Introduction Ever since I was born on April 15, 1980, I have been raised in a Greek environment, and being Greek-American has played a significant role in my life. In addition, I happen to have a friend named Mehmet, who is from Turkey. But I never knew any information about Turkey until I found this country on a world map. That’s when I learned the following facts: Turkey is located in both Europe and Asia, and it shares a border with Greece. So when I started taking the course Geography of the Middle East at Old Dominion University, I decided to select Turkey for my research paper. Perry Library and Larchmont Library were excellent places for literary materials. I also consulted Internet sources and my class textbook as additional resources. Turkistan, a region in central Asia, is a Persian term which means “Turks’ land” or “land of the Turks”. The Young Ottoman Turks considered this name for their country before they decided on “Turkiye, an adaptation of the European name” Turkey (Lewis 333). Although “[t]he name Turkey has been given to…Anatolia…since its first conquest by the Turks in the eleventh century,” the Turks officially referred to their country as Turkey when it won its independence in 1923. (Lewis 1). Turkey’s relative geographical position distinguished it from most of the other countries of the world. It is situated on two continents: (southeastern) Europe and (southwestern) Asia. European Turkey, or Eastern Thrace, constitutes only 3 percent of the country’s land area, and “[t]he other 97 percent…is…in Asia and is called Anatolia, or Asia Minor” (Orr 19; Sheehan 7). Turkey’s neighbors are Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; Iran, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to the east; and Syria to the south. Three seas surround Turkey: the Mediterranean Sea on the south, the Black Sea on the north; and the Aegean Sea on the west. The Sea of Marmara, in northwestern Turkey, connects the Bosporus strait to the Black Sea and the Dardanelles strait to the Aegean Sea. The Bosporus and the Dardanelles, together with the Sea of Marmara, separate European Turkey from Asian Turkey. With Africa lying to the south across the Mediterranean Sea, Turkey occupies a strategic location at the three-continent crossroads. (see Map 1). Many people consider “Turkey…to be one of the world’s cradles of civilization [since] it has given birth to many civilizations, religions, empires, and states” (Orr 20).
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Map1. Political Map of Turkey. Source: Central Intelligence Agency. The natural features reflect Turkey’s place in the tricontinental hub. Mountain ranges ringing the Central Anatolian Plateau include the Pontic Mountains (paralleling the Black Sea coast), the Taurus Mountains (along the Mediterranean Sea coast), and the anti-Taurus Mountains (which extend from Adana to Lake Van). In western Anatolia are horst-and-graben formed mountains that jut out into the Aegean Sea. Plains are found on the Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines (see Map 2).
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Map 2. Physical Map of Turkey. Source: Central Intelligence Agency. As the topography varies across Turkey, so does the climate. Dry, hot summers prevail in “[t]he Aegean and Mediterranean regions” (Orr 27). Along the Black Sea, the climate is temperate: summers are warm, winters are mild. Central Anatolia is semi-arid. Temperatures there change from season to season and from day to night. Eastern Turkey experiences very cold winters, in which temperature lows could be near -40 degrees Fahrenheit, “and snow may cover the ground for up to four months” (Orr 27). Additionally, the mountains prevent approaching weather systems from passing through to the central plateau. So rainfall amounts are higher in coastal regions than in the interior. Specifically, the wettest region in Turkey is the Black Sea coast (see Map 3).
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Map 3. Annual Average Precipitation of Turkey (Sensoy 1).

