Turkey

Ankara serves as the political, cultural and economic heart of Turkey, positioned in Western Asia. As the seat of government and often the most populous city, it concentrates the country's main institutions, universities and cultural landmarks. Beyond the capital, major cities include Istanbul, İzmir, Bursa — each a hub of regional culture, economy and history. Ankara was chosen as Turkey's capital by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923 specifically because it lay in the Anatolian heartland rather than the cosmopolitan Ottoman Istanbul — a deliberate statement that the new republic would be built from the interior out, and the Anıtkabir mausoleum, where Atatürk is interred, receives over 10 million visitors annually.

With a population of approximately 85.3M, Turkey is a vibrant society with a rich mix of traditions and communities. The official language is Turkish, which reflects the country's cultural heritage and connects it with a wide international community. Internationally, Turkey is reached via the dialling code +90. Çay — black tea brewed in a double-stacked kettle and served in tulip-shaped glasses — is consumed at a rate of 3.5 kilograms per person per year, making Turkey the world's highest per-capita tea consumer, and the tea house, the çay evi, functions as the primary venue for male social life across the country's smaller cities and villages.

Turkey spans 783,562 km², in the Western Asia subregion of Asia. Geographically centred around 39.0°N, 35.0°E, the country offers a diverse range of landscapes shaped by its location, climate and geology. Road traffic follows the right-hand rule, in line with surrounding Asia convention.

The official currency is the Turkish lira (₺), used for everyday transactions and commerce throughout the country. Turkey's economy is shaped by its geography, natural resources and trade relationships. Business and daily life operate under UTC+03:00, aligning the country with its regional neighbours.

The emblematic dish of Turkey is Döner Kebab. Döner Kebab's rotating spit was developed in 19th-century Bursa, where chef Hacı İskender Efendi is credited with inventing the horizontal stacking method around 1860 — the Turkish original, served over bread with tomato sauce and browned butter, bears little resemblance to the Berlin döner that German-Turkish migrants transformed into Europe's most consumed street food.

Football / Wrestling holds a special place in the heart of Turkey's national identity. Turkish oil wrestling, Yağlı Güreş, practised since the 14th century at the Kırkpınar tournament in Edirne — the world's oldest continuously running sporting competition — involves wrestlers covering themselves in olive oil and competing without a time limit, an event that has continued uninterrupted since 1362.

The highest point in Turkey is Mount Ararat, rising to 5,137 metres above sea level. Cappadocia's fairy chimneys — volcanic tuff columns sculpted by differential erosion over millions of years — were hollowed into cave churches, monasteries and underground cities by Byzantine-era communities, some descending eleven storeys beneath the surface, and the landscape at dawn, covered in hot-air balloons, has become one of the world's most replicated travel images.