Portal:Turkey

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Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye, pronounced [ˈtyɾcije]), officially the Republic of Türkiye (Turkish: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti [ˈtyɾcije dʒumˈhuːɾijeti] (listen)), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is off the south coast. Most of the country's citizens are ethnic Turks, while Kurds are the largest ethnic minority. Ankara is Turkey's capital and second-largest city; Istanbul is its largest city and main financial centre.

One of the world's earliest permanently settled regions, present-day Turkey was home to important Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe, and was inhabited by ancient civilizations including the Hattians, Hittites, Anatolian peoples, Greeks, Assyrians, Persians, and others.

Following the conquests of Alexander the Great which started the Hellenistic period, most of the ancient Anatolian regions were culturally Hellenized, and this continued during the Byzantine era. The Seljuk Turks began migrating to Anatolia in the 11th century, which started the Turkification process. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into small Turkish principalities. Beginning in the late 13th century, the Ottomans united the principalities and conquered the Balkans, while the Turkification of Anatolia further progressed during the Ottoman period. After Mehmed II conquered Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1453, Ottoman expansion continued under Selim I. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire became a global power.

From the late 18th century onwards, the empire's power declined with a gradual loss of territories. Mahmud II started a period of modernization in the early 19th century. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 restricted the authority of the Sultan and restored the Ottoman Parliament after a 30-year suspension, ushering the empire into a multi-party period. The Three Pashas took control with the 1913 coup d'état, and the Ottoman Empire entered World War I as one of the Central Powers in 1914. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Greek and Assyrian subjects. After its defeat in the war, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned.

The Turkish War of Independence against the occupying Allied Powers resulted in the abolition of the Sultanate on 1 November 1922, the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (which superseded the Treaty of Sèvres) on 24 July 1923 and the proclamation of the Republic on 29 October 1923. With the reforms initiated by the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey became a secular, unitary and parliamentary republic. Turkey remained neutral during most of World War II, but entered the closing stages of the war on the side of the Allies.

Turkey played a prominent role in the Korean War and joined NATO in 1952. During the Cold War years, the country endured two military coups in 1960 and 1980, and a period of economic and political turmoil in the 1970s. The economy was liberalized in the 1980s, leading to stronger economic growth and political stability. Since 2002, the country's political system has been dominated by the AKP and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, under whom a decade of rapid growth in nominal GDP took place until 2013, which was followed by a period of recession and stagnation in terms of USD-based nominal GDP between 2013 and 2020, and high inflation as of 2023. The AKP government's initial economic achievements, which were financed through privatization revenues and loans, were overshadowed by democratic backsliding and an erosion in the separation of powers and civil liberties, which gained momentum after the parliamentary republic was replaced by an executive presidential system with a referendum in 2017.

Turkey is a regional power with a geopolitically significant strategic location. The economy of Turkey, which is a founding member of the OECD and G20, is classified among the E7, EAGLEs and NICs, and currently ranks 19th-largest in the world by nominal GDP and 11th-largest by PPP. Turkey is a charter member of the United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank; a founding member of the OSCE, OIC, BSEC, ECO, MIKTA, TURKSOY and OTS; and an early member of NATO. After becoming one of the early members of the Council of Europe in 1950, Turkey became an associate member of the EEC in 1963, joined the EU Customs Union in 1995, and started accession negotiations with the European Union in 2005. Turkey has a rich cultural legacy shaped by centuries of history and the influence of the various peoples that have inhabited its territory over several millennia; it is home to 19 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is among the most visited countries in the world. (Full article...)

