Turkey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Republic of Turkey

Flag Emblem
Motto: Yurtta Barış, Dünyada Barış
Peace at Home, Peace in the World
Anthem: İstiklâl Marşı
The Anthem of Independence


Capital Ankara
32°50′E / 39.917°N 32.833°E / 39.917; 32.833
Largest city Istanbul
Official language(s) Turkish
Demonym Turkish
Government Parliamentary republic
 -  Founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
 -  President Abdullah Gül
 -  Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
 -  Speaker of the Parliament Mehmet Ali Şahin
 -  President of the Constitutional Court Haşim Kılıç
Succession to the Ottoman Empire² 
 -  Treaty of Lausanne July 24, 1923 
 -  Declaration of Republic October 29, 1923 
Area
 -  Total 783,562 km² (37th)
302,535 sq mi 
 -  Water (%) 1.3
Population
 -  2009 census 72,561,312[1] (18th³)
 -  Density 92.6/km² (108th³)
239.8/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2008 estimate
 -  Total $915.212 billion[2] (15th)
 -  Per capita $13,138[2] (61st)
GDP (nominal) 2008 estimate
 -  Total $729.983 billion[2] (17th)
 -  Per capita $10,479[2] (54th)
Gini (2005) 38 
HDI (2007) ▲ 0.806[3] (high) (79th)
Currency Turkish lira⁵ (TRY)
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 -  Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Drives on the right
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 Turkish lira (Türk Lirası, TL) replaced the Turkish new lira on January 1, 2009.

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 in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea 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 Bosphorus and the Dardanelles), which are commonly reckoned to delineate the boundary between Europe and Asia,[4] thereby making Turkey a country of significant geostrategic importance.[5][6] Ethnic Turks form the majority of the population, followed by the Kurds. The predominant religion in Turkey is Islam and its official language is Turkish.

Turkey is the successor state to the Ottoman Empire.[7] It is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic, with an ancient and historical cultural heritage. Its 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, NATO, OECD, WEOG, 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 reached a customs union agreement in 1995. Turkey has also fostered close cultural, political, economic and industrial relations with the Eastern world, particularly with the Middle East and the Turkic states of Central Asia, through membership in organizations such as the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and Economic Cooperation Organization. Turkey is classified as a developed country[8] by the CIA and as a regional power[9][10] by political scientists and economists worldwide.

Etymology

The name of Turkey, Türkiye in the Turkish language, can be divided into two words: Türk, which means "Strong" or "Mighty" in Old Turkic[11] and usually signifying the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples,[11] 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;[12] and the abstract suffix –iye (derived from the Arabic suffix –iyya, but also associated with the Medieval Latin suffix –ia in Turchia and the Turkic suffix –iye, known as iyelik eki), 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 (Celestial Turks) of Central Asia (c. 8th century CE). The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin "Turchia" (c. 1369).[12]

History

Antiquity

The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions in the world. 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.[13]