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 ethnic 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 12th-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; its climate is temperate with harsher conditions in the interior. 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 fifth most visited country in the world. (Full article...)

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Çanakkale bridge in December 2024

The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge (Turkish: 1915 Çanakkale Köprüsü) is a road suspension bridge in the province of Çanakkale in northwestern Turkey. Situated just south of the coastal towns of Lapseki and Gelibolu, the bridge spans the Dardanelles, about 10 km (6.2 mi) south of the Sea of Marmara. The bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world—with a main span of 2,023 m (2.023 km; 1.257 mi), the bridge surpasses the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (1998) in Japan by 32 m (105 ft).

The bridge was officially opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 18 March 2022 after roughly five years of construction. It is the centrepiece of the planned 321-kilometre-long (199 mi) US$2.8 billion O-6 motorway, which will connect the O-3 and O-7 motorways in East Thrace to the O-5 motorway in Anatolia. The year "1915" in the official Turkish name honours an important Ottoman victory in the Gallipoli campaign comprising an unsuccessful Entente naval attack followed by invasions of the Gallipoli peninsula by the forces of Australia, New Zealand, France, and Great Britain, on 25 April 1915 and a second in August; the Entente land forces failed to make significant progress and were evacuated at the end of that year. (Full article...)

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General images

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

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

Did you know - show different entries

... that one of the accused assassins of Turkish former government minister Gün Sazak later hijacked an airplane to Bulgaria with accomplices? (February 21, 2014)
... that according to US and Turkish officials, the MV Kısmetim-1 was deliberately sunk in December 1992 by its crew in order to prevent the capture of the illicit drug load? (February 1, 2009) Wikipedia:Recent additions 239
... that the prices of goods in the Phrygian city of Aizanoi were controlled by an edict of Roman emperor Diocletian? (May 18, 2012)
... that Fatma Aliye Topuz (1862-1936), whose portrait illustrates the reverse of the current 50 Turkish lira banknote, is credited as the first female Turkish and Muslim writer? (May 5, 2009) Wikipedia:Recent additions 244
... that during the Ottoman–Venetian War of 1570–1573, the 8,500-strong Venetian garrison of Famagusta in Cyprus held out for eleven months against an Ottoman army of 200,000 men? (December 13, 2008) Wikipedia:Recent additions 236
... that Trdat the Architect reconstructed the dome of the Hagia Sophia in 989 and built the Cathedral of Ani? (January 6, 2007) Wikipedia:Recent additions 115
... that Hakan Kıran, Turkish architect of the Golden Horn Metro Bridge, chose his profession because he was impressed by the concept of the town constructed by the French, in which he grew up? (February 14, 2014)

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Image 1An airplane with a nazar boncuğu symbol that is said to offer protection from the "evil eye".
Image 2Safranbolu
Image 3the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne
Image 4Aydilge Sarp; Turkish singer, songwriter and novelist
Image 5Tünel, Istanbul
Image 6Lake Akdoğan in Muş
Image 7Kemer
Image 8Mount Nemrut
Image 9Rize
Image 1018th-century Ottoman barber's apron
Image 11A Kocek
Image 12The ancient Lake Abant Nature Park in Bolu
Image 13Lahmacun
Image 14Iznik, 16th-century vase
Image 15The Temple of Athena at Priene, an ancient site near Turunçlar in Aydın province.
Image 161. picture on portal: The prominent towers of Dayro d-Mor Gabriel; 15th December 2005
Image 17Atatürk praying
Image 18Ölüdeniz
Image 19the Bosphorus Bridge
Image 20Antalya
Image 21Tarkan with Hungarian fans
Image 22The sun setting over the Golden Horn in the city of Istanbul.
Image 23Cappadocia
Image 24The tughra of Mahmud II. "Mahmud Han bin Abdulhamid muzaffer daima" ("Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious").
Image 25A faculty of Sakarya University
Image 26A tram in Istanbul
Image 27Flag of Turkey, from flowers

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Atatürk c. 1930

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (c. 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism.

He came to prominence for his role in securing the Ottoman victory at the Battle of Gallipoli (1915) during World War I. During this time, the Ottoman Empire perpetrated genocides against its Greek, Armenian and Assyrian subjects. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, he led the Turkish National Movement, which resisted the Empire's partition among the victorious Allied powers. Establishing a provisional government in the present-day Turkish capital Ankara, he defeated the forces sent by the Allies, thus emerging victorious from what was later referred to as the Turkish War of Independence. He subsequently proceeded to abolish the Ottoman sultanate in 1922 and proclaimed the foundation of the Turkish Republic in its place the following year. (Full article...)

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Burak Yılmaz Piri Reis Ahmet Necdet Sezer Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Alp Arslan Nureddin Pasha Tuncay Şanlı İsmet İnönü Sıla (singer) Orhan Pamuk Erol Gelenbe Kemal Derviş Hande Yener Sertab Erener Said Altınordu Tarkan (singer) Junayd of Aydın Daron Acemoglu

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Lake Bafa Nature Park, 2015

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Videos from Turkey on Wikimedia Commons

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“

Heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

”

1934 ~ 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