Cultural Geography Turkey describes its cultural geography as a multinational country, a multilingual country, and a predominantly Islamic country. Turkey exemplifies the binational country fairly well since the two main ethnic groups are the Turks, who make up 78% of the country’s population, and the Kurds, who compose 18.5%.[1] Arabs, Laz, Jews, Circassians, Greeks, Georgians, and Armenians are in the other 2.5% of the population. Arabs are found near the Syrian border. Northeastern Turkey (around the Black Sea coast) is home to the Laz, who migrated there from Transcaucasia in the late 19th century. The Laz primarily work as seafarers (sailors) and fishermen (Held 113). Circassians and Georgians are two other groups of immigrants to Turkey from the Caucasus. Most “of the Circassians liv[e] in the Adana area” (Held 472). A small group of about 65,000, “the Georgians were dispersed into Asia Minor [starting in] the seventeenth century” (Held 113). Turkey is absorbing these people into its population. Less than 20,000 Jews are still in Turkey, as opposed to 90,000 after World War II. May “Jews are in business in Istanbul or Izmir” (Held 472). Armenians and Greeks reside around Istanbul. Turkey is a fairly good example of a bilingual country. Turkish is the country’s official language, spoken by 85% of the population. The largest minority, the Kurds, speak their own language, Kurdish. Other languages spoken include Arabic, Armenian, and Greek (Orr 86; Sheehan 83). Although Turkey is a Middle Eastern country and the Middle East is the cradle of Islam, “many historical experts consider Turkey the cradle of Christianity” (Orr 89). True, Turkey “is the country where the followers of Jesus Christ were first called ‘Christians’ and where Noah’s Ark is thought to have landed—on Mount Ararat” (Orr 89). But ever since it originated in the Arabian Peninsula in 622 A.D. and expanded “throughout the Middle East and North Africa to Spain and into central Asia,” Islam is by far a very important religion in Turkey (Held 93). In fact, just about “everyone who lives in Turkey is a Muslim—a follower of Islam” (Orr 89; Sheehan 67). The two major groups of Muslims are the Sunnis and the Shiites. Sunnis, the majority of Turkey’s population, “follow the Sunna,…the exemplary practice of Mohammed as recorded in the Hadith” (Sheehan 67). The Shiites believe in Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, and also place “emphasis on sacrifice and martyrdom” (Sheehan 67). Turkey’s main Shiite group, the Alevi, lives mainly in the eastern part of the country. Yet may Alevis hide the fact that they are Shiites. Turkey bases its cultural traditions on Islam. Hamams, or public baths, stress Islam’s importance of cleanliness. Muslim “men and women bathe separately, either in different baths or at the same hamam on different days” (Eboch 37). Dervishes, members of a Muslim religious order, perform spiritual dances which symbolize their love for God (Eboch 81). Artwork in Turkey never features people or animals, since Muslims must pay respect to God, who is the creator of life (Eboch 69).
Population Geography A major power core through thousands of years of history, Turkey holds the top rank in population among Middle Eastern countries, slightly ahead of Iran (2004 World Population Data Sheet 9). Its first census in 1927 reported a population of approximately 13.5 million, and a recent census showed an estimate of 71 million people. This figure, divided by 299,158 square miles (Turkey’s land area) gives a population density of about 238 people per square mile. A half-century ago, “more than 75 percent of the population liv[ed] in villages and farms” (Orr 82). These people then migrated to the cities. So today, the urban areas account for 59% of Turkey’s population, and the rural areas 41%. Turkish residents tend to congregate along the Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean Sea coasts, and around Istanbul and Ankara (Orr 84; Held 471). The crude birth rate, 21 births per 1,000 total population, is triple the crude death rate of 7 births per 1,000 total population. So the rate of natural increase is 1.4%. If this rate continues, Turkey’s population will double in 50 years. But the Population Reference Bureau predicts Turkey will have roughly 90 million people in 2025 and 97.5 million in 2050 (2004 World Population Data Sheet 9).
