Turkey  
 

 

The General Information About TURKEY

 

 

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. Turkey borders eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Iran and the Nakhichevan exclave of Azerbaijan to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. In addition, it borders the Black Sea to the north; the Aegean Sea to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Turkey also contains the Sea of Marmara that is used by geographers to mark the border between Europe and Asia, thus making the country transcontinental.

The region comprising modern Turkey has seen the birth of major civilisations including the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Owing to its strategic location at the intersect of two continents, Turkey's culture is a unique blend of eastern and western tradition, often described as a bridge between the two civilisations. With a powerful regional presence from the Adriatic to China in the Eurasian landbelt between Russia and India,[2] Turkey has come to acquire increasing strategic significance.

Turkey is a democratic, secular, 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 the First World War. Since then, Turkey has increasingly integrated with the West while continuing to foster relations with Eastern world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the OIC, the OECD and the OSCE,a member state of the Council of Europe since 1949 and of NATO since 1952. Since 2005, Turkey is in accession negotiations with the European Union, having been an associate member since 1963.