Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

, with a relatively small part called

East Thrace East Thrace or Eastern Thrace, also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the part of Turkey that is geographically in Southeast Europe. Turkish Thrace accounts for 3.03% of Turkey's land area and 15% of its population. The largest c ...

Southeast Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and Archipelago, archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of t ...

. It borders the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

to the north;

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

, and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

to the east;

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, and the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

to the south; and the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, and

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

to the west. Turkey is home to over 85 million people; most are ethnic Turks, while ethnic

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

are the largest ethnic minority. Officially a secular state, Turkey has a Muslim-majority population.

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

is Turkey's capital and second-largest city.

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

is its largest city and economic center. Other major cities include

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

, and

Antalya Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey and the capital of Antalya Province. Recognized as the "capital of tourism" in Turkey and a pivotal part of the Turkish Riviera, Antalya sits on Anatolia's southwest coast, flanked by the Tau ...

. First inhabited by modern humans during the Late Paleolithic, present-day Turkey was home to various ancient peoples. The

Hattians The Hattians () were an ancient Bronze Age people that inhabited the land of ''Hatti'', in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). They spoke a distinctive Hattian language, which was neither Semitic languages, Semitic nor Indo-European languages, In ...

were assimilated by the

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

and other

Anatolian peoples The Anatolians were a group of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples who inhabited Anatolia as early as the 3rd millennium BC. Identified by their use of the now-extinct Anatolian languages, they were one of the oldest collective Indo- ...

Classical Anatolia Classical Anatolia is Anatolia during classical antiquity. Early in that period, Anatolia was divided into several Iron Age kingdoms, most notably Lydia in the west, Phrygia in the center and Urartu in the east. Anatolia fell under Achaemenid ...

transitioned into cultural

Hellenization Hellenization or Hellenification is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language, and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonisation often led to the Hellenisation of indigenous people in the Hellenistic period, many of the ...

after

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

's conquests, and later

Romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

during the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

eras. The

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turks, Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate society, Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persi ...

began migrating into Anatolia in the 11th century, starting the

Turkification Turkification, Turkization, or Turkicization () describes a shift whereby populations or places receive or adopt Turkic attributes such as culture, language, history, or ethnicity. However, often this term is more narrowly applied to mean specif ...

process. The Seljuk

Sultanate of Rum The Sultanate of Rum was a culturally Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim state, established over conquered Byzantine territories and peoples (Rum) of Anatolia by the Seljuk Turks following their entry into Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. ...

ruled Anatolia until the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire, the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), which by 1260 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

in 1243, when it disintegrated into Turkish principalities. Beginning in 1299, the

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

united the principalities and expanded.

Mehmed II Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...

conquered Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) in 1453. During the reigns of

Selim I Selim I (; ; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (), was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is ...

and

Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...

, the Ottoman Empire became a global power. From 1789 onwards, the empire saw major changes,

reforms Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

, 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 The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

, and

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

. 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 Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, and Assyrian subjects. Following Ottoman defeat, the

Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...

resulted in the abolition of the sultanate and the signing of the

Treaty of Lausanne The Treaty of Lausanne (, ) is a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923 and signed in the Palais de Rumine in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially resolved the conflict that had initially ...

. Turkey emerged as a more homogenous

nation state A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the State (polity), state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly ...

. The Republic was proclaimed on 29 October 1923, modelled on the reforms initiated by the country's first president,

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

. Turkey remained neutral during most of World War II, but was involved in the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. 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 Unitary may refer to: Mathematics * Unitary divisor * Unitary element * Unitary group * Unitary matrix * Unitary morphism * Unitary operator * Unitary transformation * Unitary representation * Unitarity (physics) * ''E''-unitary inverse semigr ...

presidential

republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

. Turkey is a founding member of the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

, G20, and

Organization of Turkic States The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), formerly called the Turkic Council or the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, is an intergovernmental organization comprising all but one of the internationally recognized Turkic languages, Tur ...

. With a geopolitically significant location, Turkey is a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

member and has its second-largest military force. It may be recognized as an emerging, a

middle Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...

, and a

regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

power. As an EU candidate, Turkey is part of the

EU Customs Union The European Union Customs Union (EUCU), formally known as the Community Customs Union, is a customs union which consists of all the member states of the European Union (EU), Monaco, and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekel ...

. 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 hotspot A biodiversity hotspot is a ecoregion, biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after ...

s, 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 World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

sites and

intangible cultural heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. In ...

inscriptions, and a rich and diverse cuisine, Turkey is the fourth most visited country in the world.

Etymology

''Turchia'', meaning "the land of the Turks", had begun to be used in European texts for

by the end of the 12th century. As a word in

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...

, ''Turk'' may mean "strong, strength, ripe" or "flourishing, in full strength". It may also mean ripe as in for a fruit or "in the prime of life, young, and vigorous" for a person. As an

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

, the etymology is still unknown. In addition to usage in languages such as Chinese in the 6th century, the earliest mention of ''Turk'' (, ; or , ) in Turkic languages comes from the

Second Turkic Khaganate The Second Turkic Khaganate was a khaganate in Central and Eastern Asia founded by the Ashina clan of the Göktürks that lasted between 682–744. It was preceded by the Eastern Turkic Khaganate (552–630) and the early Tang dynasty period ( ...

. In

sources in the 10th century, the name '' Tourkia'' was used for defining two medieval states:

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

(''Western Tourkia''); and

Khazaria The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...

(''Eastern Tourkia''). According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, writing in his () "Patzinakia, the Pecheneg realm, stretches west as far as the

Siret River The Siret or Sireth (, , , ) is a river that rises from the Carpathians in the Northern Bukovina region of Ukraine, and flows southward into Romania before it joins the Danube. It is long,Eastern Carpathian Mountains), and is four days distant from Tourkia .e. Hungary" The

Mamluk Sultanate The Mamluk Sultanate (), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz from the mid-13th to early 16th centuries, with Cairo as its capital. It was ruled by a military caste of mamluks ...

, with its ruling elite of Turkic origin, was called the "State of the Turks" (, or , or ). Turkestan, also meaning the "land of the Turks", was used for a historic region in

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

usage of or is found in ''

The Book of the Duchess ''The Book of the Duchess'', also known as ''The Deth of Blaunche'',
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1910. Accessed 11 Marc ...

'' (written in 1369–1372) to refer to Anatolia or the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. The modern spelling ''Turkey'' dates back to at least 1719. The bird called turkey was named as such due to trade of

guineafowl Guinea fowl () (or guineahen) are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetically, they branched off from the core Galliformes after the C ...

from Turkey to England. The name ''Turkey'' has been used in international treaties referring to the Ottoman Empire. With the Treaty of Alexandropol in 1920, the name ''Türkiye'' entered international documents for the first time. In the treaty signed with

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

in 1921, the expression ("Sublime Turkish State") was used, likened to the Ottoman Empire's name. In December 2021, President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

called for expanded official usage of ''Türkiye'', saying that ''Türkiye'' "represents and expresses the culture, civilization, and values of the Turkish nation in the best way". In May 2022, the Turkish government requested the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

and other international organizations to use ''Türkiye'' officially in English; the UN agreed.

History

Prehistory and ancient history

Present-day Turkey has been inhabited by

modern humans Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are great apes characterized by their hairlessness, bipedalism, and high intelligen ...

since the late Paleolithic period and contains some of the world's oldest

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

sites.

Göbekli Tepe Göbekli Tepe (, ; Kurdish: or , 'Wish Hill') is a Neolithic archaeological site in Upper Mesopotamia (''al-Jazira'') in modern-day Turkey. The settlement was inhabited from around to at least , during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It is famou ...

is close to 12,000 years old. Parts of

include the

Fertile Crescent The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, together with northern Kuwait, south-eastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some authors also include ...

, an origin of agriculture. Other important Anatolian Neolithic sites include

Çatalhöyük Çatalhöyük (English: Chatalhoyuk ; ; also ''Çatal Höyük'' and ''Çatal Hüyük''; from Turkish language, Turkish ''çatal'' "fork" + ''höyük'' "tumulus") is a Tell (archaeology), tell (a mounded accretion resulting from long-term huma ...

and

Alaca Höyük Alacahöyük or Alaca Höyük (sometimes also spelled as ''Alacahüyük'', ''Euyuk'', or ''Evuk'') is the site of a Neolithic Age, Neolithic and Hittites, Hittite settlement and is an important archaeological site. It is situated near the villag ...

. Neolithic Anatolian farmers differed genetically from farmers in

and Jordan Valley. These early Anatolian farmers also migrated into Europe, starting around 9,000 years ago.

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

's earliest layers go back to around 4500 BC. Empire of the Hitties

Anatolia's historical records start with

clay tablets In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets ( Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...

from approximately around 2000 BC that were found in modern-day

Kültepe Kültepe ( Turkish: ), also known under its ancient name Kaneš (Kanesh, sometimes also Kaniš/Kanish) or Neša (Nesha), is an archaeological site in Kayseri Province, Turkey. It was already a major settlement at the beginning of the 3rd mille ...

. These tablets belonged to an Assyrian trade colony. The languages in Anatolia at that time included Hattian, Hurrian, Hittite,

Luwian Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...

, and

Palaic Palaic is an extinct Indo-European language, attested in cuneiform tablets in Bronze Age Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. Palaic, which was apparently spoken mainly in northern Anatolia, is generally considered to be one of four primary sub ...

. Hattian was a language indigenous to Anatolia, with no known modern-day connections.

Hurrian language Hurrian is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language spoken by the Hurrians (Khurrites), a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotami ...

was used in northern

. Hittite, Palaic, and Luwian languages were "the oldest written

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

", forming the Anatolian sub-group. Hattian rulers were gradually replaced by Hittite rulers. The Hittite kingdom was a large kingdom in Central Anatolia, with its capital of

Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...

. It co-existed in Anatolia with Palaians and

Luwians The Luwians (also known as Luvians) were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite ...

, approximately between 1700 and 1200 BC. As the Hittite kingdom was disintegrating, further waves of Indo-European peoples migrated from southeastern Europe, which was followed by warfare. The

Thracians The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared betwee ...

were also present in modern-day Turkish Thrace. It is not known if the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

is based on historical events. Troy's Late Bronze Age layers matches most with ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

''s story.

Early classical antiquity

Around 750 BC,

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

had been established, with its two centers in

Gordium Gordion ( Phrygian: ; ; or ; ) was the capital city of ancient Phrygia. It was located at the site of modern Yassıhüyük, about southwest of Ankara (capital of Turkey), in the immediate vicinity of Polatlı district. Gordion's location at ...

and modern-day

Kayseri Kayseri () is a large List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. Historically known as Caesarea (Mazaca), Caesarea, it has been the historical capital of Cappadocia since anc ...