Istanbul
Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, is situated on the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara. It is the only city in the world to be located on two continents: Europe and Asia (see Map 4). Istanbul was originally
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Map 4. Map of Istanbul and Vicinity. Source: Central Intelligence Agency. known as Byzantium and then Constantinople. Legend says that Byzantium was named for its founder, King Byzas, in the 7th century B.C. He pointed out that the earlier Greek settlers missed the Bosporus because they appeared to have been blind. Byzantium was under the Roman Empire’s rule from the 1st century B.C. to 330 A.D., when Emperor Constantine the Great renamed the city Constantinople and proclaimed it the new capital of the empire. Germanic tribes conquered the Western Roman Empire in 476, and so Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and renamed Istanbul, which served as the Ottoman Empire’s capital city until just after World War I. Turkey won its independence on October 29, 1923, and its capital was relocated from Istanbul to the interior city of Ankara (Sansal “History of Istanbul 1”; Eboch 11). Despite the fact that Turkey’s official seat of government is Ankara, Istanbul may also be considered a capital city, at least in terms of culture. Among its important landmarks are “the [Sultanahmet] Mosque,…the Hagia Sophia, and the” Grand Bazaar (Orr 31; Sheehan 16-17; Eboch 87). The Sultanahmet Mosque is appropriately named for “Sultan Ahmed I, who had [it] built in the early 1600s” (Eboch 24). Its interior contains 20,000 blue tiles, hence the nickname Blue Mosque. The important feature of this tourist site is its six minarets (slender towers). The Hagia Sophia symbolizes the Byzantine Empire. In the 6th century, Constantine the Great constructed the Hagia Sophia as a church. This church was transformed into a mosque when the Ottoman Turks landed at Constantinople and changed the city’s name to Istanbul in 1453. Today, “[t]he building is a museum with…Byzantine mosaics and Islamic calligraphy art” (Eboch 24; Sheehan 17). A very characteristic urban core element in Istanbul, “[t]he Grand Bazaar…features more than four thousand shops” selling a huge variety of items (Eboch 17: Held 192). Istanbul has a population of approximately 10 million people. But the high natural increase n population has resulted in overcrowdedness, and “[t]raffic congestion is…as terrible as in New York City or London” (Sheehan 17). Even so, this is a city which combines the ancient (old) with the modern (new).
Origin of the State[2] Turkey has evolved via an extensive chronological sequence which dates back to pre-Christ times. Human inhabitation started in the Paleolithic era (around 600,000 B.C.), as “tribes lived in caves, hunted, and gathered wild foods” (Eboch 22). In about 8,000 B.C., dramatic social changes symbolized the start of the Neolithic period. People learned to cultivate plants. This agricultural practice led to the development of more organized settlements and the construction of worship places. New immigrants to Asia Minor (in 1650 B.C.) were the Hittites. They set up “a walled city with a fortress, temples, and government buildings” in central Anatolia, and named it Hattusa (Eboch 22). After the demise of the Hittite empire, Greek civilization flourished along the Aegean coast of Asia Minor around 1000 B.C. Persia invaded and took over these Greek cities 400 years later, in the process establishing an empire that extended from Egypt and Thrace and across southwestern and central Asia (Eboch 23; Held 22-23). In 334 B.C. Alexander the Great came from the Greek region of Macedonia and conquered the Persian Empire, signifying the return of Greek culture. His death 11 years later resulted in his empire being divided into kingdoms (Eboch 24-25). The city of Rome then emerged as the major world power by 66 B.C., ruling an empire from the Mediterranean basin to Asia Minor and the Middle East (Eboch 25; Held 26). In the 3rd century A.D., Constantine the Great moved the empire’s capital to Byzantium and renamed that city Constantinople. Next, the Roman Empire fragmented into two sections: the Eastern Roman Empire, whose capital was Constantinople, and the Western Roman Empire, with Rome as the chief city. The Western Roman Empire fell to Germanic tribes in 476, and so Constantinople served as the capital of the Byzantine Empire. This empire included “southern Europe, southwestern Asia, and northern Africa” (Eboch 25). Greek replaced Latin as the official language, and the majority of the population was Christian. Although “Slavs…, Persians…, and Arabs [seized] some