A Country Straddling Two Continents and Several Civilisations
Turkey is, geographically and culturally, the world’s most consequential bridge — a country with 97% of its territory in Asia (Anatolia) and 3% in Europe (Eastern Thrace), with the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and dividing Istanbul itself between the two continents. The country has been the heart of successive world-historical empires — the Hittites, the Persians, Alexander’s Macedonia, Rome, the Byzantine Empire (1,123 years), and the Ottoman Empire (623 years) — each of which shaped global civilisation in ways that survive in modern Turkey’s cultural geography.
The modern Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk after the Ottoman Empire’s collapse following WWI. Atatürk’s republic embarked on one of the most radical modernisation programmes of the 20th century — switching the alphabet from Arabic to Latin script, replacing Islamic law with Swiss-modelled civil law, banning the fez, granting women voting rights (1934, before France or Italy), and aggressively secularising public life.
Modern Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has dominated politics since 2003 (as Prime Minister 2003-2014, then President), has rolled back significant elements of Atatürk’s secular project, pursued a more assertive foreign policy across the former Ottoman world, and weathered cycles of economic crisis driven partly by unorthodox monetary policy. The country’s official name was rebranded as “Türkiye” in international use in 2022.
A Brief History
Ancient Anatolia
Anatolia hosts some of the oldest evidence of human civilisation — Göbekli Tepe (c. 9500 BC) is the world’s oldest known temple complex, predating Stonehenge by 7,000 years and agriculture itself by some estimates. The Hittite Empire (c. 1600-1180 BC) was a major Bronze Age power. Greek and Persian civilisations contested the territory through classical antiquity.
Roman and Byzantine
Constantinople (modern Istanbul) was founded by Roman Emperor Constantine in 330 AD as the new Roman capital, eventually becoming the heart of the Byzantine Empire — the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire that lasted until 1453. Byzantine civilisation preserved Greek classical learning, codified Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and dominated eastern Mediterranean politics for over a thousand years.
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire. Under sultans like Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), the Ottoman Empire became one of the world’s largest, controlling the Balkans, the Levant, Egypt, North Africa, and Mesopotamia. The empire declined through the 17th-19th centuries before final collapse after WWI.
Atatürk’s Republic
The War of Turkish Independence (1919-1923) under Atatürk produced the modern republic. Atatürk’s reforms transformed the country: Latin alphabet (1928), abolition of the caliphate (1924), women’s suffrage (1934, decades before France), surname law (1934), language reform replacing Persian and Arabic borrowings with Turkish-rooted words.
Modern Turkey
Turkey joined NATO in 1952. Cold War-era political instability included three military coups (1960, 1971, 1980) and an attempted coup (2016). EU accession negotiations began in 2005 but have stalled since.
The 1999 İzmit and 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes were among the deadliest natural disasters in the country’s modern history; the 2023 quake killed over 50,000 people in Turkey alone.
Geography and Climate
Turkey covers 783,562 km² — roughly the size of Texas plus Oklahoma — with extraordinary geographical variety: the fertile coasts of the Aegean and Mediterranean, the dry interior plateau of central Anatolia, the Pontic Mountains along the Black Sea coast, the Taurus Mountains in the south, and the highlands of eastern Anatolia approaching 5,000 metres at Mount Ararat (5,137 m).
Climate
Coastal areas have a Mediterranean climate; the interior is continental with hot summers and cold winters; the eastern highlands experience severe alpine winters.
Culture, Language and Religion
Turkish is a Turkic language unrelated to Indo-European or Semitic languages. The 1928 alphabet reform replaced the Arabic script with Latin letters; the language was further reshaped to reduce Persian and Arabic loanwords.
Turkey is approximately 99% Muslim (mostly Sunni, with significant Alevi minority). The constitution declares Turkey a secular state, though the practical balance between secularism and religious expression has shifted substantially under Erdoğan.
The Economy
Turkey has the world’s 17th-largest economy (~$1.1 trillion GDP in 2024). Key sectors: manufacturing (cars, white goods, textiles, clothing — Turkey is one of Europe’s largest car manufacturers), construction, tourism (around 56 million international visitors in 2023, the world’s 4th-most-visited country), agriculture (Turkey is the world’s largest hazelnut producer and a major exporter of fruits, vegetables, cotton).
The Turkish lira has experienced severe depreciation since 2018; inflation peaked above 85% in 2022 and remains elevated.
Cuisine
Turkish cuisine is one of the world’s great culinary traditions, descended from Ottoman court cooking and incorporating Greek, Levantine, and Central Asian influences:
- Kebabs — countless regional varieties (Adana, Urfa, döner, şiş)
- Mezze — small starter plates (hummus, baba ghanoush, ezme, haydari, dolmas)
- Köfte — meatballs in dozens of regional styles
- Pide and lahmacun — Turkish flatbreads with toppings
- İskender kebap — döner over bread with yogurt and tomato sauce
- Manti — small Turkish dumplings with yogurt
- Baklava — phyllo, nuts, syrup; the Anatolian-Levantine standard
- Turkish coffee — brewed in a cezve, very strong, often with Turkish delight
- Çay (tea) — drunk constantly throughout the day in small tulip-shaped glasses
Nature and UNESCO Sites
Turkey has 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the Historic Areas of Istanbul, Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia, Hierapolis-Pamukkale, Ephesus, Pergamon, Troy, Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens, and Göbekli Tepe.
Travel Guide
Entry
Turkey requires an e-visa for many nationalities (US, UK, Canada, Australia — Schengen visitors enter visa-free). E-visa application is straightforward online.
Best Seasons
- April-June and September-October — the optimal windows for most of the country
- July-August — peak coastal beach season; very hot inland (Cappadocia, eastern Anatolia)
- December-March — winter; best for skiing in northeastern mountains
Transport
Domestic flights connect Istanbul to all major destinations cheaply. Istanbul has two airports — IST (Istanbul Airport, the new main hub) and SAW (Sabiha Gökçen, low-cost carriers).
Budget
Turkey is inexpensive for foreign visitors holding hard currencies — daily mid-range budgets of $50-$100 are comfortable.
Surprising Facts
- Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey is the world’s oldest known megalithic temple complex (around 9,500 BC) — predating Stonehenge by 7,000 years.1
- Tulips originated in the Ottoman Empire and were exported to Europe via Istanbul; the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s was based on Turkish-introduced flowers.6
- Saint Nicholas — the historical inspiration for Santa Claus — was bishop of Myra (modern Demre) on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast in the 4th century.6
- Turkey is the world’s largest producer of hazelnuts — supplying about 70% of global production, mostly grown along the Black Sea coast.4
- The first university in the world is sometimes claimed to be the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, founded by a Tunisian-born woman, but the Madrasa of the Mustansiriya (Baghdad, 1227) and Istanbul’s later Ottoman institutions were comparable.6
- Istanbul spans two continents — the only major city in the world to do so. The Bosphorus Bridge (now formally the 15 July Martyrs Bridge) connects Asia and Europe across the Bosphorus.6
Sources and References
See the list of cited sources in the page frontmatter.