HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
|
 1
|
This article is about the Republic of Turkey. For Turkey, the bird, see Turkey (bird). For other uses of "Turkey", see Turkey (disambiguation). See also Turk (disambiguation).
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti ), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey borders eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west, Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhichevan), and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea and Archipelago are to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. Separating Anatolia and Thrace are the Sea of Marmara and the Turkish Straits (the Bosporus and the Dardanelles), which are commonly reckoned to delineate the border between Asia and Europe, thereby making Turkey transcontinental.Sabancı University (2005). Geography of Turkey. Sabancı University. Retrieved on 2006-12-13.
Due to its strategic location astride two continents, Turkey\'s culture has a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition. A powerful regional presence in the Eurasian landmass with strong historic, cultural and economic influence in the area between the European Union in the west and Central Asia in the east, Russia in the north and the Middle East in the south, Turkey has come to acquire increasing strategic significance.Mango, Andrew (2000). Ataturk. Overlook. ISBN 1-5856-7011-1. Shaw, Stanford Jay; Kural Shaw, Ezel (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-5212-9163-1.
Turkey, classified as a developed countryCIA World Factbook: Developed Countries (DCs) by the CIA, is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Since then, Turkey has become increasingly integrated with the West while continuing to foster relations with the Eastern world.
Contents |
The name of Turkey, Türkiye in the Turkish language, can be divided into two words: Türk, which means "strong" in Old Turkic and usually signifying the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples,American Heritage Dictionary (2000). "Turk". Houghton Mifflin Company. Retrieved on 2006-12-27. a later form of "tu-kin", name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BCE;Harper, Douglas (2001). "Turk". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on 2006-12-27. and the abstract suffix -iye (derived from Arabic), which means "owner" or "related to". The first recorded use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an autonym is contained in the Orkhon inscriptions of the Göktürks (Sky Turks) of Central Asia (c. 8th century CE). The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin "Turchia" (c. 1369).
Portion of the legendary walls of Troy (VII), identified as the site of the Trojan War (ca. 1200 BCE)
The Anatolian peninsula (also called Asia Minor), comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest continually inhabited regions in the world due to its location at the intersection of Asia and Europe. The earliest Neolithic settlements such as Çatalhöyük (Pottery Neolithic), Çayönü (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A to Pottery Neolithic), Nevali Cori (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), Hacilar (Pottery Neolithic), Göbekli Tepe (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A) and Mersin are considered to be among the earliest human settlements in the world.Thissen, Laurens (2001-11-23). "Time trajectories for the Neolithic of Central Anatolia" (PDF). CANeW - Central Anatolian Neolithic e-Workshop. Retrieved on 2006-12-21. The settlement of Troy starts in the Neolithic and continues into the Iron Age. Through recorded history, Anatolians have spoken Indo-European, Semitic and Kartvelian languages, as well as many languages of uncertain affiliation. In fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical center from which the Indo-European languages have radiated.Balter, Michael (2004-02-27). "Search for the Indo-Europeans: Were Kurgan horsemen or Anatolian farmers responsible for creating and spreading the world\'s most far-flung language family?". Science 303 (5662): 1323.
The Celsus Library in Ephesus, dating from 135 CE
The first major empire in the area was that of the Hittites, from the 18th through the 13th century BCE. Subsequently, the Phrygians, an Indo-European people, achieved ascendancy until their kingdom was destroyed by the Cimmerians in the 7th century BCE.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (October 2000). Anatolia and the Caucasus (Asia Minor), 2000 – 1000 B.C. in Timeline of Art History.. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved on 2006-12-21. The most powerful of Phrygia\'s successor states were Lydia, Caria and Lycia. The Lydians and Lycians spoke languages that were fundamentally Indo-European, but both languages had acquired non-Indo-European elements prior to the Hittite and Hellenic periods.