Phrygians The Phrygians (Greek: Φρύγες, ''Phruges'' or ''Phryges'') were an ancient Indo-European speaking people who inhabited central-western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) in antiquity. Ancient Greek authors used "Phrygian" as an umbrella term t ...

spoke an Indo-European language, which was closer to

than Anatolian languages. Phrygians shared Anatolia with

Neo-Hittites The states called Neo-Hittite, Syro-Hittite (in older literature), or Luwian-Aramean (in modern scholarly works) were Luwian and Aramean regional polities of the Iron Age, situated in southeastern parts of modern Turkey and northwestern parts o ...

and

Urartu Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wo ...

. Luwian-speakers were probably the majority in various Anatolian Neo-Hittite states. Urartians spoke a non-Indo-European language and their capital was around

Lake Van Lake Van (; ; ) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey in the provinces of Van Province, Van and Bitlis Province, Bitlis, in the Armenian highlands. It is a Salt lake, saline Soda lake, soda lake, receiv ...

. Urartu and Phrygia fell in seventh century BC. They were replaced by

Carians The Carians (; , ''Kares'', plural of , ''Kar'') were the ancient inhabitants of Caria in southwest Anatolia, who spoke the Carian language. Historical accounts Karkisa It is not clear when the Carians enter into history. The definition is ...

Lycians Lycians () is the name of various peoples who lived, at different times, in Lycia, a geopolitical area in Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor). History The earliest known inhabitants of the area were the ''Solymoi'' (or ''Solymi''), also kn ...

and

Lydians The Lydians (Greek language, Greek: Λυδοί; known as ''Sparda'' to the Achaemenids, Old Persian cuneiform Wikt:𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭, 𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭) were an Anatolians, Anatolian people living in Lydia, a region in western Anatolia, who spo ...

. These three cultures "can be considered a reassertion of the ancient, indigenous culture of the Hattian cities of Anatolia". Before 1200 BC, there were four Greek-speaking settlements in Anatolia, including

Miletus Miletus (Ancient Greek: Μίλητος, Mílētos) was an influential ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in present day Turkey. Renowned in antiquity for its wealth, maritime power, and ex ...

. Around 1000 BC, Greeks started migrating to the west coast of Anatolia. These eastern Greek settlements played a vital role in shaping the Archaic Greek civilization; important

cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

included

Ephesus Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

Halicarnassus Halicarnassus ( ; Latin: ''Halicarnassus'' or ''Halicarnāsus''; ''Halikarnāssós''; ; Carian language, Carian: 𐊠𐊣𐊫𐊰 𐊴𐊠𐊥𐊵𐊫𐊰 ''alos k̂arnos'') was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Caria, in Anatolia.

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...

(now

) and

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a n ...

(now

), the latter founded by colonists from

Megara Megara (; , ) is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis Island, Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken ...

in the seventh century BCE. These settlements were grouped as

Aeolis Aeolis (; ), or Aeolia (; ), was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islands (particularly Lesbos), where the Aeolian Greek city-states w ...

Ionia Ionia ( ) was an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who ...

, and Doris, after the specific Greek groups that settled them. Further Greek colonization in Anatolia was led by Miletus and

in 750–480 BC. The Greek cities along the Aegean prospered with trade, and saw remarkable scientific and scholarly accomplishments.

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; ; ) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic Philosophy, philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Seven Sages, founding figure ...

and

Anaximander Anaximander ( ; ''Anaximandros''; ) was a Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus,"Anaximander" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes Ltd, George Newnes, 1961, Vol. ...

from Miletus founded the Ionian School of philosophy, thereby laying the foundations of

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...

and

Western philosophy Western philosophy refers to the Philosophy, philosophical thought, traditions and works of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the Pre ...

Cyrus Cyrus () is a Persian-language masculine given name. It is historically best known as the name of several List of monarchs of Iran, Persian kings, most notably including Cyrus the Great, who founded the Achaemenid Empire in 550 BC. It remains wid ...

attacked eastern Anatolia in 547 BC, and

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

eventually expanded into western Anatolia. In the east, the Armenian province was part of the Achaemenid Empire. Following the

Greco-Persian Wars The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Polis, Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world ...

, the Greek city-states of the Anatolian Aegean coast regained independence, but most of the interior stayed part of the Achaemenid Empire. Two of the

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity, first established in the 1572 publication '' Octo Mundi M ...

, the

Temple of Artemis The Temple of Artemis or Artemision (; ), also known as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient, localised form of the goddess Artemis (equated with the Religion in ancient Rome, Roman goddess Diana (mythology), Diana) ...

in Ephesus, and the

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or Tomb of Mausolus (; ) was a tomb built between 353 and 351 BC in Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey) for Mausolus, an Anatolian from Caria and a satrap in the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and his sister-wi ...

, were located in Anatolia. Following the victories of Alexander in 334 BC and 333 BC, the Achaemenid Empire collapsed and Anatolia became part of the

Macedonian Empire Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

. This led to increasing cultural homogeneity and

of the Anatolian interior, which met resistance in some places.: "The sudden disappearance of the Persian Empire and the conquest of virtually the entire Middle Eastern world from the Nile to the Indus by Alexander the Great caused tremendous political and cultural upheaval." ... "statesmen throughout the conquered regions attempted to implement a policy of Hellenization. For indigenous elites, this amounted to the forced assimilation of native religion and culture to Greek models. It met resistance in Anatolia as elsewhere, especially from priests and others who controlled temple wealth." Following Alexander's death, the

Seleucids The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, ...

ruled large parts of Anatolia, while native Anatolian states emerged in the Marmara and Black Sea areas. In eastern Anatolia, the kingdom of Armenia appeared. In third century BC,

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

invaded central Anatolia and continued as a major ethnic group in the area for around 200 years. They were known as the Galatians.

Rome and Byzantine Empire

When

Pergamon Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; ), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north s ...

requested assistance in its conflict with the Seleucids,

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

intervened in Anatolia in the second century BC. Without an heir, Pergamum's king left the kingdom to Rome, which was annexed as province of Asia. Roman influence grew in Anatolia afterwards. Following Asiatic Vespers massacre, and

Mithridatic Wars The Mithridatic Wars were three conflicts fought by the Roman Republic against the Kingdom of Pontus and its allies between 88 and 63 BC. They are named after Mithridates VI, the King of Pontus during the course of the wars, who initiated the ho ...

with

Pontus Pontus or Pontos may refer to: * Short Latin name for the Pontus Euxinus, the Greek name for the Black Sea (aka the Euxine sea) * Pontus (mythology), a sea god in Greek mythology * Pontus (region), on the southern coast of the Black Sea, in modern ...

, Rome emerged victorious. Around the 1st century BC, Rome expanded into parts of Pontus and Bithynia, while turning rest of Anatolian states into Roman satellites. Several conflicts with Parthians ensued, with peace and wars alternating. According to

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

, early Christian Church had significant growth in Anatolia because of St Paul's efforts. Letters from St. Paul in Anatolia comprise the oldest Christian literature. Under Roman authority,

ecumenical councils An ecumenical council, also called general council, is a meeting of bishops and other church authorities to consider and rule on questions of Christian doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters in which those entitled to vote are ...

such as Council of Nicaea (Iznik) in 325 served as a guide for developing "orthodox expressions of basic Christian teachings". The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

centered in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

during

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

and the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The eastern half of the Empire survived the conditions that caused the fall of the West in the 5th century AD, and continued to exist until the

fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-da ...

to the

in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in the Mediterranean world. The term ''Byzantine Empire'' was only coined following the empire's demise; its citizens referred to the polity as the "Roman Empire" and to themselves as ''Romans''. Due to the imperial seat's move from Rome to

, the adoption of Christianity as the state religion, and the predominance of

instead of

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, modern historians continue to make a distinction between the earlier ''Roman Empire'' and the later ''Byzantine Empire''. In the early Byzantine Empire period, the Anatolian coastal areas were Greek speaking. In addition to natives, interior Anatolia had diverse groups such as

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

and

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. Interior Anatolia had been "heavily Hellenized".: "Thus the majority of traditional 'Greek' lands, including the coastal areas of Asia Minor, remained essentially Greek-speaking, despite the superimposition of Latin and the later Slavic incursions into the Balkans during the sixth and seventh centuries. Even on the Anatolian plateau, where Hellenic culture had come only with Alexander's conquests, both the extremely heterogeneous indigenous populations and immigrant groups (including Celts, Goths, Jews, and Persians) had become heavily Hellenized, as the steady decline in epigraphic evidence for the native languages and the great mass of public and private inscriptions in Greek demonstrate. Though the disappearance of these languages from the written record did not entail their immediate abandonment as spoken languages,..."

Anatolian languages The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia. The best known Anatolian language is Hittite, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European language. Undiscovered until the late ...

eventually became extinct after

of Anatolia.

Seljuks and Anatolian beyliks

According to historians and linguists, the

Proto-Turkic language Proto-Turkic is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Turkic languages that was spoken by the Proto-Turks before their divergence into the various Turkic peoples. Proto-Turkic separated into Oghur (western) and Common Tu ...

originated in Central-East Asia. Initially, Proto- Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers; they later became

nomadic Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

pastoralists Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anima ...

. Early and medieval Turkic groups exhibited a wide range of both East Asian and West-Eurasian physical appearances and genetic origins, in part through long-term contact with neighboring peoples such as

Iranic Iranian peoples, or Iranic peoples, are the collective ethnolinguistic groups who are identified chiefly by their native usage of any of the Iranian languages, which are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages within the Indo-European langu ...

, Mongolic, Tocharian,

Uralic The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers abo ...

, and Yeniseian peoples. During the 9th and 10th centuries CE, the Oghuz were a Turkic group that lived in the Caspian and Aral steppes. Partly due to pressure from the

Kipchaks The Kipchaks, also spelled Qipchaqs, known as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Russian annals, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the eighth cent ...

, the Oghuz migrated into

and

Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (, now called the Amu Darya) is the Latin name for the region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...

. They mixed with Iranic-speaking groups in the area and converted to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. Oghuz Turks were also known as Turkmen or Turkoman. The ruling family of the Seljuks originated from the '' Kınık'' branch of the Oghuz Turks. In 1040, the Seljuks defeated the

Ghaznavids The Ghaznavid dynasty ( ''Ġaznaviyān'') was a Persianate Muslim dynasty of Turkic peoples, Turkic ''mamluk'' origin. It ruled the Ghaznavid Empire or the Empire of Ghazni from 977 to 1186, which at its greatest extent, extended from the Oxus ...

at the

Battle of Dandanaqan The Battle of Dandanaqan () was fought in 1040 between the Seljuq Turkmens and the Ghaznavid Empire near the city of Merv (now in Turkmenistan). The battle ended with a decisive Seljuq victory, which subsequently brought down the Ghaznavid domina ...

and established the

Seljuk Empire The Seljuk Empire, or the Great Seljuk Empire, was a High Middle Ages, high medieval, culturally Turco-Persian tradition, Turco-Persian, Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, established and ruled by the Qiniq (tribe), Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. ...