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TCG Heybeliada (F 511) is the lead ship of the Ada-class ASW corvettes of the Turkish Navy. Heybeliada was named after Heybeliada Island, where the Turkish Naval High School is located. Heybeliada Island is part of the Prince Islands archipelago in the Sea of Marmara, to the southeast of Istanbul. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1Antalya (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 2Turkish coffee (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 3Interior of the Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 4View from Levent district in Istanbul. Istanbul's skyline has changed especially since the early 2000s. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 5Turkish national basketball team won the silver medal in the 2010 FIBA World Championship. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 6Topkapı Palace, Istanbul. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 7One of the main entrance gates of the Dolmabahçe Palace. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 8Originally 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 9Istanbul Sapphire (2006–11) is the tallest building in Turkey and 4th in Europe. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 10The Nation's Library of the Presidency, Ankara (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 11Ankara (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 12Ankara Opera House, designed by Şevki Balmumcu (1933–34) and renovation by Paul Bonatz (1946–47). (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 13Turkish delight (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 14Köppen climate types of Turkey (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 15Designed by Şekip Akalın, Ankara Central Station (1937) is a notable art deco design of its era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 16Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 17Fault lines and earthquakes (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 18Beaches of Marmaris on the Turkish Riviera. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 19Mount Ararat (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 20Mehmed II enters Constantinople by Fausto Zonaro (from History of Turkey)
Image 21Thrace and the Thracian Odrysian kingdom in its maximum extent under Sitalces (431-424 BC) (from History of Turkey)
Image 22Yalikavak Palmarina in Bodrum (2014) designed by Emre Arolat (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 23The Ishak Pasha Palace, Eastern Turkey. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 24Mount Erciyes near Kayseri (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 25Ortaköy Mosque in the first quarter of the 20th century (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 26Night view of the Taksim Mosque (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 27Istanbul (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 28Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem (1847–1914) was another prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 29Karagöz and Hacivat are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 30The sultan of the golden age, Suleiman the Magnificent. (from History of Turkey)
Image 31Beaches and marina of Kemer near Antalya on the Turkish Riviera (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 32View of Dilek Peninsula-Büyük Menderes Delta National Park (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 33Roosevelt, İnönü and Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference which was held between 4–6 December 1943. (from History of Turkey)
Image 34View of Beydağları Coastal National Park (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 35Anıtkabir designed by Emin Halid Onat and Ahmet Orhan Arda (1944–53) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 36Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) (from History of Turkey)
Image 37Istanbul and the Bosphorus (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 38First 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 39The Fountain of Ahmed III is an iconic example of Tulip period architecture (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 40Topographic map of Turkey (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 41The Bath-Gymnasium complex at Sardis in Turkey. (from History of Turkey)
Image 42A view of Levent from Kanlıca across the Bosporus (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 43Nuri Bilge Ceylan won a number of awards in the annual Cannes Film Festival, including the best director award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival for his film Üç Maymun ("Three Monkeys"). He has also won five FIPRESCI awards. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 44Map showing the Anatolian Plate, the North Anatolian Fault and East Anatolian Fault in Turkey. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 45An Oil wrestling tournament in Istanbul. This has been the national sport of Turkey since Ottoman times. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 46Namık Kemal was a prominent Turkish poet, novelist, playwright and journalist of the late-19th-century Ottoman Empire. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 47Istanbul University Faculty of Science and Faculty of Literature Buildings (1944–52) designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Emin Onat (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 48Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915) was a prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 49Members of the Bayar cabinet wearing a white tie and top hat. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 50Fazıl 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 51Sami Frashëri (1850–1904) and his wife Emine, May 1884. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 52Orhan Veli Kanık was the founder of the Garip Movement in Turkish poetry. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 53Map of earthquakes in Turkey 1900–2023 (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 54Kaçkar Mountains (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 55A view from the interior of a traditional Turkish house, by John Frederick Lewis (1805–1875) (from Culture of Turkey)

Did you know - show different entries

... that restaurant Beyti in Istanbul, famous for its Beyti kebab, once catered U.S. president Richard Nixon's Air Force One? (March 1, 2008)Wikipedia:Recent additions 209
... that Yalçın Granit became the first Turkish basketballer to play in a European team when he went to France for his doctoral studies? (May 8, 2014)
... that the Crusade of Varna required simultaneous attacks on the Muslim Ottoman Empire by Christian Hungary and the Muslim Karamanids, which did not occur? (May 28,2007) Wikipedia:Recent additions 144
... that in the early stages of World War II the steamer Refah from neutral Turkey was torpedoed by an unidentified submarine in the eastern Mediterranean killing 168 of the 200 people aboard? (May 30, 2011)
... that the oldest known lemon squeezers were found in Kütahya, Turkey and date to the first quarter of the 18th century? (March 25, 2008) Wikipedia:Recent additions 213
... that the Rhodes blood libel — the accusation that the Jews of Rhodes ritually murdered a Christian boy in 1840 — enjoyed active support from the consuls of several European countries? (October 31, 2006) Wikipedia:Recent additions 97
... that the Balık sisters from Turkey claim to be the only identical twins who are both professional opera singers? (March 22, 2007) Wikipedia:Recent additions 129

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Image 1the Bosphorus Bridge
Image 2Lahmacun
Image 3Ölüdeniz
Image 4The Temple of Athena at Priene, an ancient site near Turunçlar in Aydın province.
Image 5Antalya
Image 6A faculty of Sakarya University
Image 7Tarkan with Hungarian fans
Image 8A Kocek
Image 9the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne
Image 10The tughra of Mahmud II. "Mahmud Han bin Abdulhamid muzaffer daima" ("Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious").
Image 11Aydilge Sarp; Turkish singer, songwriter and novelist
Image 12Flag of Turkey, from flowers
Image 13The sun setting over the Golden Horn in the city of Istanbul.
Image 14The ancient Lake Abant Nature Park in Bolu
Image 15Atatürk praying
Image 1618th-century Ottoman barber's apron
Image 17Kemer
Image 18Yagli gures
Image 191. picture on portal: The prominent towers of Dayro d-Mor Gabriel; 15th December 2005
Image 20An airplane with a nazar boncuğu symbol that is said to offer protection from the "evil eye".
Image 21Cappadocia
Image 22Iznik, 16th-century vase
Image 23A tram in Istanbul
Image 24Rize
Image 25Safranbolu
Image 26Tünel, Istanbul

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Burak Yılmaz (born 15 July 1985) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains Eredivisie club Fortuna Sittard.

Yılmaz is one of nine players to play for each of the Big Three clubs of Turkey, and one of only two players who have played for these three clubs as well as Trabzonspor (also referred as the "Big Four"), along with Sergen Yalçın. (Full article...)

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Piri Reis Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Ahmet Necdet Sezer Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Fethullah Gülen 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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U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey speak to the media after the two leaders met at the White House, December 7, 2009

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Videos from Turkey on Wikimedia Commons

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“

Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.

”

~ 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