Turkey : General informations
[ Source: wikipedia.com ]
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti ), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe.
Turkey borders 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 border between Asia and Europe, thereby making Turkey transcontinental.
Because of its strategic location astride two continents, Turkey's culture has a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition. A powerful regional presence in the Eurasian landmass with strong cultural and economic influence in the area between the European Union 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
while continuing to foster relations with the Eastern world. 
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Turkey is a founding member of the United Nations (1945), the OECD (1961), the OSCE (1973) and the G20 industrial nations (1999).
In line with its traditional Western orientation, relations with Europe have always been a central part of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey became a member of the Council of Europe in 1949, applied for associate membership of the EEC (predecessor of the EU) in 1959 and became an associate member in 1963. After decades of political negotiations, Turkey applied for full membership of the EEC in 1987, became an associate member of the Western European Union in 1992, reached a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and has officially begun formal accession negotiations with the EU on October 3, 2005 .
Turkey has a Mediterranean temperate climate, with hot, dry summers and
mild, wet and cold winters, though conditions can be much harsher in the
more arid interior. Mountains close to the coast prevent Mediterranean
influences from extending inland, giving the interior of Turkey a continental
climate with distinct seasons.
Turkey has a very diverse culture that is a blend of various elements of
the Turkic and Anatolian, Ottoman (which was itself a continuation of both
Greco-Roman and Islamic cultures), and Western culture and traditions which
started with the Westernization of the Otoman Empire and continues today.
This mix is a result of the encounter of Turks and their culture with those
of the peoples who were in their path during their migration from Central
Asia to the West. top
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As Turkey successfully transformed from the religion-based former Ottoman
Empire into a modern nation-state with a very strong separation of state
and religion, an increase in the methods of artistic expression followed.
During the first years of the republic, the government invested a large
amount of resources into fine arts, such as museums, theatres, and architecture.
Because of different historical factors playing an important role in
defining the modern Turkish identity, Turkish culture is a product of
efforts to be "modern" and Western, combined with the necessity
felt to maintain traditional religious and historical values. [
Source: wikipedia.com ] top
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