Greater Khorasan KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West Asia, West and Central Asia that encompasses wes ...

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

's capital and center of the Islamic world, was taken by Seljuks in 1055. Given the role Khurasani traditions played in art, culture, and political traditions in the empire, the Seljuk period is described as a mixture of " Turkish, Persian and Islamic influences". In the latter half of the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks began penetrating into medieval Armenia and Anatolia. At the time, Anatolia was a diverse and largely Greek-speaking region after previously being

Hellenized Hellenization or Hellenification is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language, and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonisation often led to the Hellenisation of indigenous people in the Hellenistic period, many of the te ...

.: "Subsequently, hellenization of the elites transformed Anatolia into a largely Greek-speaking region": "So the Seljuk sultanate was a successor state ruling part of the medieval Greek empire, and within it the process of Turkification of a previously Hellenized Anatolian population continued. That population must already have been of very mixed ancestry, deriving from ancient Hittite, Phrygian, Cappadocian, and other civilizations as well as Roman and Greek." The Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at the

Battle of Manzikert The Battle of Manzikert or Malazgirt was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on 26 August 1071 near Manzikert, Iberia (theme), Iberia (modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey). The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army ...

in 1071, and later established the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. During this period, there were also Turkish principalities such as Danishmendids. Seljuk arrival started the

process in Anatolia; there were Turkic/Turkish migrations, intermarriages, and conversions into Islam. The shift took several centuries and happened gradually. Members of

Islamic mysticism Sufism ( or ) is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, and asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are referred to as "Sufis" (from , ), and ...

orders, such as

Mevlevi Order The Mevlevi Order or Mawlawiyya (; ) is a Sufi order that originated in Konya, Turkey (formerly capital of the Sultanate of Rum) and which was founded by the followers of Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet, Sufi ...

, played a role in the

Islamization The spread of Islam spans almost 1,400 years. The early Muslim conquests that occurred following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE led to the creation of the caliphates, expanding over a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted ...

of the diverse people of Anatolia. Seljuk expansion was one of the reasons for the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

. In 13th century, there was a second significant wave of Turkic migration, as people fled

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

expansion. Seljuk sultanate was defeated by the Mongols at the

Battle of Köse Dağ The Battle of Köse Dağ took place in eastern Anatolia on 26 June 1243 when an army of the Sultanate of Rum, led by Sultan Kaykhusraw II, confronted an invading Mongol Empire, Mongol army under the general Baiju Noyan, Baiju and was decisively ...

in 1243 and disappeared by the beginning of the 14th century. It was replaced by various Turkish principalities.

Ottoman Empire

Based around

Söğüt Söğüt (, ) is a town in Bilecik Province, Turkey. It is the seat of Söğüt District.� ...

, Ottoman Beylik was founded by

Osman I Osman I or Osman Ghazi (; or ''Osman Gazi''; died 1323/4) was the eponymous founder of the Ottoman Empire (first known as a bey, beylik or emirate). While initially a small Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman principality during Osman's lifetime, h ...

in the early 14th century. According to Ottoman chroniclers, Osman descended from the '' Kayı'' tribe of the

Oghuz Turks The Oghuz Turks ( Middle Turkic: , ) were a western Turkic people who spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. In the 8th century, they formed a tribal confederation conventionally named the Oghuz Yabgu State in Central Asia ...

. Ottomans started annexing the nearby Turkish beyliks (principalities) in Anatolia and expanded into the

completed Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine Empire by capturing its capital, Constantinople, on 29 May 1453.

united Anatolia under Ottoman rule. Turkification continued as Ottomans mixed with various indigenous people in Anatolia and the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire was a global power during the reigns of

and

. In the 16th and 17th centuries,

Sephardic Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

moved into Ottoman Empire following their expulsion from Spain. From the second half of the 18th century onwards, the Ottoman Empire began to decline. The

Tanzimat The (, , lit. 'Reorganization') was a period of liberal reforms in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Driven by reformist statesmen such as Mustafa Reşid Pash ...

reforms, initiated by

Mahmud II Mahmud II (, ; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. Often described as the "Peter the Great of Turkey", Mahmud instituted extensive administrative, military, and fiscal reforms ...

in 1839, aimed to modernize the Ottoman state in line with the progress that had been made in Western Europe. The Ottoman constitution of 1876 was the first among Muslim states, but was short-lived. As the empire gradually shrank in size, military power and wealth; especially after the Ottoman economic crisis and default in 1875 which led to uprisings in the Balkan provinces that culminated in the

Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) was a conflict between the Ottoman Empire and a coalition led by the Russian Empire which included United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, Romania, Principality of Serbia, Serbia, and Principality of ...

. The decline of the Ottoman Empire led to a rise in nationalist sentiment among its various subject peoples, leading to increased ethnic tensions which occasionally burst into violence, such as the

Hamidian massacres The Hamidian massacres also called the Armenian massacres, were massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1890s. Estimated casualties ranged from 100,000 to 300,000, Akçam, Taner (2006) '' A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide a ...

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

, which claimed up to 300,000 lives. Ottoman territories in Europe (

Rumelia Rumelia (; ; ) was a historical region in Southeastern Europe that was administered by the Ottoman Empire, roughly corresponding to the Balkans. In its wider sense, it was used to refer to all Ottoman possessions and Vassal state, vassals in E ...

) were lost in the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Greece, Greece and Kingdom of Montenegro, Montenegro) agai ...

(1912–1913). Ottomans managed to recover some territory in Europe, such as

Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

, in the

Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict that broke out when Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia and Kingdom of Greece, Greece, on 1 ...

(1913). In the 19th and early 20th centuries, persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction and in the Russian Empire resulted in estimated 5 million deaths, with the casualties including Turks. Five to seven or seven to nine million

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

migrated into modern-day Turkey from the

, and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

islands, shifting the center of the Ottoman Empire to Anatolia. In addition to a small number of Jews, the refugees were overwhelmingly Muslim; they were both Turkish and non-Turkish people, such as

Circassians The Circassians or Circassian people, also called Cherkess or Adyghe (Adyghe language, Adyghe and ), are a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation who originated in Circassia, a region and former country in t ...

and

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

. Paul Mojzes has called the Balkan Wars an "unrecognized genocide", where multiple sides were both victims and perpetrators. Circassian refugees included the survivors of the

Circassian genocide The Circassian genocide, or Tsitsekun, was the systematic mass killing, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement of between 95% and 97% of the Circassian people during the final stages of the Russian invasion of Circassia in the 19th centur ...

. Following the 1913 coup d'état, the Three Pashas took control of the Ottoman government. The Ottoman Empire entered

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

on the side of the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...

and was ultimately defeated. During the war, the empire's Armenian subjects were deported to Syria as part of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

. As a result, an estimated 600,000 to more than 1 million, or up to 1.5 millionTotten, Samuel, Paul Robert Bartrop, Steven L. Jacobs (eds.) ''Dictionary of Genocide''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008, p. 19. .

were killed. The Turkish government has refused to acknowledge the events as genocide and states that Armenians were only "relocated" from the eastern war zone. Genocidal campaigns were also committed against the empire's other minority groups such as the

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

and

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

. Following the

Armistice of Mudros The Armistice of Mudros () ended hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between Ottoman Turkey and the Allies of World War I. It was signed on 30 October 1918 by the Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey and British Admiral Somerset ...

in 1918, the victorious Allied Powers sought the

partition of the Ottoman Empire The partition of the Ottoman Empire (30 October 19181 November 1922) was a geopolitical event that occurred after World War I and the occupation of Constantinople by British, French, and Italian troops in November 1918. The partitioning was ...

through the 1920

Treaty of Sèvres The Treaty of Sèvres () was a 1920 treaty signed between some of the Allies of World War I and the Ottoman Empire, but not ratified. The treaty would have required the cession of large parts of Ottoman territory to France, the United Kingdom, ...

Republic of Türkiye

The

occupation of Istanbul The occupation of Istanbul () or occupation of Constantinople (12 November 1918 – 4 October 1923), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, by United Kingdom, British, France, French, Italy, Italian, and Greece, Greek forces, took place in accordan ...

(1918) and

(1919) by the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

in the aftermath of World War I initiated the

Turkish National Movement The Turkish National Movement (), also known as the Anatolian Movement (), the Nationalist Movement (), and the Kemalists (, ''Kemalciler'' or ''Kemalistler''), included political and military activities of the Turkish revolutionaries that resu ...

. Under the leadership of

Mustafa Kemal Pasha Mustafa () is one of the names of the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic language, Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is a common name in t ...

, a military commander who had distinguished himself during the Battle of Gallipoli, the

(1919–1923) was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the

(1920). The Turkish Provisional Government in

, which had declared itself the legitimate government of the country on 23 April 1920, started to formalize the legal transition from the old Ottoman into the new Republican political system. The Ankara Government engaged in armed and diplomatic struggle. In 1921–1923, the Armenian, Greek, French, and British armies had been expelled. The military advance and diplomatic success of the Ankara Government resulted in the signing of the

Armistice of Mudanya The Armistice of Mudanya () was an agreement between Turkey (the Grand National Assembly of Turkey) on the one hand, and Italy, France, and Britain on the other hand, signed in the town of Mudanya, in the province of Bursa, on 11 October 1922. Th ...

on 11 October 1922. On 1 November 1922, the Turkish Parliament in Ankara formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of

monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, reigns as head of state for the rest of their life, or until abdication. The extent of the authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutio ...

Ottoman rule. The

of 24 July 1923, which superseded the Treaty of Sèvres, led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the new Turkish state as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire. On 4 October 1923, the Allied occupation of Turkey ended with the withdrawal of the last Allied troops from

. The Turkish Republic was officially proclaimed on 29 October 1923 in Ankara, the country's new capital. The Lausanne Convention stipulated a

population exchange between Greece and Turkey The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, on 30 January 1923, by the governments of Greece and Turkey. It involv ...