The west coast of Anatolia was meanwhile settled by the Ionians, one of the ancient Greek peoples. The entire area was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire during the 6th and 5th centuries and later fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BCE.Hooker, Richard (1999-06-06). Ancient Greece: The Persian Wars. Washington State University, WA, United States. Retrieved on 2006-12-22. Anatolia was subsequently divided into a number of small Hellenistic kingdoms (including Bithynia, Cappadocia, Pergamum, and Pontus), all of which had succumbed to Rome by the mid-1st century BCE.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (October 2000). Anatolia and the Caucasus (Asia Minor), 1000 B.C. - 1 A.D. in Timeline of Art History.. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved on 2006-12-21. In 324 CE, the Roman emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium to be the new capital of the Roman Empire, renaming it New Rome (later Constantinople and Istanbul). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it became the capital of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire).Daniel C. Waugh (2004). Constantinople/Istanbul. University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Retrieved on 2006-12-26.
The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power (ca. 1680)
The House of Seljuk was a branch of the Kınık Oğuz Turks who in the 9th century resided on the periphery of the Muslim world, north of the Caspian and Aral Seas in the Yabghu Khaganate of the Oğuz confederacy.Wink, Andre (1990). Al Hind: The Making of the Indo Islamic World, Vol. 1, Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-04-09249-8. In the 10th century, the Seljuks started migrating from their ancestral homelands towards the eastern regions of Anatolia, which eventually became the new homeland of Oğuz Turkic tribes following the Battle of Manzikert (Malazgirt) in 1071. The victory of the Seljuks gave rise to the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate; which developed as a separate branch of the larger Seljuk Empire that covered parts of Central Asia, Iran, Anatolia and the Middle East.Mango, Cyril (2002). The Oxford History of Byzantium. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-1981-4098-3.
In 1243, the Seljuk armies were defeated by the Mongols and the power of the empire slowly disintegrated. In its wake, one of the Turkish principalities governed by Osman I was to evolve into the Ottoman Empire, thus filling the void left by the collapsed Seljuks and Byzantines.Kinross, Patrick (1977). The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. Morrow. ISBN 0-6880-3093-9.
The Ottoman Empire interacted with both Eastern and Western cultures throughout its 623-year history. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was among the world\'s most powerful political entities, often locking horns with the Holy Roman Empire in its steady advance towards Central Europe through the Balkans and the southern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on land;Jay Shaw, Stanford; Kural Shaw, Ezel (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-5212-9163-1. and with the combined forces (Holy Leagues) of Habsburg Spain, the Republic of Venice and the Knights of St. John at sea for the control of the Mediterranean basin; while frequently confronting Portuguese fleets at the Indian Ocean for defending the Empire\'s monopoly over the ancient maritime trade routes between East Asia and Western Europe, which had become increasingly compromised since the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.
Following years of decline, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I through the Ottoman-German Alliance in 1914, and was ultimately defeated. After the war, the victorious Allied Powers sought the dismemberment of the Ottoman state through the Treaty of Sèvres.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey
The occupation of İstanbul and İzmir by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I prompted the establishment of the Turkish national movement. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military commander who had distinguished himself during the Battle of Gallipoli, the Turkish War of Independence was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres.Mango, Andrew (2000). Ataturk. Overlook. ISBN 1-5856-7011-1. By September 18 1922, the occupying armies were repelled and the country saw the birth of the new Turkish state. On November 1, the newly founded parliament formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of Ottoman rule. The Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on October 29 1923, in the new capital of Ankara.
Mustafa Kemal became the republic\'s first president and subsequently introduced many radical reforms with the aim of founding a new secular republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past. According to the Law on Family Names, the Turkish parliament presented Mustafa Kemal with the honorific name "Atatürk" (Father of the Turks) in 1934.
Turkey entered World War II on the side of the Allies on February 23, 1945 as a ceremonial gesture and became a charter member of the United Nations in 1945.Growth in United Nations membership (1945–2005). United Nations (2006-07-03). Retrieved on 2006-10-30. Difficulties faced by Greece after the war in quelling a communist rebellion, along with demands by the Soviet Union for military bases in the Turkish Straits, prompted the United States to declare the Truman Doctrine in 1947. The doctrine enunciated American intentions to guarantee the security of Turkey and Greece, and resulted in large-scale US military and economic support.Huston, James A. (1988). Outposts and Allies: U.S. Army Logistics in the Cold War, 1945–1953. Susquehanna University Press. ISBN 0-9416-6484-8.
