Portal:Turkey

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Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye [ˈtyɾcije]), officially the Republic of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti [ˈtyɾcije dʒumˈhuːɾijeti] (listen)), is a transcontinental country located mainly on Anatolia in Western Asia, with a portion on the Balkans in Southeast Europe. It shares borders with Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; and the Aegean Sea to the west. Cyprus is located off the south coast. Turks form the vast majority of the nation's population and Kurds are the largest minority. Ankara is Turkey's capital, while Istanbul is its largest city and financial centre.

One of the world's earliest permanently settled regions, present-day Turkey was home to important Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe, and was inhabited by ancient civilisations including the Hattians, Anatolian peoples, Mycenaean Greeks and others. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great which started the Hellenistic period, most of the ancient regions in modern Turkey were culturally Hellenised, which continued during the Byzantine era. The Seljuk Turks began migrating in the 11th century, and the Sultanate of Rum ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into small Turkish principalities. Beginning in the late 13th century, the Ottomans united the principalities and conquered the Balkans, and the Turkification of Anatolia increased during the Ottoman period. After Mehmed II conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, Ottoman expansion continued under Selim I. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire became a global power. From the late 18th century onwards, the empire's power declined with a gradual loss of territories. Mahmud II started a period of modernisation in the early 19th century. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 restricted the authority of the Sultan and restored the Ottoman Parliament after a 30-year suspension, ushering the empire into a multi-party period. The 1913 coup d'état put the country under the control of the Three Pashas, who facilitated the Empire's entry into World War I as part of the Central Powers in 1914. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Greek and Assyrian subjects. After its defeat in the war, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned.

The Turkish War of Independence against the occupying Allied Powers resulted in the abolition of the Sultanate on 1 November 1922, the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (which superseded the Treaty of Sèvres) on 24 July 1923 and the proclamation of the Republic on 29 October 1923. With the reforms initiated by the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey became a secular, unitary and parliamentary republic. Turkey played a prominent role in the Korean War and joined NATO in 1952. The country endured several military coups in the latter half of the 20th century. The economy was liberalised in the 1980s, leading to stronger economic growth and political stability. The parliamentary republic was replaced with a presidential system by referendum in 2017. Since then, the new Turkish governmental system under president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party, the AKP, has often been described as Islamist and authoritarian. The latter's rule over the country has also led to numerous currency crises, increasing inflation and economic decline, as well as a rise in poverty.

Turkey is a regional power and a newly industrialized country, with a geopolitically strategic location. Its economy, which is classified among the emerging and growth-leading economies, is the twentieth-largest in the world by nominal GDP, and the eleventh-largest by PPP. It is a charter member of the United Nations, an early member of NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank, and a founding member of the OECD, OSCE, BSEC, OIC, and G20. After becoming one of the early members of the Council of Europe in 1950, Turkey became an associate member of the EEC in 1963, joined the EU Customs Union in 1995, and started accession negotiations with the European Union in 2005. (Full article...)

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View overlooking the main excavation area of Göbekli Tepe.

Göbekli Tepe (Turkish: [gœbecˈli teˈpe], "Potbelly Hill"; known as Girê Mirazan or Xirabreşkê in Kurdish) is a Neolithic archaeological site near the city of Şanlıurfa in Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey. Dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, between c. 9500 and 8000 BCE, the site comprises a number of large circular structures supported by massive stone pillars – the world's oldest known megaliths. Many of these pillars are richly decorated with abstract anthropomorphic details, clothing, and reliefs of wild animals, providing archaeologists rare insights into prehistoric religion and the particular iconography of the period. The 15 m (50 ft)-high, 8 ha (20-acre) tell also includes many smaller rectangular buildings, quarries, and stone-cut cisterns from the Neolithic, as well as some traces of activity from later periods.

