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Turkey
Last update: Saturday 11th of February 2012
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| Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Republic of Turkey | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Motto: none (Unofficial: "Yurtta Barış, Dünyada Barış"1 "Peace at Home, Peace in the World") | |||||
| Anthem: İstiklâl Marşı Independence March | |||||
 | |||||
| Capital | Ankara | ||||
| Largest city | Istanbul | ||||
| Official languages | Turkish | ||||
| Government | Parliamentary republic | ||||
| - President | Ahmet Necdet Sezer | ||||
| - Prime Minister | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | ||||
| Succession | to the Ottoman Empire2 | ||||
| - War of Independence | May 19, 1919 | ||||
| - Formation of Parliament | April 23, 1920 | ||||
| - Declaration of Republic | October 29, 1923 | ||||
| Area | |||||
| - Total | 783,562 km² (37th) 302,535 sq mi | ||||
| - Water (%) | 1.3 | ||||
| Population | |||||
| - 2005 estimate | 72,600,000 (17th3) | ||||
| - 2000 census | 67,803,927 | ||||
| - Density | 93 /km² (102nd3) 240 /sq mi | ||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2006 estimate | ||||
| - Total | $612.3 billion (17th) | ||||
| - Per capita | $8,385 (75th) | ||||
| HDI (2006) | 0.757 (medium) (92nd) | ||||
| Currency | New Turkish Lira4 (TRY) | ||||
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | ||||
| - Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) | ||||
| Internet TLD | .tr | ||||
| Calling code | +90 | ||||
| 1 "Yurtta sulh, cihanda sulh" (original Turkish). 2 Treaty of Lausanne (1923). 3 Population and population density rankings based on 2005 figures. 4 The New Turkish Lira (Yeni Türk Lirası, YTL) replaced the old Turkish Lira on 1 January 2005. | |||||
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti ), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey borders eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest, Greece to the west, Georgia to the northeast, Armenia, Iran and the Nakhichevan exclave of Azerbaijan to the east, and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. It borders the Black Sea to the north, the Aegean Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Turkey also contains the Sea of Marmara, which is used by geographers to mark the border between Europe and Asia, thus making Turkey transcontinental.
The region comprising modern Turkey has overseen the birth of major civilizations including the Armenian, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman Empires. Because of its strategic location, where two continents meet, Turkey's culture has a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition, often described as a bridge between the two civilizations. A powerful regional presence from the Adriatic Sea to China in the Eurasian landmass between Russia and India, Turkey has come to acquire increasing strategic significance.
Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic whose 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 while continuing to foster relations with the Eastern world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, a member state of the Council of Europe since 1949, and of NATO since 1952. Since 2005, Turkey has been in accession negotiations with the European Union, having been an associate member since 1963. Turkey is also a member of the G20, which brings together the 20 largest economies of the world.
Etymology
The name for Turkey in the Turkish language, Türkiye, can be divided into two words: Türk, which means "strong" in Old Turkic and usually signifies the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples, a later form of "tu-kin", name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BC; and the abstract suffix -iye, 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 (Sky Turks) of Central Asia (c. 8th century CE). The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin "Turchia" (c. 1369).
History
Pre-Turkic History of Anatolia
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