Portal:Turkey

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

Merhaba! Türkiye portalına hoşgeldiniz. Hi! Welcome to the Turkey portal.

Flag of Turkey

Shortcut

P:TR

Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly in Anatolia in West Asia, with a smaller part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq, Syria, and the Mediterranean Sea (and Cyprus) to the south; and the Aegean Sea, Greece, and Bulgaria to the west. Turkey is home to over 85 million people; most are ethnic Turks, while ethnic Kurds are the largest ethnic minority. Officially a secular state, Turkey has a Muslim-majority population. Ankara is Turkey's capital and second-largest city; Istanbul is its largest city, and its economic and financial center, as well as the largest city in Europe. Other major cities include İzmir, Bursa and Antalya.

Human habitation began in the Late Paleolithic. Home to important Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe and some of the earliest farming areas, present-day Turkey was inhabited by various ancient peoples. Hattians were assimilated by the incoming Anatolian peoples. Increasing diversity during Classical Anatolia transitioned into cultural Hellenization following the conquests of Alexander the Great; Hellenization continued during the Roman and Byzantine eras. The Seljuk Turks began migrating into Anatolia in the 11th century, starting the Turkification process. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into Turkish principalities. Beginning in 1299, the Ottomans united the principalities and expanded; Mehmed II conquered Istanbul in 1453. During the reigns of Selim I and Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire became a global power. From 1789 onwards, the empire saw major transformation, reforms, and centralization while its territory declined.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction and in the Russian Empire resulted in large-scale loss of life and mass migration into modern-day Turkey from the Balkans, Caucasus, and Crimea. Under the control of the Three Pashas, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I in 1914, during which the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Greek and Assyrian subjects. After its defeat, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned. The Turkish War of Independence resulted in the abolition of the sultanate in 1922 and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The Republic was proclaimed on 29 October 1923, modelled on the reforms initiated by the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Turkey remained neutral during most of World War II, but was involved in the Korean War. Coups in 1960 and 1980 interrupted the transition to a multi-party system.

Turkey is an upper-middle-income and emerging country; its economy is the 18th- or 11th-largest in the world. It is a unitary presidential republic. Turkey is a founding member of the OECD, G20, and Organization of Turkic States. With a geopolitically significant location, Turkey is a regional power and an early member of NATO. An EU-candidate, Turkey is part of the EU Customs Union, CoE, OIC, and TURKSOY. Turkey has coastal plains, a high central plateau, and various mountain ranges; its climate is temperate with harsher conditions in the interior. Home to three biodiversity hotspots, Turkey is prone to frequent earthquakes and is highly vulnerable to climate change. Turkey has universal healthcare, growing access to education, and increasing innovativeness. It is a leading TV content exporter. With 21 UNESCO World Heritage sites, 30 UNESCO intangible cultural heritage inscriptions, and a rich and diverse cuisine, Turkey is the fourth most visited country in the world. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

The piers of Hasankeyf's Old Bridge over the Tigris river, as seen in 2012. Since 2020 they have been submerged underwater due to the completion of the Ilısu Dam.

The Old Bridge (Turkish: Eski Köprü), also known as the Old Tigris Bridge, is a ruined four-arch bridge spanning the Tigris River in the town of Hasankeyf in Batman Province in southeastern Turkey. It was built by the Artuqid Turkmens in the mid-12th century, between about 1147 and 1167, and at the time its central arch was one of the largest in the world, if not the largest. The bridge was repaired by Ayyubid Kurdish and Aq Qoyunlu Turkmen rulers during the 14th and 15th centuries and appears to have eventually collapsed in the early or mid-17th century. The bridge's ruined piers still stand (two of them in the Tigris River), as does one arch. Since 2020 the ruins of the bridge, along with most of the town of Hasankeyf, have been submerged underwater by the filling of the Ilısu Dam reservoir. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

