rebels and invading armies. Following the Turkish triumph at the two major battles at Inonu in Western Turkey, the Grand National Assembly conferred on Mustafa Kemal the title of Commander-in-Chief with the rank of Marshal. At the end of August 1922, the Turkish armies won their ultimate victory. Within a few weeks, the Turkish mainland was completely liberated, the armistice signed, and the rule of the Ottoman dynasty abolished.
In July 1923, the national government signed the Lausanne Treaty with Great
Britain, France, Greece, Italy and others. In mid-October, Ankara became
the capital of the new Turkish State. On October 29, the Republic was proclaimed
and Mustafa Kemal Pasha was unanimously elected President of the Republic.
The account of Atatürk's fifteen-year presidency is a saga of dramatic modernization. With indefatigable determination, he created a new political and legal system, abolished the Caliphate and made both government and education secular, gave equal rights to women, changed the alphabet and advanced the arts, sciences, agriculture and industry.
In 1934, when the surname law was adopted, the national parliament gave him the name "Atatürk" (Father of Turks).
On November 10, 1938, following an illness of a few months, the national liberator and the Father of modern Turkey died. His legacy to his people and to the world endures.
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