The site was first used at the dawn of the Neolithic period, which in Southwest Asia marks the appearance of the oldest permanent human settlements anywhere in the world. Prehistorians link this Neolithic Revolution to the advent of agriculture, but disagree on whether farming caused people to settle down or vice-versa. Göbekli Tepe, a monumental complex built on the top of a rocky mountaintop, far from known sources of water and to date produced no clear evidence of agricultural cultivation, has played a prominent role in this debate. The site's original excavator, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, described it as the "world's first temple": a sanctuary used by groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers from a wide area, with few or no permanent inhabitants. Other archaeologists challenged this interpretation, arguing that the evidence for a lack of agriculture and a resident population was far from conclusive. Recent research has also led the current excavators of Göbekli Tepe to revise or abandon many of the conclusions underpinning Schmidt's interpretation. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various Turkey-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A view from the interior of a traditional Turkish house, by John Frederick Lewis (1805–1875) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 2View of Bursa from the hills near Mount Uludağ, the ancient Mysian Olympus (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 3Thrace and the Thracian Odrysian kingdom in its maximum extent under Sitalces (431-424 BC) (from History of Turkey)
Image 4Beaches and marina of Kemer near Antalya on the Turkish Riviera (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 5Sami Frashëri (1850–1904) and his wife Emine, May 1884. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 6Turkish national basketball team won the silver medal in the 2010 FIBA World Championship. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 7Designed by Şekip Akalın, Ankara Central Station (1937) is a notable art deco design of its era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 8Skycrapers in Levent district of Istanbul (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 9Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca was one of the most prolific Turkish poets of the Turkish Republic with more than 60 collections of his poems published, laureate of the Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Award. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 10The sultan of the golden age, Suleiman the Magnificent. (from History of Turkey)
Image 11Kaçkar Mountains (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 12Map showing the Anatolian Plate, the North Anatolian Fault and East Anatolian Fault in Turkey. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 13Interior of the Şakirin Mosque (2005–09) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 14Members of the Bayar cabinet wearing a white tie and top hat. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 15View of Dilek Peninsula-Büyük Menderes Delta National Park (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 16Istanbul and the Bosphorus (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 17Nuri Bilge Ceylan won a number of awards in the annual Cannes Film Festival, including the best director award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival for his film Üç Maymun ("Three Monkeys"). He has also won five FIPRESCI awards. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 18One of the main entrance gates of the Dolmabahçe Palace. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 19Orhan Veli Kanık was the founder of the Garip Movement in Turkish poetry. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 20Turkish coffee (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 21An Oil wrestling tournament in Istanbul. This has been the national sport of Turkey since Ottoman times. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 22Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) (from History of Turkey)
Image 23Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 24View from Maslak district in Istanbul. Istanbul's skyline has changed especially since the early 2000s. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 25Köppen climate types of Turkey (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 26Turkish Delight (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 27Roosevelt, İnönü and Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference which was held between 4–6 December 1943. (from History of Turkey)
Image 28Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915) was a prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 29Istanbul University Faculty of Science and Faculty of Literature Buildings (1944–52) designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Emin Onat (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 30Interior of the Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 31Topographic map of Turkey (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 32Ahmed Hamdi Akseki Mosque (2013) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 33Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem (1847–1914) was another prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 34Fault lines and earthquakes (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 35Topkapı Palace, Istanbul. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 36Mehmed II enters Constantinople by Fausto Zonaro (from History of Turkey)
Image 37Esenboğa International Airport, Ankara (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 38Şakirin Mosque (2005–09) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 39First Ziraat Bank Headquarters (1925–29) in Ankara designed by Giulio Mongeri is an important symbol of the First National Architectural Movement. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 40Originally a church, later a mosque, and now a Grand mosque, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was built by the Byzantines in the 6th century. (from History of Turkey)
Image 41View of Beydağları Coastal National Park (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 42Antalya (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 43Map of earthquakes in Turkey 1900–2017 (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 44Namık Kemal was a prominent Turkish poet, novelist, playwright and journalist of the late-19th-century Ottoman Empire. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 45Istanbul (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 46Aynalıkavak Palace (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 47Mount Ararat (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 48Isbank Tower 1 (1995–2000) in Levent district of Istanbul (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 49Ankara (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 50Anıtkabir designed by Emin Halid Onat and Ahmet Orhan Arda (1944–53) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 51Ankara Opera House, designed by Şevki Balmumcu (1933–34) and renovation by Paul Bonatz (1946–47). (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 52Karagöz and Hacivat are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 53The Ishak Pasha Palace, Eastern Turkey. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 54Mount Erciyes near Kayseri (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 55Istanbul Sapphire (2006–11) is the tallest building in Turkey and 4th in Europe. (from Culture of Turkey)

Did you know - show different entries

... that the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, one of the largest covered markets in the world, attracts between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily? (March 19, 2012)
... that Levantine architect of French descent Raymond Charles Père (1854-1929), who designed the landmark of Izmir (pictured) in Turkey, was a native of Izmir? (February 18, 2009) Wikipedia:Recent additions 241
... that Alpamysh, an ancient Turkic epic or dastan, is one of the foremost examples of the Turkic oral literature of Central Asia? (April 3, 2007) Wikipedia:Recent additions 131
... that the busts of Miklós Zrínyi and Sultan Suleiman, rivals at the Siege of Szigetvár in 1566, stand in the Hungarian-Turkish Friendship Park
(pictured) side-by-side rather than confronting one another? (October 7, 2013)
... that the Fenari Isa Mosque
(pictured) in Istanbul represents one of the first examples of edifices with a quincuncial plan in Byzantine architecture? (March 17, 2007) Wikipedia:Recent additions 128

