Facts about Turkey
After participating with United Nations forces in the Korean War, Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952, becoming a bulwark against Soviet expansion into the Mediterranean.
The most popular sport in Turkey by far is football (soccer), with certain professional and national matches drawing tens of millions of viewers on television.
Turkey became a member of the Council of Europe in 1949, applied for associate membership of the EEC (predecessor of the EU) in 1959 and became an associate member in 1963.
The Anatolian peninsula (also called Asia Minor), comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest continually inhabited regions in the world due to its location at the intersection of Asia and Europe.
Turkey also fostered relations with the Middle East, becoming the only NATO member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as well as forging close relations with Israel.
Turkey borders eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest, Greece to the west, Georgia to the northeast, Armenia, Azerbaijan (the Nakhichevan exclave), and Iran to the east, Iraq and Syria to the southeast.
Following a decade of violence on the island of Cyprus and the subsequent Athens-inspired coup, Turkey intervened militarily in 1974.
Especially in the western parts of Turkey, where olive trees are grown abundantly, olive oil is used for cooking.
Turkey, known officially as the Republic of Turkey (Tьrkiye Cumhuriyeti) is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and the Balkan region of southeastern Europe.
Turkey prohibits by law the wearing of religious headcover and theo-political symbolic garments for both genders in government buildings, schools, and universities.
Turkey is geographically divided into seven regions: Marmara, Aegean, Black Sea, Central Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia, Southeastern Anatolia and the Mediterranean.
The Bosporus and the Dardanelles owe their existence to the fault lines running through Turkey that led to the creation of the Black Sea.
The European Union remains Turkey's biggest trading partner, and the presence of a well-established Turkish diaspora in Europe has contributed to extensive relations between the two over the years.
Turkey's first skyscraper, a commercial office building, was built in 1959 in Ankara.
Turkey is the location the Whirling Dervishes, known for their famous practice of slow deliberate whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of Allah).
The region has since been identified with the West, and many foreign residences from the period remain in Kobe's Kitano area (Kitano-cho).
On November 1, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of Ottoman rule.
Natural hazards include severe earthquakes, especially in northern Turkey, along an arc extending from the Sea of Marmara to Lake Van.
Legislative power rests with the Parliament of Tasmania, which consists of the Crown, represented by the Governor of Tasmania, and the two Houses, the Tasmanian Legislative Council and the Tasmanian House of Assembly.
Turkey has the wealthy urban educated class, the urban middle class, the urban lower class, the large rural landowner class, and the general rural population.
Turkey ranks 21st worldwide and third within the Muslim world in factory output.
The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin "Turchia" (c. 1369).
Mountains close to the coast prevent Mediterranean influences from extending inland, giving the interior of Turkey a continental climate with distinct seasons.
Turkey's area, including lakes, occupies 300,948 square miles (779,452 square kilometers) of which 291,773 square miles (755,688 square kilometers) are in Southwest Asia and 9174 square miles (23,764 square kilometers) are in Europe.
The doctrine enunciated American intentions to guarantee the security of Turkey and Greece, and resulted in large-scale U.S. military and economic support.
On August 17, 1999, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck north-western Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
Turkey entered World War II on the side of the Allies on February 23, 1945 as a ceremonial gesture and became a charter member of the United Nations in 1945.
Turkey's main political, economic and military relations have remained rooted within the West since the foundation of the republic and its membership to NATO in 1952.
After decades of negotiations, Turkey applied for full membership of the EEC in 1987, reached a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and officially began accession negotiations on October 3, 2005.
Turkey has a Mediterranean temperate climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, wet and cold winters, though conditions can be much harsher in the more arid interior.
In 1998, Turkey announced a program of modernization worth some US$31-billion over a ten-year period in various projects including tanks, helicopters and assault rifles.
The music of Turkey includes elements of Central Asian folk music, Arabic, Persian classical music, ancient Greco-Roman music and modern European and American popular music.
The territory of Turkey is subdivided into 81 provinces for administrative purposes.
The GDP growth rate for 2005 was 7.4 percent, thus making Turkey one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Turkey abandoned Islamic law and adopted the Italian penal code in 1926.
Turkey has also become a destination for numerous immigrants, especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the consequent increase of freedom of movement in the region.
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 long divided island of Cyprus and disputes over the air and sea boundaries of the Aegean Sea remain the main issues of disagreement between Turkey and Greece.
Orhan Pamuk, a leading Turkish novelist of post-modern literature, was hugely popular in Turkey, and his work had been translated into more than 20 languages.
Turkey is also a level three contributor to the Joint Strike Fighter program, gaining an opportunity to develop and influence the creation of the next generation fighter spearheaded by the United States.
