Turkey. Information.
Republic of Turkey (Turkiye), Republic of Turkey, is a bicontinental country located mainly in the Anatolian peninsula, with 3% of its territory located in the Balkan region of Southeastern Europe. Area is 780,580 sq. km. Population is 67,844,903. A Capital is Ankara. Turkey borders eight countries: Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; Georgia, Armenia and the Azerbaijani to the northeast; Iran (Persia) to the east; Iraq and Syria to the south. The Republic of Turkey was established on October 29, 1923 from the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. The origins of modern Turkey can be traced back to the arrival of Turkish tribes in Anatolia in the 11th century, under the Seljuks. Following the Seljuk Turks defeats to the Mongols, a power vacuum allowed for the new Ottoman dynasty to establish itself as a powerful force in the region. In the 16th century, at the height of its power, the Ottoman Empire grew to cover Anatolia, North Africa, the Middle East, South-Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Following its defeat in World War I, Western powers sought to partition the empire through the Treaty of Sevres. With the support of the Allies, Greece had invaded and occupied Izmir as provided for in the Treaty. On May 19, 1919 this prompted the beginning of a nationalist movement under the command of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military commander who had distinguished himself in the Battle of Gallipoli. Kemal Pasha sought to revoke the terms of treaty which had been signed by the Sultan in Istanbul, this involved mobilising every available part of Turkish society in what would become the Turkish War of Independence (Turkish: Kurtulus Savas?). By September 18, 1922 the occupying Entente armies were repelled and the country was liberated. This was followed by the abolition of the Sultan's office by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on November 1, 1922, thus ending 631 years of Ottoman rule. In 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne recognised the sovereignty of a new Turkish Republic, Kemal was granted the name Ataturk (meaning father of Turks) by the National Assembly and would become the republic's first President. Ataturk instituted a wide-range of far reaching reforms with the aim of modernising the new Republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past. There are many different ways of classifying the history of Turkey. The least disputed classification is based on three global periods: the war of independence, the single-party period and the multi-party period. Even if these periods have distinct characteristics, some issues do repeat in every period with subtle differences Money system: 1 lira (TL) = 100 kurush.