. Mustafa Kemal became the republic's first

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

and introduced many reforms. The reforms aimed to transform the old religion-based and multi-communal Ottoman monarchy into a Turkish

that would be governed as a

parliamentary republic A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the Executive (government), executive branch (the government) derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature (the parliament). ...

under a secular constitution. Women gained the right to vote nationally in 1934. With the

Surname Law The Surname Law () of the Republic of Turkey is a law adopted on 21 June 1934, requiring all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of fixed, hereditary surnames. Prior to 1934, Turkish families in the major urban centres had names by which they were ...

, the Turkish Parliament bestowed upon Kemal the honorific surname "Atatürk" (''Father Turk''). Atatürk's reforms caused discontent in some Kurdish and Zaza tribes leading to the Sheikh Said rebellion in 1925 and the

Dersim rebellion The Dersim massacre, also known as Dersim genocide, was carried out by the Turkish military over the course of three operations in the Dersim Province (renamed Tunceli) against Kurds, Kurdish rebels of Kurdish Alevism, Alevi faith, and civilians ...

in 1937.

İsmet İnönü Mustafa İsmet İnönü (24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish politician and military officer who served as the second List of Presidents of Turkey, president of Turkey from 1938 to 1950, and as its Prime Minister of Turkey, pr ...

became the country's second president following Atatürk's death in 1938. In 1939, the Republic of Hatay voted in favor of joining Turkey with a referendum. Turkey remained neutral during almost all of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, but entered the war on the side of the

on 23 February 1945. Later that year, Turkey became a

charter member A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the reci ...

of the United Nations. In 1950 Turkey became a member of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

. After fighting as part of the UN forces in the

, Turkey joined

in 1952, becoming a bulwark against Soviet expansion into the

. Military coups or memorandums, which happened in

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Janu ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, and

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, complicated Turkey's transition to a democratic multiparty system. Between 1960 and the end of the 20th century, the prominent leaders in Turkish politics who achieved multiple election victories were

Süleyman Demirel Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel (; 1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the List of Presidents of Turkey, 9th President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously serv ...

Bülent Ecevit Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (; 28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in 197 ...

and

Turgut Özal Halil Turgut Özal (13 October 192717 April 1993) was a Turkish politician, bureaucrat, engineer and statesman who served as the eighth president of Turkey from 1989 to 1993. He previously served as the 26th prime minister of Turkey from 1983 ...

. PKK started a "campaign of terrorist attacks on civilian and military targets" in the 1980s. It is designated as a

terrorist organization Several national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and former ...

by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union. Tansu Çiller became the first female prime minister of Turkey in 1993. Turkey applied for full membership of the

EEC The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

in 1987, joined the

European Union Customs Union The European Union Customs Union (EUCU), formally known as the Community Customs Union, is a customs union which consists of all the member states of the European Union (EU), Monaco, and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dheke ...

in 1995 and started accession negotiations with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

in 2005. Customs Union had an important impact on the Turkish manufacturing sector. In 2014, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won Turkey's first direct

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

. On 15 July 2016, an unsuccessful coup attempt tried to oust the government. According to the Turkish government, there are 13,251 arrested or convicted people in jail as of 2024, related to the 2016 coup attempt. With a referendum in 2017, the parliamentary republic was replaced by an executive presidential system. The office of the prime minister was abolished, and its powers and duties were transferred to the president. On the referendum day, while the voting was still underway, the Supreme Electoral Council lifted a rule that required each ballot to have an official stamp. The opposition parties claimed that as many as 2.5 million ballots without a stamp were accepted as valid. In 2025 the PKK declared a ceasefire.

Administrative divisions

Turkey is a

unitary state A unitary state is a (Sovereign state, sovereign) State (polity), state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create or abolish administrative divisions (sub-national or ...

. Its administrative system includes central and local administration. Central administration consists of the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

, and local departments such as 81

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

and their subdivisions. Local administration authorities consist of metropolitan municipalities, municipalities, neighborhoods or villages, and special provincial administrations. For economic and geographic reasons, Turkey is also categorized into seven regions and 21 sub-regions.

Government and politics

Turkey is a

presidential republic A presidential, strong-president, or single-executive system (sometimes also congressional system) is a form of government in which a head of government (usually titled " president") heads an executive branch that derives its authority and l ...

within a

multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system where more than two meaningfully-distinct political parties regularly run for office and win elections. Multi-party systems tend to be more common in countries using proportional ...

. The current constitution was adopted in 1982. In the Turkish unitary system, citizens are subject to three levels of government: national, provincial, and local. The

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

's duties are commonly split between municipal governments and districts, in which the executive and legislative officials are elected by a

plurality vote Plurality may refer to: Law and politics * Plurality decision, in a decision by a multi-member court, an opinion held by more judges than any other but not by an overall majority * Plurality (voting), when a candidate or proposition polls more ...

of citizens by district. The government comprises three branches: first is the

legislative A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...

branch, which is

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

; second is the

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

branch, which is the

President of Turkey The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye (), is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the national government and is the commander-in-chief of the ...

; and third is the

judicial The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

branch, which includes the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

, the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case; they only interpret the relevant law. In this, they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In ...

and Court of Jurisdictional Disputes. The Parliament has 600 seats, distributed among the provinces proportionally to the population. The Parliament and the president serve a five-year terms, with elections on the same day. The president is elected by direct vote and cannot run for re-election after two terms, unless the parliament calls early presidential elections during the second term. The Constitutional Court is composed of 15 members, elected for single 12-year terms. They are obliged to retire when they are over the age of 65. Turkish politics have become increasingly associated with

democratic backsliding Democratic backsliding or autocratization is a process of regime change toward autocracy in which the exercise of political power becomes more arbitrary and repressive. The process typically restricts the space for public contest and politi ...

, being described as a competitive authoritarian system.

Parties and elections

Elections in Turkey are held for six functions of government: presidential (national), parliamentary (national), municipality mayors (local), district mayors (local), provincial or municipal council members (local), and muhtars (local).

Referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

s are also held occasionally. Every Turkish citizen who has turned 18 has the

right to vote Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in ...

and stand as a candidate at elections.

Universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

for both sexes has been applied throughout Turkey since 1934. In Turkey, turnout rates of both local and general elections are high compared to many other countries, which usually stands higher than 80%. President

is currently serving as the

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

and

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

Özgür Özel Özgür Özel () (born 21 September 1974) is a Turkish pharmacist and politician who has served as Leader of the Republican People's Party, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) since 2023. He had previously shared the parliamentary group ...

is the Main Opposition Leader. The last

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and presidential elections were in 2023. The Constitutional Court can strip the public financing of

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

that it deems anti-secular or having ties to

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

, or ban their existence altogether. The

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ...

for political parties at national level is seven percent of the votes. Smaller parties can avoid the electoral threshold by forming an alliance with other parties. Independent candidates are not subject to an electoral threshold. On the right side of the Turkish

political spectrum A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different Politics, political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more Geometry, geometric Coordinate axis, axes that represent independent political ...

, parties like the Democrat Party, Justice Party, Motherland Party, and Justice and Development Party became the most popular political parties in Turkey, winning numerous elections. Turkish

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

parties are more likely to embrace the principles of political ideologies such as

conservatism Conservatism is a Philosophy of culture, cultural, Social philosophy, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, Convention (norm), customs, and Value (ethics and social science ...

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

Islamism Islamism is a range of religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is superior to communism ...

. On the left side of the spectrum, parties like the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...

, Social Democratic Populist Party and Democratic Left Party once enjoyed the largest electoral success.

Left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

parties are more likely to embrace the principles of

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, Kemalism or

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

Law

With the founding of the Republic, Turkey adopted a civil law legal system, replacing

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

-derived

Ottoman law The Ottoman Empire was governed by different sets of laws during its existence. The '' Qanun'', sultanic law, co-existed with religious law (mainly the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence). Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire was part ...

. The

Civil Code A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property law, property, family law, family, and law of obligations, obligations. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdiction ...

, adopted in 1926, was based on the

Swiss Civil Code The Swiss Civil Code (SR/RS 210, ; ; ; ) is a portion of the second part (SR/RS 2) of the internal Swiss law ("Private law - Administration of civil justice - Enforcement") that regulates the codified law ruling in Switzerland and relationshi ...

of 1907 and the

Swiss Code of Obligations The Swiss Code of Obligations (SR/RS 22, ; ; ; ), the 5th part of the Swiss Civil Code, Swiss civil code, is a Federal act (Switzerland), federal law that regulates contract law and joint-stock company, joint-stock companies ( or S.A. (corporati ...

of 1911. Although it underwent a number of changes in 2002, it retains much of the basis of the original Code. The

Criminal Code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

, originally based on the Italian Criminal Code, was replaced in 2005 by a Code with principles similar to the German Penal Code and German law generally.

Administrative law Administrative law is a division of law governing the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law includes executive branch rulemaking (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regul ...

is based on the French equivalent and

procedural law Procedural law, adjective law, in some jurisdictions referred to as remedial law, or rules of court, comprises the rules by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil procedure, civil, lawsuit, criminal procedure, criminal or admini ...

generally shows the influence of the Swiss, German and French legal systems. Islamic principles do not play a part in the legal system.

Law enforcement in Turkey Law enforcement in Turkey is carried out by several departments and agencies, all acting under the Ministry of the Interior (Turkey), Ministry of Internal Affairs except Askeri İnzibat, military police which is under the command of the Turkish ...

is carried out by several agencies under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. These agencies are the General Directorate of Security, the

Gendarmerie General Command The Gendarmerie General Command () is the national gendarmerie force of the Republic of Turkey. It is a service branch of the Turkish Ministry of Interior responsible for the maintenance of the public order in areas that fall outside the jurisdi ...

and the Coast Guard Command. In the years of government by the Justice and Development Party and Erdoğan, particularly since 2013, the independence and integrity of the Turkish judiciary has increasingly been said to be in doubt by institutions, parliamentarians and journalists both within and outside of Turkey, because of political interference in the promotion of judges and prosecutors and in their pursuit of public duty.

Foreign relations

Turkey has been characterized as an emerging or rising, a

, a quasi-regional, and a

power. Turkey's constant foreign policy goal is to pursue its national interests. These interests are mainly growing the economy, and maintaining security from internal terrorist and external threats. After the establishment of the Republic, Atatürk and İnönü followed the "

peace at home, peace in the world The slogan "Peace at home, peace in the world" (, rendered today as due to Atatürk's language reforms) was first pronounced by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on 20 April 1931 to the public during his tours of Anatolia. This stance was later integrate ...

