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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Istanbul is the largest city in Europe and the chief financial and economical center of Turkey.

The economy of Turkey is an emerging free-market economy. It ranked as the 16th-largest in the world and 7th-largest in Europe by nominal GDP in 2025. It also ranked as the 12th-largest in the world and 5th-largest in Europe by PPP in 2025. Turkey's rapid economic growth since the 2000s was stranded by the economic crisis in 2018, but it began to recover in 2021. Turkey's USD-based nominal GDP per capita and GDP-PPP per capita have eventually reached their all-time peak values in 2024.

Turkey is a founding member of the OECD and G20. Ratified in 1995, the European Union–Turkey Customs Union has established a free trade area between Turkey and the European Union, which has increased bilateral foreign trade, investment and economic activity. (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 2First 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 3An oil wrestling tournament in Istanbul. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 4Mount Nemrut, Adıyaman (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 5View of Beydağları Coastal National Park (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 6Map of the Lydian Kingdom in its final period of sovereignty under Croesus, c. 547 BC. (from History of Turkey)
Image 7The Bath-Gymnasium complex at Sardis in Turkey. (from History of Turkey)
Image 8Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (1568–1574) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 9Karagöz and Hacivat are the lead characters of Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 10Map showing the Anatolian Plate, the North Anatolian Fault and East Anatolian Fault in Turkey. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 11Night view of the Taksim Mosque (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 12Butterfly Valley on the Turkish Riviera. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 13Roosevelt, İnönü and Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference which was held between 4–6 December 1943. (from History of Turkey)
Image 14Anıtkabir designed by Emin Halid Onat and Ahmet Orhan Arda (1944–53) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 15Namık Kemal was a prominent Turkish poet, novelist, playwright and journalist of the late-19th-century Ottoman Empire. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 16Map of earthquakes in Turkey 1900–2023 (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 17Originally 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 18Mehmed II enters Constantinople by Fausto Zonaro (from History of Turkey)
Image 19Turkish national basketball team won the silver medal in the 2010 FIBA World Championship. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 20Lake Van (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 21Atatürk on the cover of the Time magazine, Vol. I No. 4, March 24, 1923. Title: "Mustapha Kemal Pasha" (from History of Turkey)
Image 22Istanbul (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 23Istanbul University Faculty of Science and Faculty of Literature Buildings (1944–52) designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Emin Onat (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 24Yalikavak Palmarina in Bodrum (2014) designed by Emre Arolat (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 25Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem (1847–1914) was another prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 26Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 27Turkish coffee (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 28Orhan Veli Kanık was the founder of the Garip Movement in Turkish poetry. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 29Fazıl 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 30Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915) was a prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 31Sami Frashëri (1850–1904) and his wife Emine, May 1884. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 32A view of Levent from Kanlıca across the Bosporus. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 33Entrance portal of the Karatay Madrasa in Konya (c. 1251) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 34The 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 35Designed by Şekip Akalın, Ankara Central Station (1937) is a notable art deco design of its era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 36Ankara Opera House, designed by Şevki Balmumcu (1933–34) and renovation by Paul Bonatz (1946–47). (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 37The Nation's Library of the Presidency, Ankara (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 38Köppen climate types of Turkey (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 39Antalya (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 40View from Levent district in Istanbul. Istanbul's skyline has changed especially since the early 2000s. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 41The Ottoman Empire in 1683, at the start of the Great Turkish War (1683–1699) (from History of Turkey)
Image 42Beaches and marina of Kemer near Antalya on the Turkish Riviera. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 43The sultan of the golden age, Suleiman the Magnificent. (from History of Turkey)
Image 44Thrace and the Thracian Odrysian kingdom in its maximum extent under Sitalces (431-424 BC) (from History of Turkey)
Image 45Map of Istanbul by the miniature artist Matrakçı Nasuh (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 46Mount Ararat (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 47Istanbul Sapphire (2006–11) is the tallest building in Turkey and 4th in Europe. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 48Map showing events of the first phases of the Greco-Persian Wars (from History of Turkey)
Image 49Mount Erciyes near Kayseri (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 50Turkish delight (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 51Kaçkar Mountains. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 52Ankara (from Geography of Turkey)

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... that when Turkey gave out personal identification numbers to their citizens in 2000, they chose to number all 120 million people born since 1840, living or dead? (November 11, 2009) Wikipedia:Recent additions 250
... 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 as many as 150 people a year attempt to commit suicide by jumping from either the Bosporus Bridge or Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Turkey? (September 6, 2004) Wikipedia:Recent additions 14
... 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 Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the head of the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, is also a member of parliament from Antalya Province? (January 24, 2010)
... that Pakistan's ties with Turkey have been influenced by president Pervez Musharraf's admiration for Turkey's model of modernism and secularism? (June 9, 2008) Wikipedia:Recent additions 219
... that Trabzonspor were the first Turkish soccer team entitled to participate in the UEFA Women's Champions League? (September 19, 2009) Wikipedia:Recent additions 248

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Image 1Lake Akdoğan in Muş
Image 2Tarkan with Hungarian fans
Image 3The Temple of Athena at Priene, an ancient site near Turunçlar in Aydın province.
Image 4Cappadocia
Image 5The ancient Lake Abant Nature Park in Bolu
Image 618th-century Ottoman barber's apron
Image 7A faculty of Sakarya University
Image 8Rize
Image 9Antalya
Image 10Safranbolu
Image 11An airplane with a nazar boncuğu symbol that is said to offer protection from the "evil eye".
Image 12Tünel, Istanbul
Image 13The sun setting over the Golden Horn in the city of Istanbul.
Image 14Kemer
Image 15the Bosphorus Bridge
Image 16Ölüdeniz
Image 17Flag of Turkey, from flowers
Image 18Aydilge Sarp; Turkish singer, songwriter and novelist
Image 19A Kocek
Image 20Lahmacun
Image 211. picture on portal: The prominent towers of Dayro d-Mor Gabriel; 15th December 2005
Image 22Mount Nemrut
Image 23the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne
Image 24Iznik, 16th-century vase
Image 25A tram in Istanbul
Image 26The tughra of Mahmud II. "Mahmud Han bin Abdulhamid muzaffer daima" ("Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious").
Image 27Atatürk praying

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Sıla in 2011

Sıla Gençoğlu (born 17 June 1980) is a Turkish singer-songwriter. She was born in Acıpayam, Denizli, and later moved to İzmir and then to Istanbul to finish her studies. She started to learn performing arts at high school. After studying jazz at Istanbul Bilgi University, she became a backing vocalist for Kenan Doğulu.

Sıla released her self-titled debut album in 2007. The song "...Dan Sonra" became a number-one hit on Türkçe Top 20, and after critical and commercial success she released the albums İmza (2009), Konuşmadığımız Şeyler Var (2010), Vaveyla (2012), Yeni Ay (2014) and Mürekkep (2016) all of which were praised by fans and critics alike. A number of songs in these albums, including "Sevişmeden Uyumayalım", "Acısa da Öldürmez", "Kafa", "Boş Yere", "Vaziyetler", "Yabancı" and "Hediye", became number-one hits in Turkey. The songs "Yoruldum", "İmkânsız" and "Zor Sevdiğimden" ranked among the top five on Turkey's music charts. (Full article...)

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

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Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, three kilometres southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey

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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