Proper noun

Singular Turkey

Plural -

Turkey

1. Country at the intersection of Europe and Asia on the Mediterranean. Official name: Republic of Turkey.

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhichevan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea and Archipelago are to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. Separating Anatolia and Thrace are the Sea of Marmara and the Turkish Straits (the Bosporus and the Dardanelles), which are commonly reckoned to delineate the boundary between Asia and Europe, thereby making Turkey transcontinental.

Turkey is the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, a major historical power which lasted for more than six centuries on three continents, controlling most of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. As a result, Turkey's culture has a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition. A prominent regional presence in the Eurasian landmass with strong historic, cultural and economic influence in the area between Europe in the west and Central Asia in the east, Russia in the north and the Middle East in the south, Turkey has come to acquire increasing strategic significance.

Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Since then, Turkey has become increasingly integrated with the West through membership in organizations such as the Council of Europe, NATO, OECD, OSCE and the G-20 major economies. Turkey began full membership negotiations with the European Union in 2005, having been an associate member of the EEC since 1963, and having reached a customs union agreement in 1995. Meanwhile, Turkey has continued to foster close cultural, political, economic and industrial relations with the Eastern world, particularly with the states of the Middle East and Central Asia, through membership in organizations such as the OIC and ECO. Turkey is classified as a developed country by the CIA and as a regional power by political scientists and economists worldwide.

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), officially the Republic of Turkey, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwestern Asia and the Balkan region of southeastern Europe.

Sourced

• We became acquainted we found the people, whether Christian or Turkish, prevailingly of a friendly, kindly, progressive type, as is often the case with simple-minded people in times of peace.
  • George Edward White (1940). Adventuring with Anatolia College. Herald-Register. pp. p. 18.

• I always liked the common Turkish people unless they were stirred to passion by militarists.
  • George Edward White (1940). Adventuring with Anatolia College. Herald-Register. pp. p. 18.

• In the College two classes were called preparatory, while four bore the ordinary college class names. The schools from which our students came did not carry them far. When Americans first came to Turkey, hardly any vernacular was taught anywhere. Instruction was in classic tongues and religious lore. But our students for the most part came with a purpose in modern life. They wanted to attain a worth-while and useful manhood and they felt that the College could give them a start.
  • George Edward White (1940). Adventuring with Anatolia College. Herald-Register. pp. p. 19.

• One student told me in after years that when he came to Marsovan [a city in Turkey] he was really illiterate, that is, he could not fairly read his native tongue, or any other. But he had no chance of learning more in his native village. For a number of months he was cow-boy for an American family, and eagerly studying too.
  • George Edward White (1940). Adventuring with Anatolia College. Herald-Register. pp. p. 19.

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Tue Jul 7 11:04:30 2009