" principle until the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

's start. Following threats from the Soviet Union, Turkey sought to ally with the United States and joined

in 1952. Overall, Turkey aims for good relations with

, the

, Russia, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, and Iran. With the West, Turkey also aims to keep its arrangements. By trading with the east and joining the EU, Turkey pursues economic growth. Turkey joined the

in 1995, but its EU accession talks are frozen as of 2024. Turkey has sought closer relations with the Central Asian Turkic states after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Closer relations with Azerbaijan, a culturally close country, was achieved. Turkey is a founding member of the

International Organization of Turkic Culture The International Organization of Turkic Culture or TÜRKSOY is an international cultural organization of countries with Turkic populations, speaking languages belonging to the Turkic language family. The General Secretary of Türksoy is Sult ...

and

. It is also a member of

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

, and

Organisation of Islamic Cooperation The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC; ; ), formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1969. It consists of Member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, 57 member s ...

. Following the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

, Turkey had problems with countries such as United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Relations with these countries have improved since then. There are disputes with Greece over maritime boundaries and with Cyprus. In 2018, the Turkish military and the Turkish-backed forces began an operation in Syria aimed at ousting US-backed YPG (which Turkey considers to be an offshoot of the outlawed PKK) from the enclave of Afrin. Turkey has also conducted airstrikes in

Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan () refers to the Kurds, Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan in West Asia, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdist ...

, which was criticized by Iraq for violating its sovereignty and killing civilians. Diplomatic relations with Israel were damaged after the

Gaza flotilla raid Ships of Gaza flotilla raid, Six civilian ships of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla were raided by Israel on 31 May 2010 in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea. Nine of the flotilla passengers were killed during the raid, with thirty woun ...

, normalized in 2016, and cut again following the

Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip The Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip is a major part of the Gaza war. Starting on 7 October 2023, immediately after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israel began bombing of the Gaza Strip, bombing the Ga ...

. In 2024, Turkey stopped trading with Israel.

Military

The

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; , TSK) are the armed forces, military forces of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey. The TAF consist of the Turkish Army, Land Forces, the Turkish Navy, Naval Forces and the Turkish Air Force, Air Forces. The Chief of ...

are responsible for defense against foreign threats. While the Commander-in-Chief is the President,

General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, Enlisted rank, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commanding officer, commander of a ...

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

Naval Force A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

, and

Land Force An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

usually report to the Minister of National Defence. The

and the Coast Guard Command are under the jurisdiction of the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

. Military service is required for 6–12 months for men, which is reduced to one month after paying a fee. Turkey does not recognize

conscientious objection A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

and does not offer a civilian alternative to military service. Turkey has the second-largest military force in NATO, after the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, with an estimated strength of 890,700 military personnel as of February 2022. Turkey is considered a significant power in

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

s. As part of the nuclear sharing policy of NATO, Turkey hosts approximately 20 United States

B61 nuclear bomb The B61 nuclear bomb is the primary thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear gravity bomb in the United States Enduring Stockpile following the end of the Cold War. It is a low-to-intermediate yield strategic nuclear weapon, strategic and tactical nuc ...

s at the

Incirlik Air Base Incirlik Air Base () is a Republic of Turkey, Turkish air base of slightly more than 3320 ac (1335 ha), located in the İncirlik quarter of the city of Adana, Turkey. The base is within an urban area of 1.7 million people, east of the city ...

. In recent years, Turkey’s defense industry has developed rapidly. Aselsan,

Turkish Aerospace Industries Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. (, TAI or TUSAŞ) is a state-owned Arms industry, arms company in Turkey. History On 16 August 1925 the Turkish Aircraft and Engine Limited Company ''()'' factory was founded in Kayseri, Turkey. The company ...

, Roketsan, and ASFAT are among the top 100 defense companies in the world. Turkey has participated in international missions under the United Nations and NATO since the Korean War, including

peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities, especially military ones, intended to create conditions that favor lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed w ...

missions in

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

, United Nations Protection Force, Yugoslavia and the Operation Ocean Shield, Horn of Africa. It supported Coalition of the Gulf War, coalition forces in the Gulf War, First Gulf War, contributed military personnel to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and remains active in Kosovo Force, Eurocorps and EU Battlegroups. As of 2016, Turkey has assisted Peshmerga forces in northern

and the Somali Armed Forces with security and training. The Turkish Armed Forces have a relatively substantial military presence abroad, with List of countries with overseas military bases, military bases in Pasha Liman Base, Albania, Iraq–Turkey relations#Turkish military presence in Iraq, Iraq, Qatar–Turkey relations#Turkish military presence in Qatar, Qatar, and Camp TURKSOM, Somalia. The country also maintains a force of Turkish military forces in Northern Cyprus, 36,000 troops in Northern Cyprus since 1974.

Human rights

Article two of the Turkish Constitution includes references to upholding the rule of law and human rights. In the 2000s, legal changes were made for public use of and teaching in the Kurdish language. This included opening a TRT Kurdî, Kurdish-language national TV channel. Various "openings" were made to address concerns of minorities such as Alevism, Alevi, Kurds in Turkey, ethnic Kurds, and Romani people in Turkey, ethnic Romani people. Sentences for violence against women were strengthened. In 2013, Gezi Park protests, widespread protests erupted, sparked by a plan to demolish Taksim Gezi Park, Gezi Park but soon growing into general anti-government dissent. On 20 May 2016, the Turkish parliament stripped almost a quarter of its members of immunity from prosecution, including 101 deputies from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey), HDP and the main opposition Republican People's Party, CHP party. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, there are 13 jailed journalists in Turkey. In its 2023 report, the European Commission criticized how democratic institutions in Turkey operate. The criticism was rejected by Turkey. As of 2023, Turkey was the country with the highest number of European Court of Human Rights cases. Gay_pride_Istanbul_2013_-_Taksim_Square

Prior to 1858, Ottoman Empire had "a lenient legal accommodation of same-sex intimacy". When prosecuted, the punishment was monetary fines. In 1858, the 1810 French Penal Code was adopted by the Ottomans, which had no penalties for same-sex intimacy that is private. Under the Republic, same sex acts have never been criminalized. However, LGBT people in Turkey face discrimination, harassment and even violence. In a survey conducted in 2016, 33% of respondents said that LGBT people should have equal rights, which increased to 45% in 2020. Another survey in 2018 found that the proportion of people who would not want a homosexual neighbor decreased from 55% in 2018 to 47% in 2019. When the annual Istanbul Pride was inaugurated in 2003, Turkey became the first Muslim-majority country to hold a gay pride march. Since 2015, parades at Taksim Square and İstiklal Avenue have been denied government permission, citing security concerns, but hundreds of people have defied the ban each year. The bans were criticized.

Geography

Turkey covers an area of . With Turkish straits and Sea of Marmara in between, Turkey bridges Western Asia and Southeastern Europe. Turkey's Asian side covers 97% of its surface, and is often called

. * : "Thrace, its European area, is about the size of VERMONT at 9,412 square mi (24,378 square km). Its Asian area (Asia Minor) is called Anatolia and covers 291,971 square mi (756,202 square km)" * : "Anatolia, [Gr.=sunrise], Asiatic part of Turkey; its area covers 97% of all Turkey" * : "About 97% of the country is in Asia Minor (Anatolia) and 3% in Europe (Thrace)" * : "the 97% of the country in Asia is referred to as Anatolia" * : "Anatolia, the peninsula of land that today constitutes the Asian portion of Turkey" * * * : "The Asian part of the country is known by a variety of names--Asia Minor, Asiatic Turkey, the Anatolian Plateau, and Anatolia (Anadolu)" Another definition of Anatolia's eastern boundary is an imprecise line from the

to Gulf of Iskenderun. Eastern Thrace, Turkey's European side, includes around 10% of the population and covers 3% of the surface area. The country is encircled by seas on three sides: the

to the west, the Black Sea to the north and the

to the south. Turkey is bordered by Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east. To the south, it's bordered by Syria and Iraq. To the north, its Thracian area is bordered by Greece and Bulgaria. Turkey is divided into "Geographical regions of Turkey, seven major regions": Marmara Region, Marmara, Aegean Region, Aegean, Central Anatolia Region, Central Anatolia, Black Sea Region, Black Sea, Eastern Anatolia Region, Eastern Anatolia, Southeastern Anatolia Region, Southeastern Anatolia and the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean. As a general trend, the inland Anatolian Plateau becomes increasingly rugged as it progresses eastward. Mountain ranges include Köroğlu Mountains, Köroğlu and Pontic Mountains, Pontic mountain ranges to the north, and the Taurus Mountains to the south. The Turkish Lakes Region, Lakes Region contains some of the largest lakes in Turkey such as Lake Beyşehir and Lake Eğirdir. Geographers have used the eastern Anatolian plateau, Iranian plateau, and Armenian plateau terms to refer to the mountainous area around where Arabian Plate, Arabian and Eurasian Plate, Eurasian tectonic plates merge. The eastern Anatolian plateau and Armenian plateau definitions largely overlap. The Eastern Anatolia Region contains Mount Ararat, Turkey's highest point at , and

, the largest lake in the country. Eastern Turkey is home to the sources of rivers such as the Euphrates, Tigris and Aras River, Aras. The Southeastern Anatolia Region includes the northern plains of Upper Mesopotamia. List of earthquakes in Turkey, Earthquakes happen frequently in Turkey. Almost the entire population lives in areas with varying seismic risk levels, with around 70% in highest or second-highest seismic areas. Anatolian Sub-Plate, Anatolian plate is bordered by North Anatolian Fault zone to the north; East Anatolian Fault zone and Bitlis–Zagros collision zone to the east; Hellenic subduction zone, Hellenic and Cyprus subduction zones to the south; and Aegean Sea Plate, Aegean extensional zone to the west. After 1999 İzmit earthquake, 1999 İzmit and 1999 Düzce earthquake, 1999 Düzce earthquakes, North Anatolian Fault zone activity "is considered to be one of the most dangerous natural hazards in Turkey". 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes were the deadliest in contemporary Turkish history. Turkey is sometimes unfavorably compared to Chile, a country with a similar List of countries by Human Development Index, developmental level that is more successful with earthquake preparedness.