General images

The following are images from various Turkey-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Turkish coffee (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 2Designed by Şekip Akalın, Ankara Central Station (1937) is a notable art deco design of its era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 3Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem (1847–1914) was another prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 4Namık Kemal was a prominent Turkish poet, novelist, playwright and journalist of the late-19th-century Ottoman Empire. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 5Turkish delight (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 6Interior of the Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 7Ortaköy Mosque in the first quarter of the 20th century (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 8Map of the Hittite Empire at its greatest extent, with Hittite rule c. 1350–1300 BC represented by the green line (from History of Turkey)
Image 9Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca was one of the most prolific Turkish poets of the Turkish Republic with more than 60 collections of his poems published, laureate of the Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Award. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 10Yalikavak Palmarina in Bodrum (2014) designed by Emre Arolat (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 11Lake Van (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 12Anıtkabir designed by Emin Halid Onat and Ahmet Orhan Arda (1944–53) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 13The Ishak Pasha Palace, Eastern Turkey. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 14First Ziraat Bank Headquarters (1925–29) in Ankara designed by Giulio Mongeri is an important symbol of the First National Architectural Movement. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 15Köppen climate types of Turkey (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 16Map showing the Anatolian Plate, the North Anatolian Fault and East Anatolian Fault in Turkey. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 17Ankara (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 18Night view of the Taksim Mosque (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 19An Oil wrestling tournament in Istanbul. This has been the national sport of Turkey since Ottoman times. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 20A view from the interior of a traditional Turkish house, by John Frederick Lewis (1805–1875) (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 21Map of the Lydian Kingdom in its final period of sovereignty under Croesus, c. 547 BC. (from History of Turkey)
Image 22The empire in 555 under Justinian the Great, at its greatest extent since the fall of the Western Roman Empire (its vassals in pink) (from History of Turkey)
Image 23Turkish national basketball team won the silver medal in the 2010 FIBA World Championship. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 24Butterfly Valley on the Turkish Riviera. (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 25Thrace and the Thracian Odrysian kingdom in its maximum extent under Sitalces (431-424 BC) (from History of Turkey)
Image 26Adnan Menderes, İsmet İnönü, and the other members of the Parliament wearing a white tie and top hat. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 27Originally a church, later a mosque, and now a Grand mosque, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was built by the Byzantines in the 6th century. (from History of Turkey)
Image 28Istanbul (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 29Mount Ararat (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 30Mehmed II enters Constantinople by Fausto Zonaro (from History of Turkey)
Image 31The Fountain of Ahmed III is an iconic example of Tulip period architecture (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 32Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 33Istanbul Sapphire (2006–11) is the tallest building in Turkey and 4th in Europe. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 34Map of earthquakes in Turkey 1900–2023 (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 35A view of Levent from Kanlıca across the Bosporus (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 36The Nation's Library of the Presidency, Ankara (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 37One of the main entrance gates of the Dolmabahçe Palace. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 38Mount Erciyes near Kayseri (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 39The Bath-Gymnasium complex at Sardis in Turkey. (from History of Turkey)
Image 40Antalya (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 41View of Beydağları Coastal National Park (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 42Beaches and marina of Kemer near Antalya on the Turkish Riviera (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 43Atatürk on the cover of the Time magazine, Vol. I No. 4, March 24, 1923. Title: "Mustapha Kemal Pasha" (from History of Turkey)
Image 44Karagöz and Hacivat are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 45Kaçkar Mountains (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 46The Ottoman Empire in 1683, at the start of the Great Turkish War (1683–1699) (from History of Turkey)
Image 47Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915) was a prominent Turkish poet of the late Ottoman era. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 48Map showing events of the first phases of the Greco-Persian Wars (from History of Turkey)
Image 49View from Levent district in Istanbul. Istanbul's skyline has changed especially since the early 2000s. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 50Orhan Veli Kanık was the founder of the Garip Movement in Turkish poetry. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 51Roosevelt, İnönü and Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference which was held between 4–6 December 1943. (from History of Turkey)
Image 52Mount Nemrut, Adıyaman (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 53Topkapı Palace, Istanbul. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 54View of Dilek Peninsula-Büyük Menderes Delta National Park (from Geography of Turkey)
Image 55Sami Frashëri (1850–1904) and his wife Emine, May 1884. (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 56Ankara Opera House, designed by Şevki Balmumcu (1933–34) and renovation by Paul Bonatz (1946–47). (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 57Istanbul University Faculty of Science and Faculty of Literature Buildings (1944–52) designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Emin Onat (from Culture of Turkey)
Image 58The sultan of the golden age, Suleiman the Magnificent. (from History of Turkey)

Did you know - show different entries

... that the Shrapnel Valley Cemetery at Gallipoli is named after the distinctive sound produced by shrapnel in the area? (October 13, 2007)
... that Turkish serial killer Özgür Dengiz broke into fits of laughter when discussing his cannibalism? (December 1, 2007) Wikipedia:Recent additions 190
... that the largest oil field in Turkey lies near the city of Batman and the Batman River? (March 1, 2011)
... that ten days before the ratification of the Peace of Szeged, Vladislaus, King of Hungary, swore an oath which invalidated it and all future treaties with the Ottoman Empire? (May 25, 2007) Wikipedia:Recent additions 143
... that the Brig "Mercury" Attacked by Two Turkish Ships
(pictured) was one of over 3,000 seascapes painted by Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky? (August 10, 2007) Wikipedia:Recent additions 161
... that the Milion
(pictured) of Constantinople was the origin of all the roads into the European cities of the Byzantine Empire? (February 27, 2008)
... that a hydro dam was built by a state agency within the borders of the Munzur Valley National Park in Turkey, violating the existing laws for its protection? (October 28, 2010)

