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| Türkiye Cumhuriyeti
Republic of Turkey
|
|
|
Motto: Yurtta Sulh, Cihanda Sulh
Peace at Home, Peace in the World |
Anthem: İstiklâl Marşı
The Anthem of Independence
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|
Location of Turkey
|
| Capital |
Ankara
 39°55'48.00′N 32°50′E / <span class="geo-dec geo" title="Maps, aerial photos, and other data for Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character "'" 32.833">Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character "'", 32.833 |
| Largest city |
Istanbul |
| Official languages |
Turkish |
| Demonym |
Turkish |
| Government |
Parliamentary republic |
| - |
President |
Abdullah Gül |
| - |
Prime Minister |
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan |
| - |
Speaker of the Parliament |
Köksal Toptan |
| Succession |
to the Ottoman Empire² |
| - |
War of Independence |
May 19, 1919 |
| - |
Formation of Parliament |
April 23, 1920 |
| - |
Declaration of Republic |
October 29, 1923 |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
783,562 km² (37th)
302,535 sq mi |
| - |
Water (%) |
1.3 |
| Population |
| - |
2007 census |
70,586,256[1] (17th³) |
| - |
Density |
93/km² (102nd³)
240/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2007 IMF estimate |
| - |
Total |
$887.9 billion[2] (15th) |
| - |
Per capita |
$12,888[2] |
| GDP (nominal) |
2007 IMF estimate |
| - |
Total |
$663 billion[2] (17th) |
| - |
Per capita |
$9,629[2] |
| Gini (2005) |
38 (medium) |
| HDI (2007) |
▲ 0.775 (medium) (84th) |
| Currency |
New Turkish Lira5 (TRY) |
| Time zone |
EET (UTC+2) |
| - |
Summer (DST) |
EEST (UTC+3) |
| Internet TLD |
.tr |
| Calling code |
+90 |
| 2 |
Treaty of Lausanne (1923). |
| 3 |
Population and population density rankings based on 2005 figures. |
| 4 |
Human Development Report 2007/2008, page 230. United Nations Development Programme (2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-30. |
| 5 |
The New Turkish Lira (Yeni Türk Lirası, YTL) replaced the old Turkish Lira on 1 January 2005.
A graphical timeline is available here:
|
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), 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.[3]
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.[4][5]
Turkey 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 through membership in organizations such as the Council of Europe (1949), NATO (1952), OECD (1961), OSCE (1973) and the G20 industrial nations (1999). Turkey began full membership negotiations with the European Union in 2005, having been an associate member of the EEC since 1963, and having reached a customs union agreement
in 1995. Meanwhile, Turkey has continued to foster close political,
economic and industrial relations with the Eastern world, particularly
with the states of the Middle East, Central Asia and East Asia.
Etymology
-
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,[6] a later form of "Tu–kin", a name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BCE;[7] and the abstract suffix –iye (derived from the Arabic suffix –iyya, but is also associated with the Medieval Latin suffix –ia in Turchia, and the Medieval Greek suffix –ία in Τουρκία), 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).[7]
History
Pre-Turkic history of Anatolia
-
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.[8] 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.[9]
The first major empire in the area was that of the Hitti
Classical
from 