Biodiversity

Turkey's position at the crossroads of the land, sea and air routes between the three Old World continents and the variety of the habitats across List of ecoregions in Turkey, its ecoregions have produced considerable species diversity and a vibrant ecosystem. Out of the 36

s in the world, Turkey includes 3 of them. These are the

, Irano-Anatolian, and

hotspots. The Forest in Turkey, forests of Turkey are home to the Quercus cerris, Turkey oak. The most commonly found species of the genus Platanus, ''Platanus'' (plane) is the ''Platanus orientalis, orientalis''. The Pinus brutia, Turkish pine (''Pinus brutia'') is mostly found in Turkey and other east Mediterranean countries. Several wild species of tulip are native to Anatolia, and the flower was first Tulip#Introduction to Western Europe, introduced to Western Europe with species taken from the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. There are List of national parks of Turkey, 40 national parks, 189 nature parks, 31 nature preserve areas, 80 wildlife protection areas and 109 nature monuments in Turkey such as Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park, Mount Nemrut National Park, Troy, Ancient Troy National Park, Ölüdeniz Nature Park and Polonezköy Nature Park. The Northern Anatolian conifer and deciduous forests is an ecoregion which covers most of the Pontic Mountains in northern Turkey, while the Caucasus mixed forests extend across the eastern end of the range. The region is home to Eurasian wildlife such as the Eurasian sparrowhawk, golden eagle, eastern imperial eagle, lesser spotted eagle, Caucasian black grouse, red-fronted serin, and wallcreeper. The Panthera pardus tulliana, Anatolian leopard is still found in very small numbers in the northeastern and southeastern regions of Turkey.Can, O.E. (2004).
Status, conservation and management of large carnivores in Turkey
'. Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats. Standing Committee, 24th meeting, 29 November-3 December 2004, Strasbourg. The Eurasian lynx, the European wildcat and the caracal are other Felidae, felid species which are found in the forests of Turkey. The Caspian tiger, now extinct, lived in the easternmost regions of Turkey until the latter half of the 20th century.Üstay, A.H. (1990). ''Hunting in Turkey''. BBA, Istanbul. Renowned domestic animals from Ankara include the Turkish Angora, Angora cat, Angora rabbit and Angora goat; and from Van Province the Turkish Van, Van cat. The national dog breeds are the Kangal Shepherd Dog, Kangal (Anatolian Shepherd), Aksaray Malaklisi, Malaklı and Akbash, Akbaş.

Climate

The coastal areas of Turkey bordering the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas have a temperate Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild to cool, wet winters. The coastal areas bordering the Black Sea have a temperate oceanic climate with warm, wet summers and cool to cold, wet winters. The Turkish Black Sea coast receives the most precipitation and is the only region of Turkey that receives high precipitation throughout the year. The eastern part of the Black Sea coast averages annually which is the highest precipitation in the country. The coastal areas bordering the Sea of Marmara, which connects the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea, have a transitional climate between a temperate Mediterranean climate and a temperate oceanic climate with warm to hot, moderately dry summers and cool to cold, wet winters. Lake Marmara

Snow falls on the coastal areas of the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea almost every winter but usually melts in no more than a few days. However, snow is rare in the coastal areas of the Aegean Sea and very rare in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Winters on the Anatolian plateau are especially severe. Temperatures of do occur in northeastern Anatolia, and snow may lie on the ground for at least 120 days of the year, and during the entire year on the summits of the highest mountains. In central Anatolia the temperatures can drop below with the mountains being even colder. Mountains close to the coast prevent Mediterranean influences from extending inland, giving the central Anatolian Plateau a continental climate with sharply contrasting seasons. Due to socioeconomic, climatic, and geographic factors, Turkey is highly Climate change vulnerability, vulnerable to climate change. This applies to nine out of ten climate vulnerability dimensions, such as "average annual risk to wellbeing".

median is two out of ten. Inclusive and swift growth is needed for decreasing vulnerability. Turkey aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2053. Accomplishing climate goals would require large investments, but would also result in net economic benefits, broadly due to reduced imports of fuel and due to better health from lowering air pollution.

Economy

Turkey is an Gross national income, upper-middle-income country and an emerging market. A founding member of the

and G20, it has the List of countries by GDP (nominal), 16th-largest economy by nominal and List of countries by GDP (PPP), 12th-largest by Purchasing power parity, PPP-adjusted GDP in the world. It is classified among newly industrialized countries. The service sector accounts for 61% of the economy, whereas industry accounts for 32% and agriculture contributes about 7%. According to International Monetary Fund, IMF estimates, Turkey's GDP per capita by PPP is $42,451 in 2025, while its nominal GDP per capita is $16,709. Foreign direct investment in Turkey peaked at $22.05 billion in 2007 and dropped to $13.09 billion in 2022. Potential growth is weakened by long-lasting structural and macro obstacles, such as slow rates of productivity growth and high inflation. Turkey has a diversified economy; main industries include automobiles, electronics, textiles, construction, steel, mining, and food processing. Machinery and manufacturing lead among products in Turkey's merchandise exports. Turkey is a List of largest producing countries of agricultural commodities, major agricultural producer. It ranks List of countries by steel production, 8th in crude steel production, and List of countries by motor vehicle production, 13th in motor vehicle production, ship building (by tonnage), and annual industrial robot installation in the world. Automotive industry in Turkey, Turkish automative companies include TEMSA, Otokar, BMC (Turkey), BMC and Togg. Togg is the first all-electric vehicle company of Turkey. Arçelik, Vestel, and Beko are major manufacturers of consumer electronics. Arçelik is one of the largest producers of household goods in the world. In 2022, Turkey ranked second in the world in terms of the number of international contractors in the top 250 list. It is also the fifth largest in the world in terms of textile exports. Bodrum - 39976741843

Turkey's services exports are mostly transport and tourism. Tourism accounts for about 8% of Turkey's GDP. In 2024, Turkey World Tourism rankings#Most visited destinations by international tourist arrivals, ranked fourth in the world in the number of international tourist arrivals with 60.6 million foreign tourists. Turkey has List of World Heritage Sites in Turkey, 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and List of World Heritage Sites in Turkey (Tentative list), 84 World Heritage Sites in tentative list. Turkey is home to 519 Blue Flag beaches, third most in the world. In 2024, Euromonitor International ranked

and

among List of cities by international visitors, the top ten most visited cities in the world. Turkish Airlines is one of the largest airlines in the world. Between 2007 and 2021, the share of population below the PPP-$6.85 per day poverty threshold, international poverty threshold declined from 20% to 7.6%. In 2023, 13.9% of the population was below the national at-risk-of-poverty rate. In 2021, 34% of the population were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, using Eurostat definition. Unemployment in Turkey was 10.4% in 2022. In 2021, it was estimated that 47% of total disposable income was received by the top 20% of income earners, while the lowest 20% received only 6%. Compared to the OECD average, labor force participation of women is lower. Affordable childcare and better parental leave policies are needed to lift women's employment.

Infrastructure

Turkey is the 15th-largest electricity and List of countries by renewable electricity production, 13th-largest renewable electricity producer in the world. Energy in Turkey, Turkey's energy generation capacity increased significantly, with Renewable energy in Turkey, electricity generation from renewable sources tripling in the past decade. It produced 43.8% of Electricity sector in Turkey, its electricity from such sources in 2019. Turkey is also the Geothermal power#Utility-grade stations, fourth-largest producer of Geothermal energy in Turkey, geothermal power in the world. Turkey's first nuclear power station, Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, Akkuyu, will increase diversification of its energy mix. When it comes to World energy supply and consumption#Final consumption, total final consumption, fossil fuels still play a large role, accounting for 73%. A major reason of greenhouse gas emissions by Turkey, Turkey's greenhouse gas emissions is the coal in Turkey, large proportion of coal in the energy system. As of 2017, while the government had invested in low carbon energy transition, Fossil fuel subsidies, fossil fuels were still subsidized. By 2053, Turkey aims to have net zero emissions. Turkey has made security of its energy supply a top priority, given its heavy reliance on gas and oil imports. Turkey's main energy supply sources are Energy in Russia, Russia, West Asia, and Central Asia. Gas in Turkey, Gas production began in 2023 in the recently discovered Sakarya gas field. When fully operational, it will supply about 30% of the natural gas needed domestically. Turkey aims to become a hub for regional energy transportation. Several oil and gas pipelines span the country, including the Blue Stream, TurkStream, and Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipelines. As of 2023, Turkey has 3,726 kilometers of Otoyol, controlled-access highways and 29,373 kilometers of Dual carriageway, divided highways. Multiple bridges and tunnels connect Asian and European sides of Turkey; the Çanakkale 1915 Bridge on the Dardanelles strait is the List of longest suspension bridge spans#Completed suspension bridges, longest suspension bridge in the world. Marmaray and Eurasia Tunnel, Eurasia tunnels under the Bosporus connect both sides of Istanbul. The Osman Gazi Bridge connects the northern and southern shores of the Gulf of İzmit. Turkish State Railways operates both conventional and high speed trains, with the government expanding both. High-speed rail in Turkey, High-speed rail lines include the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed railway, Ankara-Istanbul, Ankara-Konya high-speed railway, Ankara-Konya, and Ankara–Sivas high-speed railway, Ankara-Sivas routes. Istanbul Metro is the largest subway network in the country with around 704 million annual ridership in 2019. There are List of airports in Turkey, 115 airports as of 2024. Istanbul Airport is one of the List of busiest airports by passenger traffic, top 10 busiest airports in the world. Turkey aims to become a transportation hub. It is part of various routes that connect Asia and Europe, including Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, the Middle Corridor. In 2024, Turkey, Iraq, UAE, and Qatar signed an agreement to link Iraqi port facilities to Turkey via road and rail connections.

Science and technology

Turkey's spending on research and development as a share of GDP has risen from 0.47% in 2000 to 1.40% in 2023, although it is still around half of the average for the OECD. List of countries by number of scientific and technical journal articles, Turkey ranks 16th in the world in terms of article output in scientific and technical journals, and 35th in Nature Index. Turkish patent office ranks 21st worldwide in overall patent applications, and 3rd in industrial design applications. Vast majority of applicants to the Turkish patent office are Turkish residents. In all patent offices globally, World Intellectual Property Indicators#Latest filing trends by country of origin, Turkish residents rank 21st for overall patent applications. In 2024, Turkey ranked 37th in the world and 3rd among its upper-middle income group in the Global Innovation Index.

and

rank among the top 100 science and technology clusters in the world. Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, TÜBİTAK is one of the main agencies for funding and carrying out research. Although Turkey needs more national innovation, it is improving in areas such as high technology and defense. To boost the output of high-value-added products, Turkey launched its National Technology Initiative in 2019. In line with its research priorities, Turkey developed roadmaps in various areas such as Materials science, advanced materials, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, internet of things, nanoelectronics, robotics, and quantum technology. Some of the main science and technology programs include the National Research Program, Industry and Technology Strategy, Climate Change Strategy, National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, and Space program of Turkey, National Space Program. In 2024 and 2025, Turkey's first particle accelerator, electron accelerator, quantum computing, quantum computer, and Türksat 6A, communication satellite manufactured domestically became operational.

