Turkey

Location• Turkey is known as a bridge located between Asia and Europe. Our

country is a kind of peninsula which is surrounded by water from three sides.

• Turkey is bounded to the north by the Black Sea, to the south by the Mediterrenean, Syria and Iraq, and to the east by Iran, Armenia, to the northeast by Georgia, to the northwest by Bulgaria and Greece and to the west by Aegean Sea. Our country is divided by Bosphorus and Dardenells Strait, so we call our country as Anatolian side and European side.

• Its capital is Ankara, but the most famous city is Istanbul.

• Turkey is one of the biggest countries in the region with more than 80 million people and 814,578 square kilometres land.

The landscape

• Turkey has a various landscape from one side to another. In the center, there are a lot of plains and meadows, in the other parts there are a lot of mountains that I cannot count. Among the most famous ones are Istranca Mountains, Köroğlu, Kaçkar, Toros, Tahtalı, Süphan, Palandöken etc... The highest mountain of Turkey is Mount Ararat (Ağrı Dağı in Turkish) with 5137 meters above the sea level.

Population of the country

Food

• Turkish Cuisine is really rich because our country is big in terms of landscape and has a rich history that goes back to thousand years ago. In different parts of the country you can see different types of food. Meal types change from region to region. For example, in the Black Sea region the cuisine is based on fish. You can find everything made by fish. In the middle and the east part of the country, you can eat meals made by meat (kebap or minced meat), beef, bulgur, pastry, erişte (a kind of Turkish macaroni) and hot pepper. As for the Mediterrenean and Aegen Sea parts, you can eat every kind of vegetables, pastry, and again fish and meat.

• We also have pizza, macaroni or hamburger as in European countries or America.

• The most popular ones are Zeytinyağlı Yaprak Sarması, İmambayıldı, Tas Kebabı, Çiğköfte, İçli Köfte, Analı Kızlı, İskender, Mantı, Baklava, Hamsi Tava, Hünkarbeğendi, Etli Kuru Fasülye, Lahmacun, Cacık, Lokum, and different soups and salads. Which one is our favorite is the most difficult question because Turkish people has a big appetite and most of them are not choosy in eating if they are

Famous drinks

• The most famous beverages are Turkish Coffee, Çay (tea), Şalgam (a kind of hot beverage made by turnip), Ayran (made by yoghurt), Rakı, different types of wine and mineral waters. We also drink Linden, Green Tea, Hawthorn a lot.

Traditional dishes

The principal economic activities

• Turkish economy is basically based on industry, engineering, agriculture, tourism, mining, animal husbandry, forestry and natural resources.

The main industries

• Textile, energy, automative, boron, copper, iron, oil, natural gas, steel, coal, petroleum products, cement, glass, certain chemicals, pharmaceuticals, tile, brick, leather, plastic, paper products, sugar and other food-processing industries.

• The climate in the northern part of the country is sea subtropical while the climate in the southern part is temperate. In the eastern part, the climate is continental.

• In the east the climate is harsh because of the mountains. Marmara region is hot in summer, and cold in winter because of Balkans. And the Mediterrenean Region is mild and the north is rainy because of the Black Sea.

The weather

The history of Turkey

• Turkey is a bridge for cultures from Asia to Europe, so a lot of different cultures has lived there because of its geopolitical importance throughout history.

• Early urban society began in Anatolia during the Neolithic Age (10th-5th millennium BC), with Göbeklitepe, Çatalhöyük.

• Then, Assyrian Period, Hittites, Kingdom of Urartu, Phrygia, Lydia, Commagene Kingdom, Persians, Greeks, Roman Empire, Seljuk, Byzantine and Ottoman Period dominated the land. These

• are only some of the cultures and countries lived here. At last, in 1923 Turkish Republic was founded by our great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The most popular tourist destinations  

• Tourist destinations in Turkey is natural, historical or geographical and there are so many tourist attractions that we cannot count in number. Whereever you go, you can find something touristic. That's why I only would like to talk about UNESCO list in our country. There are 16 properties inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List: Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği, Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia, Historic Areas of Istanul, Hattusha – the Hittite Capital, Nemrut Mountain, Hierapolis – Pamukkale, Xanthos-Letoon, City of Safranbolu, Archeological site of Troy, Selimiye Mosque and its social complex, Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, Pergamon, Cumalıkızık(Bursa): the birth of Ottoman Empire, Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape, Ephesus and Archeological Site of Ani

Thanks for attention

John Luke Tbilisi School 207, Georgia2016