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The largest cities in Turkey are Istanbul Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Adana and Gaziantep
The region occupied by Turkey is one of the oldest continually inhabited areas in the world, reaching back to Neolithic times.
Turkey sat at the centre of the Ottoman Empire, which lasted from the 13th Century until the end of World War One, when the Allies sought its dismemberment via the Treaty of Sèvres, due to its involvement with the Germans.
After the United States, Turkey has the largest standing armed force in NATO.
Turkey's accession to the European Union is complicated by its involvement with the issue of Cyprus, which it does not recognise, and resulting struggles with Greece. However, Turkey will eventually become part of the EU, and in recent years, its relationship with Greece has improved tremendously.
Turkey is a parliamentary representative democracy, founded as a Republic in 1923, and boasts a constitution which governs the country's legal framework.
GEOGRAPHY
Turkey is geographically divided into seven regions: Marmara, Aegean, Black Sea, Central Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia, Southeastern Anatolia, and the Mediterranean.
It is encircled by three seas, the Aegean to the west, the Mediterranean to the south, and the Black Sea to the north, and also contains the Sea of Marmara to the northwest.
The landscape of Turkey is varied, and ranges from mountainous areas to arid plains, with more than 80% of the country of limited agricultural value.
Turkey's highest peak is Mount Ararat, at 5,166 metres, situated near the borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran.
CLIMATE
The Turkish climate can be described as Mediterranean, with hot, dry summers (approximately 30C maximum) and wet, cold winters (below 1C).
However, the coastal mountains give the interior four distinct seasons, and winter temperatures are far colder on the central Anatolian Plateau, where it can reach -40C.
CURRENCY
The Turkish currency is the New Turkish Lira.
FOOD
Most Turkish dishes are good combinations of well balanced foods and/or ingredients. For example: Dolma and Sarma (stuffed and wrapped vegetables), soups made with lentils, meat and vegetables, rice or bulgur from Bread-Cereals group and finally yogurt, which is served with most of these dishes. Meat and vegetable stews are always served with rice or bulgur pilafs. The main ingredient of Borek is plain or raised dough made from egg, milk, yogurt, oil and flour. Meat, cheese, vegetables with herbs and a variety of seasonings are used as fillings in borek.
Yogurt-based soups with a variety of cereals and meat and /or legume mixtures are also perfect combinations. Dried legumes are combined with vegetables, meat and cereals. Pilafs are made with meat, chicken, fish and or variety vegetables. Pilafs are also good side dishes for dried vegetables. They are usually served with ayran or cacik. Kebabs are prepared with vegetables and served with Turkish bread pilaffs and ayran.
Desserts are mostly pastry-based, and commonly include nuts and syrup. The most popular desserts include Baklava, lokma, tulumba tatlisi, kadayif and
kunefe.
LANGUAGE
The history of the language is divided into three main groups, old Turkish (from the 7th to the 13th centuries), mid-Turkish (from the 13th to the 20th) and new Turkish from the 20th century onwards. During the Ottoman Empire period Arabic and Persian words invaded the Turkish language and it consequently became mixed with three different languages. During the Ottoman period which spanned five centuries, the natural development of Turkish was severely hampered. Turkish formed the basis for Ottoman Turkish, the written language of the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Turkish was basically Turkish in structure, but with a heavy overlay of Arabic and Persian vocabulary and an occasional grammatical influence. Ottoman Turkish co-existed with spoken Turkish, with the latter being considered a "gutter language" and not worthy of study. Ottoman Turkish, and the spoken language were both represented with an Arabic script.
Then there was the "new language" movement started by Kemal Atatürk. In 1928, five years after the proclamation of the Republic, the Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin one, which in turn speeded up the movement to rid the language of foreign words. Prior to the reform that introduced the Roman script, Turkish was written in the Arabic script. Up to the fifteenth century the Anatolian Turks used the Uighur script to write Turkish. The Turkish Language Institute (Turk Dil Kurumu) was established in 1932 to carry out linguistic research and contribute to the natural development of the language. As a consequence of these efforts, modern Turkish is a literary and cultural language developing naturally and free of foreign influences. Today literacy rates in Turkey are over 90%.
Like all of the Turkic languages, Turkish is agglutinative, that is, grammatical functions are indicated by adding various suffixes to stems. Separate suffixes on nouns indicate both gender and number, but there is no grammatical gender. Nouns are declined in three declensions with six case endings: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, and ablative; number is marked by a plural suffix. Verbs agree with their subjects in case and number, and, as in nouns, separate identifiable suffixes perform these functions..
Turkish has 8 vowels, and 21 consonants. It also has Turkic vowel harmony in which the vowels of suffixes must harmonize with the vowels of noun and verb stems; thus, for example, if the stem has a round vowel then the vowel of the suffix must be round, and so on. Stress on words pronounced in isolation is on the final syllable, but in discourse, stress assignment is complicated especially in the verb.
AIRPORTS
Turkey has several convenient and well-equipped airports that have opened up otherwise out-of-reach places and air tickets with the national carrier are reasonably priced. There are ten airports in Turkey, many of which accept international flights and have good transportation links.
Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport is located to the east of the city and serves millions of domestic and international passengers that pass through its two terminals each year. Flights go to numerous destinations around the world and throughout Turkey and connections with Istanbuls second airport are good. Istanbul Atatürk International Airport also received many flights and a regular shuttle bus runs between the citys two airports. The Seabus Port is also an option for travelling to neighbouring cities.
On the beautiful south coast of Turkey lies the busy Antalya International Airport, which boasts a capacity to handle three-million passengers per year and is open 24 hours a day. Situated to the east of Antalya, Antalya Airport has three terminals - one for domestic, one for international and one for cargo. A shuttle bus provides transport to the nearby resorts and hotels, while taxis are also readily available.
Located to the west of Antalya and also on the Mediterranean coast is the modern Dalaman International Airport, which handles three-million passengers per year who pass through its two terminals. There are regular flights from Istanbul as well as direct flights to European destinations. The airport is open 24 hours a day and is situated very near to the city, with transport links provided by buses and taxis.
Milas-Bodrum Airport (airport code: BJV), everybody calls it simply
Bodrum Airport. The modern airport, built during the late 1990s, is 36 km (21 miles) northeast of Bodrum, 16 km (10 miles) south of Milas, just north of the
Güllük intersection
The International Terminal (Dis Hatlar) and
Domestic Terminal (Iç Hatlar) are about 1 km apart, separated by grassy fields. It's about a 15-minute walk across the fields between the terminals, longer if you walk on the roads.
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