of” the empire’s land, and “Mongols, Russians, and Bulgars [also] attacked,” Constantinople stayed under Byzantine rule (Eboch 25-26). The first Turks were the Seljuks, a wandering pastoral community from central Asia. During the 11th century, the Seljuks ruled Persia and Mesopotamia, and extended their control to Asia Minor after defeating the Byzantine armies near Lake Van. Christian Crusaders reclaimed approximately one-third of Anatolia in the First Crusade of 1097, yet “[t]he Seljuks kept control of the Central Plateau” (Eboch 26). As new Turks settled in Asia Minor, Islam became the dominant religion there. Upon surrendering to the invading Mongols in 1243, the Seljuk state lost its stability. In northwestern Anatolia lied a small principality that was granted to Turcomen leader Osman, the founder of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans expanded their territory by conquering the Byzantine lands, and eventually “ruled [an area] from the Danube River…to the Euphrates” (Eboch 27-28; Sansal “Ottomans and their Dynasty” 2; Held 31). The capital city was relocated “to Bursa in 1326…and [to] Adrianople…in 1366” (Sansal “Ottomans and their Dynasty” 1-2; Lewis 12). Constantinople fell in 1453 when it was captured by Sultan Mehmed II. He declared it the new Ottoman capital and changed its name to Istanbul. The Ottoman Empire continued to increase in size, and under Suleiman the Magnificent, it “controlled the Balkans, northern Africa and the Middle East” (Eboch 29-31). When Suleiman passed away in 1566, Selim took over as sultan. That marked the beginning of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse: None of the next 25 sultans possessed leadership characteristics. Not only were minority groups treated unfairly, they were also sometimes killed. Rebellions and revolts broke out, “often with the [backing] of…European powers” (Eboch 34). An 1824 independence movement by Greek Christians succeeded in liberating Greece from ottoman rule in 1830, thanks to the assistance of Britain, France, and Russia. These powers, along with Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, hoped to add more land to their empires once the Ottoman Empire broke up. As a consequence of the sultans’ borrowing money from Europe primarily “to build…palaces and pay for lavish parties,” the Ottoman Empire developed economic ties with Britain, France, and Germany. In 1875, the empire could not pay its debts, and so Europe wanted reforms. Abdul Hamit II became sultan the next year. He “buil[t] schools, railways, and telegraph lines, but…refused democratic reforms” (Eboch 35). That led to the independence of Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania in 1878. As the European powers encouraged Crete, Armenia, and Macedonia to rebel, Hamit struck back by commanding that every Armenian in the empire be killed. Thousands of people died. So the Young Turk movement was formed. Members of this committee “promoted democracy with the motto ‘Liberty, Justice, Equality, Fraternity’” (Eboch 38). Their 1908 revolution tried to make the sultan revert back to the 1876 constitution. When that revolution and a counterattack failed, Hamit was banished and was replaced with “his weak brother Mahomet V” (Eboch 39). The Ottoman Empire continued to fall apart, as new countries emerged. As the 20th century started, the Young Turks introduced some social reform, industrialization, and secularization. In addition, “[t]hey…planned an empire [in which] people of all nationalities would be equal and loyal to the Ottoman government” (Eboch 39). This plan backfired, since the nations demanded independence, so the Young Turks adopted the Principle of Turkism, in which all of the people would represent the Muslim Turks. World War I began on June 28, 1914, with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Ottoman Turks initially remained neutral, but then joined their strongest ally, Germany, and “found itself at war with the Entente Powers of [Britain], France, and Russia” (Eboch 41). In northeastern Asia Minor loved the Christian Armenians, many of which joined Russia to help liberate Armenia. But when all of the Armenians were expelled from Asia Minor, thousands of them were persecuted. Meanwhile, in the west, the Entente Powers attempted to control the Dardanelles but could not do so, since “underwater mines sank three [of the war] ships and forced the [rest of these] ships to retreat” (Eboch 42). Next, British soldiers settled on beaches on “the Gallipoli Peninsula, [located] along the north of the straits” (Eboch 43). Ensuing warfare with Turkish troops ended in defeat for the Brits on January 9, 1916. The big hero during this battle was