After participating with United Nations forces in the Korean conflict, Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952, becoming a bulwark against Soviet expansion into the Mediterranean. Following a decade of intercommunal violence on the island of Cyprus and the subsequent Athens-inspired coup, Turkey intervened militarily in 1974. Nine years later Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was established. TRNC is recognised only by Turkey."Timeline: Cyprus", British Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-12-12. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
Following the end of the single-party period in 1945, the multi-party period witnessed tensions over the following decades, and the period between the 1960s and the 1980s was particularly marked by periods of political instability that resulted in a number of military coups d\'états in 1960, 1971, 1980 and a post-modern coup d\'état in 1997.Hale, William Mathew (1994). Turkish Politics and the Military. Routledge, UK. ISBN 0-4150-2455-2. The liberalization of the Turkish economy that started in the 1980s changed the landscape of the country, with successive periods of high growth and crises punctuating the following decades.
Turkey is a parliamentary representative democracy. Since its foundation as a republic in 1923, Turkey has developed a strong tradition of secularism.Çarkoǧlu, Ali (2004). Religion and Politics in Turkey. Routledge, UK. ISBN 0-4153-4831-5. Turkey\'s constitution governs the legal framework of the country. It sets out the main principles of government and establishes Turkey as a unitary centralized state.
The Grand Chamber of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara
The head of state is the President of the Republic and has a largely ceremonial role. The president is elected for a seven-year term by the parliament but is not required to be one of its members. The last President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, was elected on May 16 2000, after having served as the President of the Constitutional Court. He was succeeded on August 28 2007 by Abdullah Gül."Turks elect ex-Islamist president", BBC, 2007-11-02. Retrieved on 2007-08-28. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers which make up the government, while the legislative power is vested in the unicameral parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, and the Constitutional Court is charged with ruling on the conformity of laws and decrees with the constitution. The Council of State is the tribunal of last resort for administrative cases, and the High Court of Appeals for all others.Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information (2001-10-17). Turkish Constitution. Turkish Prime Minister\'s Office. Retrieved on 2006-12-16.
The Prime Minister is elected by the parliament through a vote of confidence in his government and is most often the head of the party that has the most seats in parliament. The current Prime Minister is the former mayor of İstanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose conservative AKP won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats in the 2002 general elections, organized in the aftermath of the economic crisis of 2001, with 34% of the suffrage."Turkey\'s old guard routed in elections", BBC, 2002-11-04. Retrieved on 2006-12-14. Arnold, James. "Analysis: Turkey\'s year of crisis", BBC, 2002-02-21. Retrieved on 2006-12-14. In the 2007 general elections, AKP received 46.6% of the votes and could defend its majority in parliament."Turkey re-elects governing party", BBC, 2007-07-22. Retrieved on 2007-11-02. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Ministers have to be members of the parliament, but in most cases they are (one notable exception was Kemal Derviş, the Minister of State in Charge of Economy following the financial crisis of 2001;"Profile: Kemal Derviş", BBC, 2002-08-12. Retrieved on 2006-12-14. he is currently the president of the United Nations Development Programme)."UN post for Turkish ex-minister", BBC, 2005-04-27. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
Universal suffrage for both sexes has been applied throughout Turkey since 1933, and every Turkish citizen who has turned 18 years of age has the right to vote. As of 2004, there were 50 registered political parties in the country, whose ideologies range from the far left to the far right.Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information (2004-08-24). Political Structure of Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister\'s Office. Retrieved on 2006-12-14. The Constitutional Court can strip the public financing of political parties that it deems anti-secular or separatist, or ban their existence altogether."Euro court backs Turkey Islamist ban", BBC, 2001-07-31. Retrieved on 2006-12-14. "Turkey\'s Kurd party ban criticised", BBC, 2003-03-14. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
There are 550 members of parliament who are elected for a four-year term by a party-list proportional representation system from 85 electoral districts which represent the 81 administrative provinces of Turkey (İstanbul is divided into three electoral districts whereas Ankara and İzmir are divided into two each because of their large populations). To avoid a hung parliament and its excessive political fragmentation, only parties that win at least 10% of the votes cast in a national parliamentary election gain the right to representation in the parliament. As a result of this threshold, the 2007 elections saw three parties formally entering parliament (compared to two in 2002).Hardy, Roger. "Turkey leaps into the unknown", BBC, 2002-11-04. Retrieved on 2006-12-14. Rainsford, Sarah. "Turkey awaits AKP\'s next step", BBC, 2007-11-02. Retrieved on 2007-07-23. However due to a system of alliances and independent candidatures, seven parties are currently represented in parliament. Independent candidates may run; however, they must also win at least 10% of the vote in their circonscription to be elected.
