A country located in Southwest Asia and partly in Southern Europe, which today occupies the territory where the ancient states (Persia, Rome, Byzantium, Armenia and others) were located, is called the Republic of Turkey. Its area is 783,562 sq. km. A state familiar to most Russians as a holiday destination on the coast of the Black and Mediterranean Seas.
Location
Turkey occupies a position that is commonly called strategically important and favorable. Through its territory there are routes connecting Asia with Europe, connected by a sea passage from the Black to the Aegean Sea, which includes the small Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus.
The land area of Turkey is 769 thousand square meters. km and occupies the territory of the Armenian Highlands and the Anatolian Peninsula, as well as a small part of the Balkan Peninsula, enclosed between two seas - the Black and the Mediterranean. Blessed nature of the country. The area of forests covers more than 102 thousand square meters. km. Warm seas play an important role:Mediterranean, Aegean, Marble and Black, washing Turkey from three sides. The water area is almost 14 thousand square meters. km.
It consists of two parts: European - 3% and Asian - 97% of the total area, which are called respectively Eastern Thrace (Rumelia) and Anatolia (Asia Minor). The living conditions are favorable, agricultural land makes up a large share of the territory of Turkey. Area in sq. km is 394 thousand.
History
Trace the history of the appearance of the Turks is not possible. The first mention of their distant ancestors, the Oghuz tribes, dates back to the 6th century BC. Historians have established that they lived on the territory of the Altai Mountains, from where they came to Asia Minor, first to Turkestan, and by the end of the 10th century. owned almost all of its territory, including Persia, the Caucasus, Syria and Egypt.
From the 9th century on the territory where Turkey is now located, Islam has become the dominant religion. And 1299 is marked by the creation of the Ottoman state. The strongest and most powerful in Asia Minor, subduing a large territory, ranging from Bukhara to Iran, the territories of the Balkan countries, the Caucasus, the Crimean Peninsula and the most powerful empire - Byzantium, which stood for a millennium.
Russia and Turkey
At that time, the territory of Turkey was truly large. The empire that conquered Byzantium is a developed state with a rich history that professed Islam, and as a result began to pray in Orthodox churches, conquered by their beauty. This countrywas in continuous wars, most of them were with Russia - the former heiress of Byzantium, which did not want to put up with constant raids on Russian settlements and the hijacking of Orthodox people into slavery.
The most important contradictions between our countries were the Crimean peninsula, the North Caucasus, possession of which would enable Turkey to be the sole owner of the Black Sea, but this did not happen, despite the support of England and France. As a result of these wars, Turkey was bled white and weakened. At the end of the XIX century. Turkey enlisted the support of Germany, with which they were allies during the First World War.
Modern Turkey
On October 29, 1923, Turkey becomes a republic headed by the first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Religion is separated from the state, and Turkey becomes the first secular state in the Middle East. The capital was moved from Istanbul to the center of the country, to the city of Ankara.
Located at the crossroads of the most important geographical and trade routes, Turkey has combined many valuable experiences of these civilizations. Today it is an economically prosperous country, with good transport interchange, industry and highly developed agriculture. Tourism brings a lot of income to the country. People from all over the world strive here to see the cultural monuments of various times and peoples who lived here, and who want to get acquainted with the culture of the country.
Most of all tourists tend to the Black Sea coast, although recently they have been in demandMediterranean resorts of Antalya. In Kemer (Turkey), the area of the resort stretches for 70 kilometers between the sea and the beautiful Taurus Mountains.
Population of Turkey
The Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of modern Turkey, was famous for many centuries for its religious and cultural intolerance and aggression towards neighboring states. Modern Turkey is considered a religiously tolerant and tolerant country, in which numerous peoples live, whose homeland is the Republic of Turkey. They are not scattered throughout Turkey, but live compactly.
The Turks themselves, who today act as a single people, were not such by the beginning of the 20th century. Most consider themselves, first of all, Turks, and then representatives of any ethnic group. The exceptions are Kurds, Syrians, Arabs and people from the Caucasus (Meskhetian Turks, Circassians, Circassians, Balkars).
The country's population is 78.7 million people. The territory is inhabited by representatives of different peoples who once inhabited it, and only a few decades ago, leading an uncompromising struggle for their independence. The ethnic composition has never been revealed in the country, so we can speak approximately about the number of living representatives of a single people. Of the total population, the proportion of residents of certain nationalities is:
- Turks - 70%;
- Kurds – 11%;
- Crimean Tatars -7%;
- ridges - 2%;
- Arabs -3%,
- zagi - 2%;
- Circassians - 1.5%.
The rest of the nationalities, which number up to 34, make up less than one percent each.
