Turkey

Guide to TURKEY

TURKEY which official name is Republic of Turkey or Turkey, is a country from Asia located at the Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia (that portion of Turkey west of the Bosporus is geographically part of Europe), bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria. TURKEY with 2,648 km sq km, limits with: Armenia 268 km, Azerbaijan 9 km, Bulgaria 240 km, Georgia 252 km, Greece 206 km, Iran 499 km, Iraq 352 km, Syria 822 km; and is divided in 81 provinces . TURKEY's capital is Ankara , but TURKEY 's most populated city is istanbul with about 9,797,536 inhabitants.

History of TURKEY

TURKEY's government is republican parliamentary democracy; a Republic with a Ceremonial government type, with President Abdullah Gül as head of state and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as head of government.

Other symbols of TURKEY are Turkish motto " Egemenlik kayitsiz sartsiz milletindir. (Turkish, Sovereignty rests unconditionally with the nation) Turkish anthem "Istiklâl Marsi (The March of Independence) Turkish flag.Turkish flag is composed by red with a vertical white crescent (the closed portion is toward the hoist side) and white five-pointed star centered just outside the crescent opening .

TURKEY's history is quite long: Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging 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 Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives. After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK increased. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community; over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy enabling it to begin accession membership talks with the European Union.

TURKEYs geography

Guide to travel to TURKEY

If you are thinking on traveling to TURKEY, you will have to take in consideration some points like TURKEY's currency, TURKEY's weather, TURKEY's national holiday and TURKEY's transports.

The first thing you need to know for your travels abroad is country's currency. TURKEY`s currency is called new lira ( YTL), which is divided in 100 new kurus. For your consideration, new lira's exchange rate is about Saint Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore per dolar.1.2055997096.

TURKEY's weather is characterized to be temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters; harsher in interior. So be sure of choosing the proper date to travel to TURKEY.

You can also consider to visit TURKEY on it's national holiday to get in TURKEY's culture. If you do so, TURKEY's national holiday is called Republic Day, 29 October.

Also, if you like natural wonders, don't forget to visit the highest point of TURKEY: Mount Ararat 5,166 m. And try also to get to TURKEY's lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 mBut if you prefer the city, you must visit TURKEY's tallest structure: ( ).

Don't be afraid to take a flight to TURKEY, with more than 117 airports and 3 airlines, you will get to TURKEY without problems. Once there, you can choose the transport type that better fits your needs. TURKEY has about8,697 of railways, and also1,200 of roadways, so is a good place for a car trip.

Turkish Culture

TURKEY is known by Turkishs as Turkiye Cumhuriyeti or Turkiye in the shortened way. Turkish, about 71,158,647 people, are composed by different ethnics: Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20% (estimated). And they also have different languages: Turkish.

Another relevant point nowadays it's TURKEY's religion. Turkishs are divided in Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians and Jews). So you can visit any of it's5 like 0.

But if want to know more about TURKEY's culture, the best way is by reading the most famous Turkish novelists' books like Ayse Kulin, Bilge Karasu, author of "Night", "Garden of Departed Cats", and "Death in Troy" or Halit Ziya Usakligil.

Videos of Turkey

See some viedos of Turkey's places and tourism before choosing your vacations destination.

Latest News of Turkey