Portal:Turkey

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Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq, Syria, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; and the Aegean Sea, Greece, and Bulgaria to the west. Turkey is home to over 85 million people; most are ethnic Turks, while Kurds are the largest ethnic minority. Officially a secular state, Turkey has a Muslim-majority population. Ankara is Turkey's capital and second-largest city. Istanbul is its largest city and economic center. Other major cities include İzmir, Bursa, and Antalya.

First inhabited by modern humans during the Late Paleolithic, present-day Turkey was home to various ancient peoples. The Hattians were assimilated by the Hittites and other Anatolian peoples. Classical Anatolia transitioned into cultural Hellenization after Alexander the Great's conquests, and later Romanization during the Roman and Byzantine eras. The Seljuk Turks began migrating into Anatolia in the 11th century, starting the Turkification process. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into Turkish principalities. Beginning in 1299, the Ottomans united the principalities and expanded. Mehmed II conquered Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) in 1453. During the reigns of Selim I and Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire became a global power. From 1789 onwards, the empire saw major changes, reforms, centralization, and rising nationalism while its territory declined.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction and in the Russian Empire resulted in large-scale loss of life and mass migration into modern-day Turkey from the Balkans, Caucasus, and Crimea. Under the control of the Three Pashas, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I in 1914, during which the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian subjects. Following Ottoman defeat, the Turkish War of Independence resulted in the abolition of the sultanate and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne. Turkey emerged as a more homogenous nation state. The Republic was proclaimed on 29 October 1923, modelled on the reforms initiated by the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Turkey remained neutral during most of World War II, but was involved in the Korean War. Several military interventions interfered with the transition to a multi-party system.

Turkey is an upper-middle-income and emerging country; its economy is the world's 16th-largest by nominal and 11th-largest by PPP-adjusted GDP. As the 15th-largest electricity producer in the world, Turkey aims to become a hub for regional energy transportation. It is a unitary presidential republic. Turkey is a founding member of the OECD, G20, and Organization of Turkic States. With a geopolitically significant location, Turkey is a NATO member and has its second-largest military force. It may be recognized as an emerging, a middle, and a regional power. As an EU candidate, Turkey is part of the EU Customs Union.

Turkey has coastal plains, a high central plateau, and various mountain ranges with rising elevation eastwards. Turkey's climate is diverse, ranging from Mediterranean and other temperate climates to semi-arid and continental types. Home to three biodiversity hotspots, Turkey is prone to frequent earthquakes and is highly vulnerable to climate change. Turkey has a universal healthcare system, growing access to education, and increasing levels of innovativeness. It is a leading TV content exporter. With numerous UNESCO World Heritage sites and intangible cultural heritage inscriptions, and a rich and diverse cuisine, Turkey is the fourth most visited country in the world. (Full article...)

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The 4th arch, today half-buried. The exceptionally flat profile of the arch is evident.

The Bridge near Limyra (in Turkish: Kırkgöz Kemeri, "Bridge of the Forty Arches") is a late Roman bridge in Lycia, in modern south-west Turkey, and one of the oldest segmented arch bridges in the world. Located near the ancient city of Limyra, it is the largest civil engineering structure of antiquity in the region, spanning the Alakır Çayı river over a length of 360 m (1,181.1 ft) on 26 segmental arches. These arches, with a span-to-rise ratio of 5.3:1, give the bridge an unusually flat profile, and were unsurpassed as an architectural achievement until the late Middle Ages. Today, the structure is largely buried by river sediments and surrounded by greenhouses. Despite its unique features, the bridge remains relatively unknown, and only in the 1970s did researchers from the Istanbul branch of the German Archaeological Institute carry out field examinations on the site. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1Lake Van (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 2Anıtkabir designed by Emin Halid Onat and Ahmet Orhan Arda (1944–53) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 3Mount Erciyes near Kayseri (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 4A view of Levent from Kanlıca across the Bosporus. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 5Roosevelt, İnönü and Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference which was held between 4–6 December 1943. (from History of Turkey)
Image 6Thrace and the Thracian Odrysian kingdom in its maximum extent under Sitalces (431-424 BC) (from History of Turkey)
Image 7View from Levent district in Istanbul. Istanbul's skyline has changed especially since the early 2000s. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 8The empire in 555 under Justinian the Great, at its greatest extent since the fall of the Western Roman Empire (its vassals in pink) (from History of Turkey)
Image 9Map of Istanbul by the miniature artist Matrakçı Nasuh (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 10Map showing events of the first phases of the Greco-Persian Wars (from History of Turkey)
Image 11Istanbul Sapphire (2006–11) is the tallest building in Turkey and 4th in Europe. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 12Istanbul University Faculty of Science and Faculty of Literature Buildings (1944–52) designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Emin Onat (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 13Yalikavak Palmarina in Bodrum (2014) designed by Emre Arolat (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 14View of Beydağları Coastal National Park (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 15Sami Frashëri (1850–1904) and his wife Emine, May 1884. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 16The Bath-Gymnasium complex at Sardis in Turkey. (from History of Turkey)
Image 17The sultan of the golden age, Suleiman the Magnificent. (from History of Turkey)
Image 18Map of earthquakes in Turkey 1900–2023 (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 19Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (1568–1574) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 20Köppen climate types of Turkey (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 21Butterfly Valley on the Turkish Riviera. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 22View of Dilek Peninsula-Büyük Menderes Delta National Park (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 23Turkish coffee (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 24Ankara Opera House, designed by Şevki Balmumcu (1933–34) and renovation by Paul Bonatz (1946–47). (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 25Map of the Lydian Kingdom in its final period of sovereignty under Croesus, c. 547 BC. (from History of Turkey)
Image 26Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915) was a prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 27First 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 28Turkish national basketball team won the silver medal in the 2010 FIBA World Championship. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 29Originally 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 30An oil wrestling tournament in Istanbul. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 31Istanbul (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 32Night view of the Taksim Mosque (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 33Karagöz and Hacivat are the lead characters of Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 34Beaches and marina of Kemer near Antalya on the Turkish Riviera. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 35Kaçkar Mountains. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 36Antalya (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 37Mehmed II enters Constantinople by Fausto Zonaro (from History of Turkey)
Image 38Atatürk on the cover of the Time magazine, Vol. I No. 4, March 24, 1923. Title: "Mustapha Kemal Pasha" (from History of Turkey)
Image 39Mount Nemrut, Adıyaman (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 40Fazıl 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 41The Nation's Library of the Presidency, Ankara (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 42Ankara (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 43Turkish delight (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 44Orhan Veli Kanık was the founder of the Garip Movement in Turkish poetry. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 45Designed by Şekip Akalın, Ankara Central Station (1937) is a notable art deco design of its era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 46Mount Ararat (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 47Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 48Namık Kemal was a prominent Turkish poet, novelist, playwright and journalist of the late-19th-century Ottoman Empire. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 49The Ottoman Empire in 1683, at the start of the Great Turkish War (1683–1699) (from History of Turkey)
Image 50Entrance portal of the Karatay Madrasa in Konya (c. 1251) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 51Map showing the Anatolian Plate, the North Anatolian Fault and East Anatolian Fault in Turkey. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 52Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem (1847–1914) was another prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)

