GEOGRAPHY
Turkey borders the Black Sea to the north, Georgia and Armenia to the northeast, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east, Iraq and Syria to the southeast, Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest, the Aegean Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the southwest. The total area is 300,948 square miles. Anatolia, or Asian Turkey, is characterized by highlands and mountains and includes 97 percent of the country. Eastern Thrace forms European Turkey. The Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles divide Turkish Thrace from Asian Turkey and connect the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Agricultural lowlands drained by the Ergene River make up European Turkey. Mount Ararat, measuring 16,853 feet, is the highest peak, located on the border of Armenia and Iran. Principal rivers include the Tigris and the Euphrates, flowing in the eastern part of the country.
INCEPTION AS A NATION
Turkics invaded Asia Minor in the 11th century C. E., defeating the Byzantines and establishing the Seljuk dynasty. The Mongols under Genghis Khan replaced the Seljuk dynasty in the early 13th century. By the late 13th century the ottoman Turks gained further territories from the weakening Byzantine Empire and expelled the Mongols.
The ottomans annexed territory to the west and acquired Turkish principalities in the east. By the 16th century under Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent they ruled much of the Near East, great portions of Eastern Europe, and almost the entirety of North Africa. Internal corruption within the ruling class and a series of wars with Europe, notably the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1768-92, led to major territorial losses.
The ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of World War I (1914-18). The Treaty of Sevres in 1920 greatly reduced the size of Turkey to little more than northern Asia Minor. It also established a permanent Allied presence in the region. Although the sultan accepted the terms of the treaty, Turkish nationals under Kemal Ataturk organized resistance to the treaty and began a program of reconquest, aided by the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1921. By 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne recognized Turkey’s current borders, guaranteeing full autonomy, and Turkey was declared a republic later that year.
CULTURAL IDENTITY
The Turks’ history, most importantly as the builders of the ottoman Empire, which is now gone, and their status as the only major Muslim nation in Europe give rise to contrary ideas of cultural identity. Turks themselves do not all hold to the same ideas on this subject. What are their historical allegiance and geographical orientation? Are they an eastern European or western Asiatic people? Is their primary identity their Muslim religion? Should they consider themselves a product of the culture of Asia Minor, or should they stress their ancestry among nomadic hordes from the Turanian steppes of Asia? Are they descendents of ancient people from Hittites to Romans or the last surviving mercenaries of Genghis Khan of the Mongols? Are they despotic rulers who oppressed minorities, such as the Armenians and the Kurds, or freedom fighters who have defended their lands against others, such as the British? Are the Turks the orphans of the ottoman dynasty, defending the Muslim faith against a new “crusade” led by the United States
TURKS: NATIONALITY nation:
Turkey (Turkiye); Republic of Turkey (Turkiye Cumhuriyeti)
Derivation of name:
Turk, meaning "strong"; iye meaning "owner"; possibly from T’u-chueh, a Chinese name
Government:
Presidential republic
Capital:
Ankara
Language:
Official language is Turkish; Kurdish and Arabic are also spoken.
Religion:
About 98 percent of the population are Muslim; small numbers are Eastern Orthodox Christians and Jews.
Earlier inhabitants:
(in European Turkey) Thracians; Greeks; Macedonians; Romans; Byzantines
Demographics:
About 80 percent of the population are Turkish; Kurds are the largest minority.
In revenge for the September 11, 2001, terrorist Different social groups in Turkey would
Attacks? Are they the invaders of the peaceful give different answers. Peasants, following a way islanders of Cyprus? of life that has existed for millennia, see their
Essential identity as being villagers, living peacefully where their ancestors have lived time out of mind. People in towns, where Islam has a strong hold, consider themselves true Muslims, defending their faith against the infidels. Nomadic tribesmen who still exist in Turkey look to their Turanian roots, considering themselves the bearers of a noble tradition in contradistinction to that of settled peasants. Members of the business community tend to stress ties with Western civilization. Their status as urbanites is most important, making them genuine Westerners, they feel. Politicians consider themselves guardians of the Turkish Republic, entrusted to them by the late, great general and president Kemal Ataturk.
The great differences between the regions of Turkey (Eastern, Western, Black Sea, Southern, etc.) and the many ethnicities and languages (Abhazian, Albanian, Aegean, Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Circassian, Georgian, Greek, Kurdish, Laz, Persian) and religious denominations of Muslims (Sunnites, Shi’ites, Alawis, Bektashis, Mawlavis, Nakshibendis, Tahtajis, etc.) and non-Muslims (Christians, Jews, etc.) make the existence of a single overriding Turkish cultural identity problematic.
Many Turks believe in the importance of a broad worldview but with a unified national identity They hope to overcome economic problems and join the family of developed nations as Turks with a distinct political and cultural tradition. A recent opinion poll taken in Istanbul found that the great majority of people, 69 percent, identify themselves as Turks as against 21 percent who call themselves Muslim Turks and much smaller percentages who consider themselves other identities.
Further Reading
Stephen Kinzer. Crescent and Star: Turkey between Two Worlds (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001).
Bernard Lewis. The Emergence of Modern Turkey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Justin McCarthy. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923 (Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1997). Nicole Pope and Hugh Pope. Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey (New York: Overlook, 2000).
Peter F. Sugar. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804 (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1997).
Erik J. Zurcher. Turkey: A Modern History (New York: St. Martin’s, 1997).
World History