The first film showing in Turkey was held in the Y?ld?z Palace, Istanbul, in 1896.
Turkey's varied landscapes are the product of complex earth movements that have shaped the region over thousands of years and still manifest themselves in fairly frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanic eruptions.
The European section of Turkey, in the northwest, is Eastern Thrace, and forms the borders of Turkey with Greece and Bulgaria.
Turkey ranks seventh worldwide and first within the Muslim world in farm output, and has been self-sufficient in food production since the 1980s.
The law was upheld by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights as "legitimate" in Leyla ?ahin v. Turkey on November 10, 2005.
In 2005, there were 24,124,501 visitors to the country, who contributed $18.2-billion to Turkey's revenues.
The prime minister in 2007 was the former mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, whose Islamic conservative Justice and Development Party (Turkey) won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats in the 2002 elections.
The culture of Turkey combines a heavily diverse and heterogeneous set of elements that have been derived from the various cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean (West Asian) and Central Asian region and to a lesser degree, Eastern European, and Caucasian traditions.
The land occupied by the Turks was known as the Ottoman Empire from the 1300s until 1922. And, following World War I and the fall of the Ottomans, the republic of Turkey formed, taking on the name that had long referred to that region.
Christianity in Turkey. Since up to 98 percent of the population are Muslims, Christians are obviously a minority religion in Turkey. Because it is a secular country, the only Muslim country in the world that has no state religion, the Constitution guarantees religious freedom, and tolerance is the rule.
Known officially as the Republic of Turkey, Turkey is a very interesting place from a geographic standpoint. Located both in Western Asia and Southeastern Europe, it is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Turks usually prefer a rich breakfast. A typical Turkish breakfast consists of cheese (beyaz peynir, kaşar etc.), butter, olives, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, jam, honey, and kaymak, sucuk (spicy Turkish sausage, can be eaten with eggs), pastırma, börek, simit, poğaça and soups are eaten as a morning meal in Turkey.
How safe are tourists travelling to Turkey? More than 1.7million British nationals visit the country every year, and the Foreign Office says it is generally safe, however, it remains in an official state of emergency. It says: "The situation in Turkey has calmed following an attempted coup overnight on July 15-16.Feb 13, 2017
Further attacks are likely and could be indiscriminate. "There is a heightened risk of terrorist attack against the aviation industry in Turkey. You should co-operate fully with security officials at airports. "Most terrorist attacks have taken place in the south and east of the country and in Ankara and Istanbul.Feb 2, 2018
An e-visa costs $20 and you can pay using a credit or debit card. You can apply up to 3 months in advance of your travel date. Turkish visit visas issued on arrival are valid for multiple stays up to a maximum of 90 days in a 180 day period.
Your passport must also be valid for 60 days beyond the expiry date of your Turkish visa. British citizens need a visa to travel to Turkey. You can apply for a visa online at www.evisa.gov.tr before you go.
Ordinary passport holders are required to have visa to enter Turkey. Ordinary passport holders may obtain their 30-day single-entry e-Visas via www.evisa.gov.tr, provided that they have a valid Schengen or USA, UK, Ireland visa or residence permit and that they travel to Turkey with Turkish Airlines or Egypt Air.
In anatomical terms, the snood is an erectile, fleshy protuberance on the forehead of turkeys. Most of the time when the turkey is in a relaxed state, the snood is pale and 2-3 cm long.
This bird bears some resemblance to the American turkey. The guinea fowl is actually native to eastern Africa and was imported to Europe through the Ottoman Empire. ... When settlers in the New World began to send similar-looking fowl back to Europe, they, out of familiarity, called them turkeys.
Since Bradford wrote of how the colonists had hunted wild turkeys during the autumn of 1621 and since turkey is a uniquely American (and scrumptious) bird, it gained traction as the Thanksgiving meal of choice for Americans after Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.Nov 25, 2013
Non-stop flight time from Istanbul to London is around 4 hours 15 minutes. Fastest one-stop flight between Istanbul and London takes close to 6 hours . However, some airlines could take as long as 30 hours based on the stopover destination and waiting duration.
Non-stop flight time from Istanbul to New York is around 11 hours 30 minutes. Fastest one-stop flight between Istanbul and New York takes close to 13 hours . However, some airlines could take as long as 39 hours based on the stopover destination and waiting duration.
Flight time from London to Istanbul is 3 hours 40 minutes. Non-stop flight time is around 4 hours . Quickest one-stop flight takes close to 6 hours. However, some airlines could take as long as 29 hours based on the stopover destination and waiting duration.