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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 is bordered by 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
boundary between Asia and
Europe, thereby making Turkey
transcontinental.
Turkey is the successor state to
the Ottoman Empire, a major
historical power which lasted
for more than six centuries on
three continents, controlling
most of Southeastern Europe, the
Middle East and North Africa. As
a result, Turkey's culture has a
unique blend of Eastern and
Western tradition. A prominent
regional presence in the
Eurasian landmass with strong
historic, cultural and economic
influence in the area between
Europe 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 through membership in
organizations such as the
Council of Europe, NATO, OECD,
OSCE and the G-20 major
economies. Turkey began full
membership negotiations with the
European Union in 2005, having
been an associate member of the
EEC since 1963, and having
reached a customs union
agreement in 1995. Meanwhile,
Turkey has continued to foster
close cultural, political,
economic and industrial
relations with the Eastern
world, particularly with the
states of the Middle East and
Central Asia, through membership
in organizations such as the OIC
and ECO. Turkey is classified as
a developed country by the CIA
and as a regional power by
political scientists and
economists worldwide. |