More did you know

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Selected picture

Image 1Safranbolu
Image 2A faculty of Sakarya University
Image 3Rize
Image 4Hrant Dink funeral
Image 5Lahmacun
Image 6A Kocek
Image 718th-century Ottoman barber's apron
Image 8Antalya
Image 91. picture on portal: The prominent towers of Dayro d-Mor Gabriel; 15th December 2005
Image 10The Temple of Athena at Priene, an ancient site near Turunçlar in Aydın province.
Image 11The sun setting over the Golden Horn in the city of Istanbul.
Image 12Tünel, Istanbul
Image 13An airplane with a nazar boncuğu symbol that is said to offer protection from the "evil eye".
Image 14Iznik, 16th-century vase
Image 15Cappadocia
Image 16Atatürk praying
Image 17Yagli gures
Image 18Flag of Turkey, from flowers
Image 19Ölüdeniz
Image 20Male Bellydancer in Istanbul
Image 21Kemer
Image 22The tughra of Mahmud II. "Mahmud Han bin Abdulhamid muzaffer daima" ("Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious").
Image 23the Bosphorus Bridge
Image 24Aydilge Sarp; Turkish singer, songwriter and novelist
Image 25Tarkan with Hungarian fans
Image 26the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne
Image 27A tram in Istanbul
Image 28The ancient Lake Abant Nature Park in Bolu

Selected biography - show another

Sami Erol Gelenbe (born 22 August 1945) is a Turkish computer scientist, electronic engineer and applied mathematician who was born in Turkey. Involved in many research projects of the European Union, he is Professor in the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2017-), Honorary Professor of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and affiliated with the I3S CNRS Laboratory of the University of Côte d'Azur (Nice), and the CNRS Abraham de Moivre Laboratory, Imperial College (London). Previously, he was Chaired professor at University of Liege (1974-1979), University Paris-Saclay (1979-1986), University Paris Descartes (1986-2005), Nello L. Teer Professor and ECE Chair at Duke University (1993-1998), University Chair Professor and Director of the School of EECS at the University of Central Florida (1998-2003) and Dennis Gabor Professor and Head of Intelligent Systems and Networks at Imperial College (2003-2019). He also served as a Visiting Professor at Columbia University (1986). Known for pioneering the field of modelling and performance evaluation of computer systems and networks throughout Europe, he invented the random neural network and the eponymous G-networks. He has served as a consultant to various companies including Thomson-CSF, IBM, BT, France Telecom, Huawei, and General Dynamics UK Ltd. His awards include the Parlar Foundation Science Award (1994), the Grand Prix France Telecom (1996) of the French Academy of Sciences, the ACM SIGMETRICS Life-Time Achievement Award, the Oliver Lodge Medal of the UK's Institution of Engineering and Technology (2010), the "In Memoriam Dennis Gabor Award" (2013) of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the Mustafa Prize (2017). (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Burak Yılmaz Piri Reis Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Ahmet Necdet Sezer Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Fethullah Gülen Nureddin Pasha Tuncay Şanlı İsmet İnönü Sıla (singer) Orhan Pamuk Kemal Derviş Hande Yener Sertab Erener Said Altınordu Tarkan (singer) Junayd of Aydın Daron Acemoglu

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Video shot in Goreme in Cappadocia showing the terrain

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Videos from Turkey on Wikimedia Commons

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“

A satiated man doesn't know what's hunger, a healthy man doesn't know what's disease.

”

Turkish proverb

More selected quotes
Turkish proverbs in Wikiquote

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Recognized content

	Alanya, Byzantine Empire, SMS Goeben, The Turk, List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, Italian War of 1521–1526, Italian War of 1542–1546, List of battleships of the Ottoman Empire, Rhodes blood libel
	2004 Istanbul summit, 2008 Turkish Grand Prix, Battle of Manzikert, Battle of Marash, Battle of Vaslui, Church of St. Polyeuctus, First Crusade, Great Zab, Hood event, Limyra Bridge, Siege of Szigetvár, Night Attack at Târgoviște, Third Perso-Turkic War, Walls of Constantinople, Gallipoli Campaign, Battle of Lone Pine