Turkish army colonel Mustafa Kemal, who helped the Turks defend the Gallipoli shorelines. With “Palestine, Syria, and Iraq…escap[ing] Ottoman rule” by 1918, all that was left of the Ottoman Empire was “the peninsula of Asia Minor and a small piece of the European continent around Istanbul” (Eboch 45-46). The signing of the Mudrow Armistice in 1918 allowed France, Britain, and Italy to “occupy…strategic[ally] importan[t]” areas, and declared Armenia independent (Eboch 46; Lewis 240; Sansal “History of the Ottomans 2). The Turks, however, still wanted their sovereignty. They would start fighting for it when “Mustafa Kemal…landed at Samsun, on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia” on May 19, 1919, four days after Greek troops occupied Izmir (Lewis 241-243). This landing put the liberation process into motion. Parliamentary elections took place in Istanbul. These new members approved the National Pact as a means of vying for full independence. Under this pact, “[t]hey would give up all claims to former Ottoman territories, except where the majority of people were Turks” (Eboch 46). The Entente Powers retaliated by taking over Istanbul, forcing Turkish nationalist leaders to move to the city of Ankara. There, they formed the National Assembly and elected Mustafa Kemal as its president. Following “a series of conferences in London and San Remo, a treaty was…signed by the representatives of the Allies and of the Sultan at Sevres on” August 10, 1920 (Lewis 246; Howard 99). This treaty, the Treaty of Sevres, approved British mandates for Palestine and Iraq and a French mandate for Syria. However, the Turkish government in Ankara voted against the treaty. This veto led to the three-stage Greco-Turkish War. The Greeks easily won the first part of the war. But the Turks fought back in 1921, winning two battles at Inonu and defeating the Greeks again at the Sakarya River. After France and Italy withdrew from Anatolia, the Greco-Turkish war resumed in August 1922. The Turks reclaimed Izmir from the Greeks to “complet[e] the reconquest of Anatolia” (Lewis 254). Now it was time for Mustafa Kemal to focus on retaking Eastern Thrace. Britain continued to occupy the Dardanelles after the French and the Italians pulled out, and eventually “the British gave way to Kemal’s demands” (Lewis 254). The signing of the armistice at Mudanya gave “Istanbul, the Straits, and Eastern Thrace” to the Turks (Lewis 254). Next, a “peace conference [commenced in] Lausanne on” November 20, 1922, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923 (Lewis 254; Howard 123). The treaty provided “complete and undivided Turkish sovereignty in almost all of the territory included in the present-day Turkish Republic” (Lewis 254; Howard 123). The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on October 29, 1923, with Ankara replacing Istanbul as the official capital city. Istanbul symbolized the past, and Ankara signified the eventual end of sultanate rule and the beginning of rebirth in Turkey (Lewis 260-261; Eboch 49). Mustafa Kemal was elected as Turkey’s first president. His government launched the six principles of Kemalism: “Republicanism, Populism, Statism, Revolutionism, Secularism, and Nationalism” (Eboch 49). In Republicanism, power was vested in the hands of the people and their elected representatives. Populism made everybody a part of Turkey. Statism concentrated all economic power in the government’s hands. Continuous change defined Revolutionism. In Secularism, government and religion were separated from each other. Nationalism emphasized a Turkish cultural nation. This element did not give minorities (such as the Kurds) the right “to express their ethnic identity” (Eboch 50). Besides Kemalism, additional changes from Ottomanization to Westernization included replacing the Arabic alphabet with the Roman alphabet, and modifying the dress code by eliminating traditional clothing such as the men’s fez and the women’s veil (Held 470). Mustafa Kemal passed away in 1938. He is best known by his surname, Ataturk, meaning “Father of the Turks”. A treaty signed by France and the Turks in October 1921 made the subprovince of Alexandretta (in the district of Hatay) a part of the French mandate Syria. Hatay was proclaimed an independent republic in 1938, and the next year, France violated the mandate agreement by giving Hatay to Turkey. Syria still objects Turkey’s annexation of Alexandretta. In 1936, Turkey adopted its national flag. This flag has important cultural and historical significance. The white crescent moon and the white 5-pointed star are the traditional symbols of Islam. The red background symbolizes the Ottoman Empire (see Figure 1) (Orr 66).