More did you know

edit

Selected picture

Image 1Mount Nemrut
Image 2The tughra of Mahmud II. "Mahmud Han bin Abdulhamid muzaffer daima" ("Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious").
Image 3Atatürk praying
Image 4the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne
Image 5Ölüdeniz
Image 61. picture on portal: The prominent towers of Dayro d-Mor Gabriel; 15th December 2005
Image 7Tünel, Istanbul
Image 8the Bosphorus Bridge
Image 9Lahmacun
Image 10Iznik, 16th-century vase
Image 11The sun setting over the Golden Horn in the city of Istanbul.
Image 12The ancient Lake Abant Nature Park in Bolu
Image 13The Temple of Athena at Priene, an ancient site near Turunçlar in Aydın province.
Image 14An airplane with a nazar boncuğu symbol that is said to offer protection from the "evil eye".
Image 15A Kocek
Image 1618th-century Ottoman barber's apron
Image 17Safranbolu
Image 18Antalya
Image 19Aydilge Sarp; Turkish singer, songwriter and novelist
Image 20Flag of Turkey, from flowers
Image 21Kemer
Image 22A faculty of Sakarya University
Image 23Lake Akdoğan in Muş
Image 24A tram in Istanbul
Image 25Cappadocia
Image 26Tarkan with Hungarian fans
Image 27Rize

Selected biography - show another

Erener in 2019

Sertab Erener (born 4 December 1964) is a Turkish singer, songwriter and composer. With her coloratura soprano voice, she started working as a backing vocalist for Sezen Aksu, and with Aksu's help she released her first studio album in the 1990s. Because of her education in classical music, she initially had difficulties in performing pop music. Although she did experimental works from time to time, she eventually preferred to focus on making pop music instead of avant-garde works, in order to make her music heard by a larger audience. In some of her works, she combined Western music and Eastern music, and benefited from operas as well as classical Turkish music with ethnic elements. With her entrance to Europe's market in the early 2000s, many of her works were also sold in Turkey as well as European countries.

With Sezen Aksu's help, she made her debut in 1992 with the album Sakin Ol!, and made herself known as a Turkish pop music artist in the 1990s by releasing the albums Lâ'l (1994), Sertab Gibi (1997) and Sertab Erener (1999). From these albums, the songs "Sakin Ol!", "Aldırma Deli Gönlüm", "Ateşle Barut", "Sevdam Ağlıyor", "Aslolan Aşktır", "Yanarım", "Zor Kadın" and "Vur Yüreğim" became number-one hits in Turkey. In the early 2000s, she continued her work by releasing the songs "Kumsalda" and "Kendime Yeni Bir Ben Lazım". She won the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Everyway That I Can", marking Turkey's first victory in the competition. In 2004, she released the album No Boundaries, followed by Aşk Ölmez in 2005. After five years, she released another Turkish studio album Rengârenk in 2010, and the hit songs "Bu Böyle", "Açık Adres" and "Koparılan Çiçekler" made the album a successful work, and marked her return to the music market. After Rengârenk, she released the album Ey Şuh-i Sertab (2012), which was dedicated to her father. At the same year, she received the Best Female TSM Soloist award at the Golden Butterfly Awards. In 2013, her new album Sade was released. The songs "İyileşiyorum", "Öyle de Güzel" and "Söz" all became hits in Turkey. In 2016, with the release of Kırık Kalpler Albümü, Erener stated that she was returning to her 90s style. The album received favorable reviews, and "Kime Diyorum" and "Olsun" both became hit songs in Turkey. (Full article...)

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

edit

Selected video - show another

Lake Bafa Nature Park, 2015

More selected videos
Videos from Turkey on Wikimedia Commons

edit

Selected quote - show another

“

Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.

”

~ Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

More selected quotes
Turkish proverbs in Wikiquote

edit

Recognized content

	Alanya, Byzantine Empire, SMS Goeben, The Turk, List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, Italian War of 1521–1526, Italian War of 1542–1546, List of battleships of the Ottoman Empire, Rhodes blood libel
	2004 Istanbul summit, 2008 Turkish Grand Prix, Battle of Manzikert, Battle of Marash, Battle of Vaslui, Church of St. Polyeuctus, First Crusade, Great Zab, Hood event, Limyra Bridge, Siege of Szigetvár, Night Attack at Târgoviște, Third Perso-Turkic War, Walls of Constantinople, Gallipoli Campaign, Battle of Lone Pine