Roosevelt, İnönü and Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference in December 1943
Turkey is a founding member of the United Nations (1945), the OECD (1961), the OSCE (1973) and the G20 industrial nations (1999).
In line with its traditional Western orientation, relations with Europe have always been a central part of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey became a member of the Council of Europe in 1949, applied for associate membership of the EEC (predecessor of the EU) in 1959 and became an associate member in 1963. After decades of political negotiations, Turkey applied for full membership of the EEC in 1987, became an associate member of the Western European Union in 1992, reached a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and has officially begun formal accession negotiations with the EU on October 3 2005.Chronology of Turkey-EU relations. Turkish Secretariat of European Union Affairs. Retrieved on 2006-10-30. It is believed that the accession process will take at least 15 years due to Turkey\'s size and the depth of disagreements over certain issues.Interview with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on BBC Sunday AM (PDF). European Commission (2006-10-15). Retrieved on 2006-12-17. These include disputes with EU member Republic of Cyprus over Turkey\'s 1974 military intervention to prevent the island\'s annexation to Greece. Since then, Turkey does not recognize the essentially Greek Cypriot Republic of Cyprus as the sole authority on the island, but instead supports the Turkish Cypriot community in the form of the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.Mardell, Mark. "Turkey\'s EU membership bid stalls", BBC, 2006-12-11. Retrieved on 2006-12-17.
The other defining aspect of Turkey\'s foreign relations has been its ties with the United States. Based on the common threat posed by the Soviet Union, Turkey joined the NATO in 1952 ensuring close bilateral relations with Washington throughout the Cold War. In the post-Cold War environment, Turkey\'s geostrategic importance shifted towards its proximity to the volatile Middle East. As well as hosting an important American base near the Syrian/Iraq border for US operations in the region, Turkey\'s status as a secular democracy and its positive relations with Israel made Ankara a crucial ally for Washington. In return, Turkey has benefited from the United States political, economic and diplomatic support. However, in recent years relations have been strained by the ongoing Iraq War.
The independence of the Turkic states of the Soviet Union, with whom Turkey shares a common cultural and linguistic heritage, allowed Turkey to extend its economic and political relations deep into Central Asia.Bal, Idris (2004). Turkish Foreign Policy In Post Cold War Era. Universal Publishers. ISBN 1-5811-2423-6. The most salient of these relations saw the completion of a multi billion dollar oil and gas pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, as it is called, has formed part of Turkey\'s foreign policy strategy to become an energy conduit to the West. However, Turkey\'s border with Armenia, a state in the Caucaus, remains closed following its occupation of Azeri territory during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.U.S. Department of State: Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Armenia: Respect for Human Rights. Section 1, a. Relations with Armenia have been further strained by the controversy surrounding the forced deportations and related deaths of hundrends of thousands of Armenians in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, recognised by a number of countries and historians as the Armenian Genocide. Turkey rejects the term genocide, arguing instead that the deaths were a result of disease, famine and inter-ethnic strife."Q&A Armenian \'genocide\'", BBC, 2006-10-12. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
A KC-135R-CRAG Stratotanker of the Turkish Air Force refueling TAI-built F-16 fighter jets
The Turkish Armed Forces consists of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. The Gendarmerie and the Coast Guard operate as parts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in peacetime, although they are subordinated to the Army and Navy Commands respectively in wartime, during which they have both internal law enforcement and military functions.Turkish General Staff (2006). Turkish Armed Forces Defense Organization. Turkish Armed Forces. Retrieved on 2006-12-15.