Demographics

According to the ''Address-Based Population Recording System'', the country's population was 85,372,377 in 2023, excluding Syrians under temporary protection. 93% lived in urban area, province and district centers. People within the 15–64 and 0–14 age groups corresponded to 68.3% and 21.4% of the total population, respectively. Those aged 65 years or older made up 10.2%. Between 1950 and 2020, Turkey's population more than quadrupled from 20.9 million to 83.6 million; however, the population growth rate was 0.1% in 2023. In 2023, the total fertility rate was 1.51 children per woman, Sub-replacement fertility, below the replacement rate of 2.10 per woman. In a 2018 health survey, the ideal children number was 2.8 children per woman, rising to 3 per married woman.

Ethnicity and language

Article 66 of the Turkish Constitution defines a ''Turk'' as anyone who is a citizen. It is estimated that there are at least 47 ethnic groups represented in Turkey. Reliable data on the ethnic mix of the population is not available because census figures do not include statistics on ethnicity after the 1965 Turkish census. According to the World Factbook, 70–75% of the country's citizens are ethnic Turks. Based on a survey, KONDA Research and Consultancy, KONDA's estimation was 76% in 2006, with 78% of adult citizens self-identifying their ethnic background as ''Turk''. In 2021, 77% of adult citizens identified as such in a survey.

are the largest ethnic minority. Their exact numbers remain disputed, with estimates ranging from 12 to 20% of the population. The Kurds make up a majority in the provinces of Ağrı Province, Ağrı, Batman Province, Batman, Bingöl Province, Bingöl, Bitlis Province, Bitlis, Diyarbakır Province, Diyarbakır, Hakkari Province, Hakkari, Iğdır Province, Iğdır, Mardin Province, Mardin, Muş Province, Muş, Siirt Province, Siirt, Şırnak Province, Şırnak, Tunceli Province, Tunceli and Van Province, Van; a near majority in Şanlıurfa Province, Şanlıurfa (47%); and a large minority in Kars Province, Kars (20%). In addition, internal migration has resulted in Kurdish diaspora communities in all of the major cities in central and western Turkey. In Istanbul, there are an estimated three million Kurds, making it the city with the largest Kurdish population in the world. 19% of adult citizens identified as ethnic Kurds in a survey in 2021. Some people have multiple ethnic identities, such as both Turk and Kurd. In 2006, an estimated 2.7 million ethnic Turks and Kurds were related from interethnic marriages. Map-TurkicLanguages

According to the World Factbook, non-Kurdish ethnic minorities are 7–12% of the population. In 2006, KONDA estimated that non-Kurdish and non-Zaza ethnic minorities constituted 8.2% of the population; these were people who gave general descriptions such as Turkish citizen, people with Turkic people, other Turkic backgrounds, Arabs in Turkey, Arabs, and others. In 2021, 4% of adult citizens identified as non-ethnic Turk or non-ethnic Kurd in a survey. According to the Constitutional Court, there are only four officially recognized minorities in Turkey: the three non-Muslim minorities recognized in the

(Armenians in Turkey, Armenians, Greeks in Turkey, Greeks, and Jews in Turkey, Jews) and the Bulgarians in Turkey, Bulgarians. In 2013, the Ankara 13th Circuit Administrative Court ruled that the minority provisions of the Lausanne Treaty should also apply to Assyrians in Turkey and the Syriac language. Other unrecognized ethnic groups include Albanians in Turkey, Albanians, Bosniaks in Turkey, Bosniaks, Circassians in Turkey, Circassians, Georgians in Turkey, Georgians, Laz people, Laz, Pomaks, and Romani people, Roma. The official language is Turkish language, Turkish, which is the most widely spoken Turkic languages, Turkic language in the world. It is spoken by 85% to 90% of the population as a first language. Kurdish speakers are the largest linguistic minority. A survey estimated 13% of the population speak Kurdish or Zaza as a first language. Other minority languages include Arabic, Languages of the Caucasus, Caucasian languages, and Gagauz language, Gagauz. The linguistic rights of the officially recognized minorities are ''de jure'' recognized and protected for Armenian language, Armenian, Bulgarian language, Bulgarian,

, Hebrew language, Hebrew, and Syriac language, Syriac. There are multiple List of endangered languages in Asia#Turkey, endangered languages in Turkey.

Immigration

Excluding Syrians under temporary protection, there were 1,570,543 foreign citizens in Turkey in 2023. Millions of Kurds fled across the mountains to Turkey and the Kurdish areas of Iran during the Gulf War in 1991. Turkey's migrant crisis in the 2010s and early 2020s resulted in the influx of millions of refugees and immigrants. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world as of April 2020. The Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency manages the refugee crisis in Turkey. Before the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the estimated number of Arabs in Turkey varied from 1 million to more than 2 million. In November 2020, there were 3.6 million Refugees of the Syrian civil war in Turkey, Syrian refugees in Turkey; these included other ethnic groups of Syria, such as Syrian Kurds and Syrian Turkmens. As of August 2023, the number of these refugees was estimated to be 3.3 million. The number of Syrians had decreased by about 200,000 people since the beginning of the year. The government has granted citizenship to 238 thousand Syrians by November 2023. As of May 2023, approximately 96,000 Ukrainian Ukrainian refugee crisis (2022–present), refugees of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine have sought refuge in Turkey. In 2022, nearly 100,000 Russian citizens migrated to Turkey, becoming the first in the list of foreigners who moved to Turkey, meaning an increase of more than 218% from 2021.

Religion

Turkey is a secular state with no official state religion; the constitution provides for freedom of religion and Freedom of conscience, conscience. According to the CIA World Factbook, Muslims constitute 99.8% of the population, most of them being Sunni Islam, Sunni. Based on a survey, KONDA Research and Consultancy, KONDA's estimate for Muslims was 99.4% in 2006. According to Minority Rights Group International, estimates of share of Alevi are between 10% and 40% of the population. KONDA's estimate was 5% in 2006. 4% of adult citizens identified as Alevi in a survey in 2021, while 88% identified as Sunni. The percentage of non-Muslims in modern-day Turkey was 19.1% in 1914, but fell to 2.5% in 1927. Currently, non-Muslims constitute 0.2% of the population according to the World Factbook. In 2006, KONDA's estimate was that 0.18% of the population adhered to non-Islamic religions. Some of the non-Muslim communities are Armenians, Assyrians in Turkey, Assyrians, Bulgarian Orthodox, Catholic Church in Turkey, Catholics, Eastern Orthodoxy in Turkey, Greeks, Jews, and Protestantism in Turkey, Protestants. Sources estimate that the Christianity in Turkey, Christian population in Turkey ranges between 180,000 and 320,000. Turkey has Jewish population by country, the largest Jewish community among the Muslim-majority countries. Currently, there are 439 churches and synagogues in Turkey. In 2006, KONDA estimated that 0.47% of the population had no religion. According to KONDA, the share of adult citizens who identified as nonbelievers increased from 2% in 2011 to 6% in 2021. A 2020 Gezici Araştırma poll found that 28.5% of the Generation Z Irreligion in Turkey, identified as irreligious.

Education

Turkey primary-secondary-tertiary-enrollment-completion-rates

In the past 20 years, Turkey has improved quality of education and has made significant progress in increasing education access. From 2011 to 2021, improvements in education access include significant rise in the rates of Secondary education, upper secondary and tertiary education completion, and quadrupling of pre-school institutions. Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA results suggest improvements in education quality. There is still a gap with OECD countries. Significant challenges include differences in student outcomes from different schools, differences between rural and urban areas, pre-primary education access, and arrival of students who are Syrian refugees. The Ministry of National Education (Turkey), Ministry of National Education is responsible for pre-tertiary education. Compulsory education is free at public schools and lasts 12 years, divided into three parts. There are 208 List of universities in Turkey, universities in Turkey. Students are placed to universities based on their Student Selection and Placement System, YKS results and their preferences, by the Measuring, Selection and Placement Center. All state and private universities are under the control of the Council of Higher Education (Turkey), Higher Education Board. Since 2016, the president of Turkey directly appoints all rectors of all state and private universities. According to the 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Times Higher Education ranking, the top universities were Koç University, Middle East Technical University, Sabancı University, and Istanbul Technical University. According to Academic Ranking of World Universities, the top ones were Istanbul University, University of Health Sciences (Turkey), and Hacettepe University. For foreign students, Turkey has become a regional hub, with a large number of international students and Türkiye Scholarships, international scholarships.

Health

The Ministry of Health (Turkey), Ministry of Health has run a universal public healthcare system since 2003. Known as Universal Health Insurance (), it is funded by a tax surcharge on employers, currently at 5%. Public-sector funding covers approximately 75.2% of health expenditures. Despite the universal health care, total expenditure on health as a share of GDP in 2018 was the lowest among OECD countries at 6.3% of GDP, compared to the OECD average of 9.3%. There are many private hospitals in the country. The government planned several hospital complexes, known as city hospitals, to be constructed since 2013. Turkey is one of the top 10 destinations for Medical tourism#Turkey, health tourism. Average life expectancy is 78.6 years (75.9 for males and 81.3 for females), compared with the EU average of 81 years. Turkey has high rates of obesity, with 29.5% of its adult population having a body mass index (BMI) value of 30 or above. Air pollution in Turkey, Air pollution is a major cause of early death.

Culture

In the 19th century, Turkish identity was debated in the

, with three main views: Turkism, Islamism and Westernism. In addition to Europe or Islam, Turkish culture was also influenced by Anatolia's native cultures. After the establishment of the republic, Kemalism emphasized Turkish culture, attempted to make "Islam a matter of personal conviction", and pursued modernization. Currently, Turkey has various local cultures. Things such as music, Turkish folk dance, folk dance, or Kebab, kebap variety may be used to identify a local area. Turkey also has a national culture, such as national sports leagues, music bands, film stars, and trends in fashion. Turkey is home to List of World Heritage Sites in Turkey, 21 UNESCO World Heritage sites and Intangible cultural heritage, 31 UNESCO intangible cultural heritage inscriptions.