Did you know - show different entries

... that Khotyn Fortress
(pictured), site of the Battle of Khotyn between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire in 1621, is one of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine? (February 12, 2008) Wikipedia:Recent additions 205
... that the Khedive Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, once a mansion for Ottoman governors, now serves as an upscale restaurant? (December 15, 2008) Wikipedia:Recent additions 236
... that due to a campaign in Turkey, speaking a language other than Turkish was illegal in many parts of the country? (January 15, 2013)
... that even though Simeon I of Bulgaria burned the Church of St. Mary of the Spring near the Byzantine capital Constantinople, his son Peter married the daughter of Romanos I Lekapenos there three years later? (November 6, 2010)
... that Turkish poet Süleyman Nazif witnessed first hand the decaying corpses of persecuted Christians in his home town of Diyarbakır in July 1915? (November 17, 2008) Wikipedia:Recent additions 235
... that the prosecution of writer and poet Perihan Magden for urging defiance of mandatory military service has complicated Turkey's negotiations for membership in the European Union? (June 11, 2006) Wikipedia:Recent additions 71
... that Turkish-German professional boxer Hülya Şahin, the undefeated junior flyweight world champion, is the only female member of her club Universum? (September 21, 2007) Wikipedia:Recent additions 167

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Image 1An airplane with a nazar boncuğu symbol that is said to offer protection from the "evil eye".
Image 2Atatürk praying
Image 3Ölüdeniz
Image 4The tughra of Mahmud II. "Mahmud Han bin Abdulhamid muzaffer daima" ("Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious").
Image 5Flag of Turkey, from flowers
Image 6Iznik, 16th-century vase
Image 7Antalya
Image 8Aydilge Sarp; Turkish singer, songwriter and novelist
Image 9A tram in Istanbul
Image 101. picture on portal: The prominent towers of Dayro d-Mor Gabriel; 15th December 2005
Image 11the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne
Image 12Kemer
Image 13Tünel, Istanbul
Image 14Lake Akdoğan in Muş
Image 15Safranbolu
Image 16Rize
Image 17the Bosphorus Bridge
Image 18A faculty of Sakarya University
Image 1918th-century Ottoman barber's apron
Image 20Cappadocia
Image 21Mount Nemrut
Image 22Lahmacun
Image 23A Kocek
Image 24The sun setting over the Golden Horn in the city of Istanbul.
Image 25The Temple of Athena at Priene, an ancient site near Turunçlar in Aydın province.
Image 26The ancient Lake Abant Nature Park in Bolu
Image 27Tarkan with Hungarian fans

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Nureddin Ibrahim Pasha (Turkish: Nurettin Paşa, Nureddin İbrahim Paşa; 1873 – 18 February 1932), known as Nureddin İbrahim Konyar from 1934, was a Turkish military officer who served in the Ottoman Army during World War I and in the Turkish Army during the Western Front of the Turkish War of Independence. He was called Bearded Nureddin (Turkish: Sakallı Nurettin) because being the only high-ranking Turkish officer during the Turkish War of Independence sporting a beard. He is known as one of the most important commanders of the war. He ordered several murders and massacres. (Full article...)

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Boats in Istanbul

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Videos from Turkey on Wikimedia Commons

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“

Today the Soviet Union is a friend and an ally. We need this friendship. However, no one can know what will happen tomorrow. Just like the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires it may tear itself apart or shrink in size. The people that it holds so tightly in its grip may one day slip away. The world may see a new balance of power. It is then that Turkey must know what to do. Ally Soviets have under their control our brothers with whom we share language, beliefs and roots. We must be prepared to embrace them. Being ready does not mean that we will sit quietly and wait. We must get ready. How does a people get prepared for such an endeavour? By strengthening the natural bridges that exist between us. Language is a bridge... Religion is a bridge... History is a bridge... We must delve into our roots and reconstruct what history has divided. We can't wait for them to approach us. We must reach out to them.

”

29 October 1933 ~ Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

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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