Turkey , officially the
Republic of
Turkey , is a contiguous
transcontinental country,
located mostly on
Anatolia in
Western Asia and on
East Thrace in
Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by
eight countries:
Bulgaria to the
northwest;
Greece to the west;
Georgia to the
northeast;
Armenia,
Iran and the
Azerbaijani exclave of
Nakhchivan to the east; and
Iraq and
Syria to the southeast. The
Mediterranean Sea is to the south; the
Aegean Sea is to the west; and
the
Black Sea is to the north.
The
Sea of Marmara,
the
Bosphorus and the
Dardanelles (which together form
the
Turkish Straits)
demarcate the boundary between Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe
and Asia. Turkey's location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia makes it a country of
significant geostrategic importance.
The area now called Turkey has been inhabited since the
Paleolithic, including various
Ancient
Anatolian civilizations and
Thracian peoples. After
Alexander the
Great's conquest, the area was
Hellenized, which continued with the
Roman rule and the transition
into the
Byzantine
Empire. The
Seljuk
Turks began migrating into the area in the 11th century, starting the
process of
Turkification,
which was greatly accelerated by the Seljuk victory over the
Byzantines at the
Battle of
Manzikert in 1071. The
Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia
until the
Mongol invasion in 1243, upon which
it disintegrated into several small
Turkish beyliks. Starting from the late 13th
century, the
Ottoman
beylik united Anatolia and created an empire encompassing much of
Southeastern Europe,
Western Asia and
North Africa. After the
Ottoman Empire collapsed
following its defeat in
World
War I, parts of it were occupied by the victorious
Allies. The
Turkish War of Independence,
initiated by
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his
colleagues, resulted in the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey in
1923, with Atatürk as its first president.
Turkey is a
democratic,
secular,
unitary,
constitutional republic with a diverse cultural
heritage. The country's official language is
Turkish, a
Turkic language, which is spoken by
approximately 85% of the population as mother tongue. Turks constitute 70% to 75% of the population. Minorities include Kurds (18%)
and others (7–12%). The vast
majority of the population is Muslim. Turkey is a member of the
Council of Europe,
NATO,
OECD,
OSCE and
the
G-20 major
economies. Turkey began
full membership
negotiations with the
European Union in 2005, having been an
associate member of
the
European Economic Community since
1963 and having joined the
EU Customs Union in 1995. Turkey
is also a member of the
Turkic Council,
Joint
Administration of Turkic Arts and Culture,
Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation and the
Economic Cooperation
Organisation. Turkey's growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led
to its recognition as a
regional power.