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Figure 1. Flag of Turkey. Source: Central Intelligence Agency.
Recent Conflicts Turkey has been involved in three recent geopolitical conflicts. The first concerns Cyprus, an island located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, 43 miles south of Turkey. Cyprus became independent on August 16, 1960, after Britain, Greece, Turkey, and Cypriot leaders ratified the Zurich-London Agreements. Greeks, which composed 78% of Cyprus’s population, wanted enosis, or unification of Cyprus with Greece. In contrast, Turks, which made up 18% of the population, desired taksim, or partition of Cyprus. As tensions between Greece and Turkey flared up, a UN Peacekeeping Force was sent to Cyprus in 1964. Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios and his government were ousted by the Greek military on July 15, 1974. Five days later, Turkey invaded Cyprus to protect its minority there. The Turkish troops were able to claim the northern 40% of the island, forcing the Greek Cypriots southward and the Turkish Cypriots northward (Orr 59-60; Held 279-280; Eboch 53-54). The Turkish Cypriots decided to form their own state in 1975, naming it Turkish Federated State of Cyprus. This name was changed to Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on November 15, 1983. Turkey has been the only country to recognize the TRNC as an independent state (Calotychos 9; Salih 105). Even today, Cyprus is still a divided island, and Greece and Turkey, as well as their respective Cypriot communities, are working diligently to reunify the island and maintain its complete statehood (see Map 5). That is, taksim will not settle the issue, nor will enosis (Salih 107+; Coulombis and Klarevas rpt. in Calotychos 128).
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Map 5. Map of Cyprus. Source: Central Intelligence Agency. The second conflict is in regards to the Aegean Sea. Just off Turkey’s western coast lie islands which belong to Greece (see Map 6). A line separating Asia Minor from these islands would not benefit Turkey since Greece would then have the Aegean Sea all to itself. So this debate is ongoing (Held 212; Couloumbis and Klarevas rpt. in Calotychos 129-130).
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Map 6. Location of the Aegean Dispute. Source: Central Intelligence Agency. The third conflict focuses on Turkey’s significant minority, the Kurds, who make up about 20% of the country’s population. The Kurds “live in the mountainous region of the southeast as well as in the west, thanks to ongoing migration” (Sheehan 50-51; Barkey and Fuller 193+). These people want their own state, which would be called Kurdistan (see Map 7). But Turkey does not want to see the Kurds form a separate state because “Kurdish separation would destabilize the [Middle East] and create new crises for Iraq, Iran, and Syria” (Barkey and Fuller 204-205). It is possible in the future that Turkey will respect the Kurds. But the Kurds point out that they, like the Turks, should be considered a majority in the regions in which they predominate. A solution which will satisfy both Kurds and Turks will require answering questions such as these: Can Kurds be both a majority and a minority group? What rights should Kurds possess in Turkish regions? (Barkey and Fuller 202-205).
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Map 7. Map of the Kurdish Lands. Source: Central Intelligence Agency.
Conclusion
I think Turkey will remain in existence over the next century. As Turkey becomes more of a Westernized country, it will introduce its cultural characteristics to Europe, the Americas, and the rest of the world. And as long as Turkey plays its role as a European and a Middle Eastern country, it will continue to hold its position as a culture-meeting place and develop ties with all of the countries of the world, if not take over and dominate the world!

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[1] Since the Kurds cause a problem for Turkey, I will discuss the Kurds in the Recent Conflicts section of this paper.

[2] This is a history of how Turkey developed its present-day borders. I also mentioned Turkey’s flag here since it has historical and cultural importance.