Literature, theatre, and visual arts

Turkish literature goes back more than a thousand years. The Seljuk and Ottoman periods include numerous works of literature and poetry. Turkic tales and poetry from Central Asia were also kept alive. Book of Dede Korkut, Tales of Dede Korkut is an example of the Oral storytelling, oral narrative tradition. Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, from the 11th century, contains Turkish linguistic information and poetry. Yunus Emre, influenced by Rumi, was one of the most important writers of Anatolian Turkish poetry. Ottoman Diwan (poetry), Divan poetry used "refined diction" and complex vocabulary. It included Sufism, Sufi mysticism, romanticism, and formal elements. Beginning in the 19th century, Ottoman literature was influenced by the West. New genres, such as novels and journalistic style, were introduced. , written by Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil, was the "first truly refined Turkish novel". Fatma Aliye Topuz, the first female Turkish novelist, wrote fiction. After the proclamation of the republic in 1923, Atatürk's reforms, Atatürk instituted reforms such as the Turkish language reform, language reform and Turkish alphabet reform, alphabet reform. Since then, Turkish literature reflected the socioeconomic conditions in Turkey with increasing variety. "Village Novel" genre appeared in the mid-1950s, which talked about difficulties faced from poverty. An example is Memed, My Hawk by Yaşar Kemal, which was 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature, Turkey's first Nobel Prize in Literature nominee in 1973. Orhan Pamuk won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. Turkey has four "major theatrical traditions": "folk theatre, popular theatre, court theater, and Western theater." Turkish folk theatre goes back thousands of years and has survived among rural communities. Popular theatre includes plays by live actors, puppet and shadow play, shadow plays, and Meddah, storytelling performances. An example for shadow play is . Court theatre was the refined version of popular theatre. Beginning in the 19th century, Western theatre tradition started appearing in Turkey. Following the establishment of Turkish Republic, a state conservatory and the State Theatre Company were formed. Turkey's visual arts scene can be categorized into two, as "decorative" and "fine" arts. Fine arts, or , includes sculpture and history of Modern Turkish painting, painting. Turkish artists in these areas have gained global recognition. Photography, fashion design, graphic arts, and graphic design are some of the other areas Turkish artists are known for in the world. The inaugural contemporary Turkish art sale by Sotheby's, Sotheby's London was in 2009. Istanbul Modern and the Istanbul Biennial are examples of art galleries or exhibitions of contemporary Turkish art. Turkey has also seen a resurgence of traditional arts. This includes Ottoman-era traditional arts, such as Iznik pottery, ceramics and Anatolian rug, carpets. Textile and carpet design, glass and ceramics, Islamic calligraphy, calligraphy, Paper marbling, paper marbling (ebru) are some of the art forms for which modern-day Turkish artists are recognized as leaders in the Islamic world.

Music and dance

Although classifying genres of Turkish music can be problematic, three broad categories can be considered. These are "Turkish folk music", "Turkish art music", and multiple popular music styles. These Popular music styles include Arabesque (Turkish music), arabesque, pop, and Anatolian rock. The resurging popularity of pop music gave rise to several international Turkish pop stars such as Ajda Pekkan, Sezen Aksu, Erol Evgin, MFÖ, Tarkan (singer), Tarkan, Sertab Erener, Teoman (singer), Teoman, Kenan Doğulu, Levent Yüksel and Hande Yener. Internationally acclaimed Turkish jazz and blues musicians and composers include Ahmet Ertegun, Ahmet Ertegun.

Architecture

Turkey is home to numerous

settlements, such as

. From the Bronze Age, important architectural remnants include

and the Troy#Troy II, 2nd layer of Troy. There are various examples of Ancient Greek architecture, Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman architecture, Ancient Roman architectures, especially in the Aegean region. Byzantine architecture dates back to the 4th century AD. Its best example is Hagia Sophia. Byzantine architectural style continued to develop after the Fall of Constantinople, conquest of Istanbul, such as Neo-Byzantine architecture, Byzantine Revival architecture. During Sultanate of Rum, Seljuk Sultanate of Rum and Turkish principalities period, a distinct architecture emerged, which incorporated Byzantine and Armenian architecture, Armenian architectures with architectural styles found in

and

. Anatolian Seljuk architecture, Seljuk architecture often used stones and bricks, and produced numerous caravanserais, madrasas and mausoleums. Ottoman architecture emerged in northwest Anatolia and Thrace. Early Ottoman architecture mixed "traditional Anatolian Islamic architecture with local building materials and techniques". Following the conquest of Istanbul, classical Ottoman architecture emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries. The most important architect of the classical period is Mimar Sinan, whose major works include the Şehzade Mosque, Süleymaniye Mosque, and Selimiye Mosque, Edirne, Selimiye Mosque. Beginning in the 18th century, Ottoman architecture was influenced by European elements, resulting in development of Ottoman Baroque architecture, Ottoman baroque style. European influence continued in the 19th century; examples include works of Balyan family such as Baroque Revival architecture, neo-Baroque style Dolmabahçe Palace. The last period of Ottoman architecture consists of the First National Architectural Movement, including works of Vedat Tek and Mimar Kemaleddin. Since 1918, Turkish architecture can be divided into three parts. From 1918 to 1950, the first one includes the First National Architectural Movement period, which transitioned into Modern architecture, modernist architecture. Modernist and monumental buildings were preferred for public buildings, whereas "Turkish house" type vernacular architecture influenced private houses. From 1950 to 1980, the second part includes urbanization, modernization, and internationalization. For residential housing, "reinforced concrete, slab-block, medium-rise apartments" became prevalent. Since 1980, the third part is defined by consumer habits and international trends, such as shopping malls and office towers. Luxury residences with "Turkish house style" have been in demand. In the 21st century, urban renewal projects have become a trend. Resilience against natural disasters such as earthquakes is one of the main goals for urban renewal projects. Around one-third of Turkey's building stock, corresponding to 6.7 million units, were assessed risky and needing urban renewal.

Cuisine

Turkey has a diverse and rich cuisine, varying geographically. Turkish cuisine has been influenced by Anatolian, Mediterranean cuisine, Mediterranean, Iranian cuisine, Iranian, Central Asian cuisine, Central Asian, and Asian cuisine#East Asian cuisine, East Asian cuisines. Turkish and Ottoman cuisine have also influenced others. Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, from the 11th century, documents "the ancient lineage of much of present-day Turkish cuisine". Güveç, Bulgur, and Börek are some of the earliest recorded examples of Turkish cuisine. Even though kebab as a word comes from Persian language, Persian, Turkic people had been familiar with using skewers to cook meat. Turkish cuisine can be distinguished by its various kinds of kebabs. Similarly, pilaf dishes were influenced by Turkish cuisine. Further information about cuisine during the Seljuk and Ottoman periods comes from the works of Rumi and Evliya Çelebi. The latter describes "food-related guilds of Istanbul". Food staples in Turkey include bread and yogurt. Some of bread varieties are lavash and (a type of pita bread). Ayran is a drink made of yoghurt. In western parts of Turkey, olive oil is used. Grains include wheat, maize, barley, oats, and millet. Beans, chickpeas, nuts, aubergines, and lamb are some of the commonly used ingredients. Doner kebab, originally from Turkey, is marinated lamb slices cooked vertically. Seafood includes anchovy and others. Dolma varieties and are made by stuffing vegetables or pasta. Sarma (food), Sarma is made by rolling edible leaf over the filling. Yahni dishes are vegetable stews. Turkey is one of the countries with the meze tradition. Honey, pekmez, dried fruit, or fruit are used for sweetening. Filo is an originally Turkish dough that is used to make baklava. Turkish delight is a "delicate but gummy jelly".

Sports

The most popular sport is association football. Galatasaray S.K. (football), Galatasaray won the 2000 UEFA Cup Final, UEFA Cup and 2000 UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Super Cup in 2000. The Turkey national football team won the bronze medal at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup and UEFA Euro 2008. Other mainstream sports such as basketball and volleyball are also popular. The Turkey men's national basketball team, men's national basketball team and Turkey women's national basketball team, women's national basketball team have been successful. Anadolu Efes S.K. is the most successful Turkish basketball club in international competitions. Fenerbahçe Men's Basketball, Fenerbahçe reached the final of the EuroLeague in three consecutive seasons (2015–16 Euroleague, 2015–2016, 2016–17 EuroLeague, 2016–2017 and 2017–18 EuroLeague, 2017–2018), becoming the European champions in 2017. Vakifbanksk2018cl

The final of the 2013–14 EuroLeague Women basketball championship was played between two Turkish teams, Galatasaray S.K. (women's basketball), Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe Women's Basketball, Fenerbahçe, and won by Galatasaray. Fenerbahçe won the 2023 FIBA Europe SuperCup Women after two consecutive Euroleague wins in the 2022–23 EuroLeague Women, 2022–23 and 2023–24 EuroLeague Women, 2023–24 seasons. The Turkey women's national volleyball team, women's national volleyball team has won several medals. Women's volleyball clubs, namely VakıfBank S.K., Fenerbahçe Women's Volleyball, Fenerbahçe and Eczacıbaşı Dynavit, Eczacıbaşı, have won numerous European championship titles and medals. The traditional national sport of Turkey has been Oil wrestling, yağlı güreş (''olive oil, oil wrestling'') since Ottoman times. Edirne Province has hosted the annual Kırkpınar oil wrestling tournament since 1361, making it the oldest continuously held sporting competition in the world. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, oil wrestling champions such as Yusuf İsmail, Koca Yusuf, Nurullah Hasan and Kızılcıklı Mahmut acquired international fame in Europe and North America by winning world heavyweight wrestling championship titles. International wrestling styles governed by International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles, FILA such as freestyle wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling are also popular, with many European, World and Olympic championship titles won by Turkish wrestlers both individually and as a national team.

Media and cinema

Hundreds of television channels, thousands of local and national radio stations, several dozen newspapers, a productive and profitable cinema of Turkey, national cinema and a rapid growth of broadband Internet use constitute a vibrant media industry in Turkey. The majority of the TV audiences are shared among public broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, TRT and the network-style channels such as Kanal D, Show TV, ATV (Turkey), ATV and Star TV (Turkey), Star TV. The broadcast media have a very high penetration as satellite dishes and cable television, cable systems are widely available.Turkey country profile
Library of Congress Federal Research Division (January 2006). ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.'' The RTÜK, Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) is the government body overseeing the broadcast media. By circulation, the List of newspapers in Turkey, most popular newspapers are ''Posta (newspaper), Posta'', ''Hürriyet'', ''Sözcü'', ''Sabah (newspaper), Sabah'' and ''Habertürk''. Filiz Akın, Fatma Girik, Hülya Koçyiğit, and Türkan Şoray represent their period of Turkish cinema. Turkish directors like Metin Erksan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Yılmaz Güney, Zeki Demirkubuz and Ferzan Özpetek won numerous international awards such as the and Golden Bear. Turkish television dramas are increasingly becoming popular beyond Turkey's borders and are among the country's most vital exports, both in terms of profit and public relations. After sweeping the

's television market over the past decade, Turkish shows have aired in more than a dozen South America, South and Central American countries in 2016. Turkey is today the world's second largest exporter of television series.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

General
OECD Data Türkiye
* Tourism *
Go Türkiye – Türkiye's official tourism portal

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* Government
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Official website of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye
Economy
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See also

Notes

References

Sources

External links