The Turkish Armed Forces is the second largest standing armed force in NATO, after the U.S. Armed Forces, with a combined strength of 1,043,550 uniformed personnel serving in its five branches.Economist Intelligence Unit:Turkey, p.23 (2005) Every fit heterosexual male Turkish citizen is required to serve in the military for time periods ranging from three weeks to fifteen months, depending on his education and job location (homosexuals have the right to be exempt, upon their own personal request).United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Directorate for Movements of Persons, Migration and Consular Affairs - Asylum and Migration Division (July 2001). Turkey/Military service (PDF). UNHCR. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
In 1998, Turkey announced a program of modernization worth some US$31 billion over a ten year period in various projects including tanks, fighter jets, helicopters, submarines, warships and assault rifles.Economist Intelligence Unit:Turkey, p.22 (2005) Turkey is also a Level 3 contributor to the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, gaining an opportunity to develop and influence the creation of the next generation fighter spearheaded by the United States.US Department of Defense (2002-07-11). DoD, Turkey sign Joint Strike Fighter Agreement. US Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
Turkey has maintained forces in international missions under the United Nations and NATO since 1950, including peacekeeping missions in Somalia and former Yugoslavia, and support to coalition forces in the First Gulf War. Turkey maintains 36,000 troops in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the U.S. stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) since 2001.Economist Intelligence Unit:Turkey, p.23 (2005)Turkish General Staff (2006). Brief History of ISAF. Turkish Armed Forces. Retrieved on 2006-12-16. In 2006, the Turkish parliament deployed a peacekeeping force of Navy patrol vessels and around 700 ground troops as part of an expanded United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the wake of the Israeli-Lebanon conflict."Turkish troops arrive in Lebanon", British Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-10-20. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
The Chief of the General Staff is appointed by the President, and is responsible to the Prime Minister. The Council of Ministers is responsible to the parliament for matters of national security and the adequate preparation of the armed forces to defend the country. However, the authority to declare war and to deploy the Turkish Armed Forces to foreign countries or to allow foreign armed forces to be stationed in Turkey rests solely with the parliament. The actual Commander of the armed forces is the Chief of the General Staff General Yaşar Büyükanıt, who succeeded General Hilmi Özkök on August 26 2006."Turkish general vows to rout PKK", British Broadcasting Corporation, 2006-08-26. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
The Turkish military has traditionally held a powerful position in domestic Turkish politics, considering itself the guardian of Turkey\'s secular democracy. It has several times within the last decades forcibly removed elected governments believed to be straying from the principles of the state as established by Atatürk and enshrined in the constitution.Turkey\'s army defends secularism ahead of elections- Yahoo! News, Monday 27 August 2007
Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, connecting Europe (left) and Asia (right)
The capital city of Turkey is Ankara. The territory of Turkey is subdivided into 81 provinces for administrative purposes. The provinces are organized into 7 regions for census purposes; however, they do not represent an administrative structure. Each province is divided into districts, for a total of 923 districts.
Provinces usually bear the same name as their provincial capitals, also called the central district; exceptions to this are the provinces of Hatay (capital: Antakya), Kocaeli (capital: İzmit) and Sakarya (capital: Adapazarı). Provinces with the largest populations are İstanbul (+12 million), Ankara (+4.4 million), İzmir (+3.7 million), Bursa (+2.4 million), Adana (+2.0 million) and Konya (+1.9 million).
The biggest city and the pre-Republican capital İstanbul is the financial, economic and cultural heart of the country. Other important cities include İzmir, Bursa, Adana, Trabzon, Malatya, Gaziantep, Erzurum, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Mersin, Eskişehir, Diyarbakır, Antalya and Samsun. An estimated 70.5% of Turkey\'s population live in urban centers.Turkish Statistical Institute (2008). 2007 Census,population living in cities. Turkish Statistical Institute. Retrieved on 2008-01-21. In all, 18 cities have populations that exceed 1 million inhabitants, and 21 cities have populations between 1 million and 500,000 inhabitants. Only two cities have populations less than 100,000.
