 |
 |
Kuşadası - Turkey |
A project |
|
| |
La
Turquie
Tour d'horizon |
  |
|
|
|
History
 |
|
| |
|
Origins
Hittites, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans and Persians… Asian Minor,
also known as Anatolia, has seen a succession of peoples and civilisations
since 2000 years before Jesus Christ. Coming from the Central
Asian steppes, the Turks appeared on the Anatolian plateaux at
the beginning of the 11th century. In 1071, at Malazgirt, the
Turkish clans repelled the Byzantines to the shores of the Aegean
Sea. One of the clan chiefs, Osman, son of Ertugrul I, was the
true founder of the Ottoman Empire.
|
|
| |
|
The Ottoman
Empire
The Ottoman Empire covered the period from 1299 to 1922. Founded
in western Anatolia, at its height it extended to the whole of
Anatolia, the Balkans, the shores of the Black Sea, Syria, Palestine,
Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.
|
 |
|
| |
|
Recent history
- 10 August 1920: the Treaty
of Sèvres shares the Ottoman Empire between Greece, France
and Great Britain.
- 1920-1923: Mustafa Kemal leads
the war of independence.
- 29 October 1923: he founds
the Republic of Turkey and becomes its first president.
- 1923: Ankara becomes the new
capital (instead of Istanbul).
- 18 February 1952: Turkey enters
NATO.
- 1959: Turkey applies to join
the EEC.
- 1963: association agreement
between Turkey and the EEC.
- 1970: economic crisis, climate
of violence, extreme-left assassination attempts.
- 12 March 1971: military coup,
violent repression of the left and the Kurds, restrictions
on the freedom of the press and trade union rights.
- 1974: invasion of Cyprus.
- November 1982: new constitution,
the former parties remain banned.
- December 1983: liberal (privatisations)
and Islamic shift (compulsory religious teaching).
- 1984: guerrilla war started
by the Kurdish terrorist party (PKK) of Abdullah Öcalan which
caused more than 30,000 deaths up to 1999.
- April 1987: application for
membership of the European Union.
- December 1989: the European
Commission declares Turkey to be eligible to apply but postpones
examination of the dossier.
- June 1993: Tansu Çiller becomes
the first woman prime minister.
- 1 January 1996: entry in force
of the European Union-Turkey customs union.
- 1996: the Islamic government
is overturned by the army.
- January 1999: coalition government
of the left (DSP), right (DYP) and extreme right (MHP).
- December 1999: the European
Union officially accepts Turkey’s membership application during
the Helsinki summit but sets conditions which Turkey accepts
- 1999: Öcalan is arrested in
Kenya, tried and sentenced to death.
- February 2001: financial crisis;
the Turkish lira is devalued by 50%.
- October 2001: Turkey radically
changes its constitution to meet the political requirements
of the European Union.
- August 2002: official abolition
of the death penalty.
- 2003: the Islamic party AKP
takes power.
- 2005: introduction of the
new Turkish lira (YTL). Adoption of a new penal code granting
greater individual liberty more in line with European requirements.
- October 2005: start of membership
negotiations with the European Union.
|
|
| |
|
Geography
|
 |
 |
|
|
The Turkish territory includes Anatolia
(Asian Turkey, 97% of the territory) and eastern
Thrace (European Turkey, 3% of the territory). These two
regions are separated by the straits of the Bosphorus and the
Dardanelles.
Turkey has more than 8,000 km of coastline because it is surrounded
by four seas: the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Sea of
Marmara and the Aegean Sea. It has land borders with Greece, Bulgaria,
Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
|
|
| |
|
Population
|
|
| |
|
|
Turkey has just over 67 million inhabitants. 90% live on the
Asian side around the major cities in the west and north-west
and on the shores of the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The least
populated regions are those in the mountainous north-east.
The political capital, Ankara, houses the government bodies,
the headquarters of national enterprises, civil administrations
and the army high command. The economic and cultural capital,
Istanbul, is home to the private sector, art, the press and
publishing.
Izmir, Adana and Bursa are major regional cities.
|
|
| |
|
Economy
|
|
| |
|
|
The distribution of economic activities sharply divides the two
halves of the country: the industrialised and urbanised west –
with literacy levels and a birth rate near European levels – and
the rural east, which is under-industrialised and poor, especially
in the south. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Politics
|
|
| |
|
|
Turkey is a parliamentary republic.
The president is the head of state and the prime minister is the
head of the government. Appointed by the national assembly for
a seven-year term, the president chooses the prime minister. Legislative
power is exercised by an assembly composed of 550 seats, renewed
every five years.
Turkey is a secular state, which was
demonstrated by granting the vote to women very early (1934) and
prohibiting the wearing of veils in public places. The state does
not recognise the ethnic, religious or linguistic divisions of
its population.
Turkey is applying for membership of the European
Union. The conditions currently under discussion are the
occupation of a part of Cyprus and the application of standards
to minorities, the most numerous of which is the Kurdish minority.
When Turkey joins the European Union, it will be the most populous
country in the Union.
|
|
| |
|
Religion
|
|
|
|
|
98% of Turks (72% practising) are Muslims, mainly Sunni with large
Shiite and Alevi communities (around 25%). There are Orthodox
Christian and Jewish minorities. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| ©
All rights reserved - GreenVillage - Jappa Construction 2006
- Design: ComStone.ch
|
|
 |
