What do you know about Turkey?
Geography
Turkey or officially the Republic of Turkey, is a country located mostly in Anatolia and a small part in Thrace, the southeastern extension of the Balkan Peninsula, Southeast Europe.
It is bordered by Bulgaria in the northwest, Greece in the west, Georgia in the northeast, Armenia, Iran and Azerbaijan in the east, Nakhchivan, and Iraq and Syria in the southeast. Turkey is a Eurasian country with territory on two continents. 97% of its territory is located on Asia and this part is called Anatolia. The remaining 3% is located in the European continent.
It is surrounded by the Island of Cyprus and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west and the Black Sea to the north. The Sea of Marmara, along with the Bosphorus of Istanbul and the Dardanelles Strait, separates Anatolia from Thrace, that is, Asia from Europe. Turkey has an important geostrategic power due to the fact that it is located at the crossroads of the European and Asian continents.
Biodiversity of Turkey
Turkey has an extraordinary ecosystem and habitat diversity. While the number of animal species throughout Europe is 60,000, this figure is more than 80,000 in Turkey and exceeds 100,000 when subspecies are included. There are 40 national parks, 189 natural parks, 31 nature reserves, 80 wildlife sanctuaries and 109 natural monuments in Turkey.
Sumela Monastry in the Black Sea Region of Turkey.
Climate of Turkey
There are three different types of climate in Turkey. In general, the Mediterranean climate seen on the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean coast has hot and dry summers and warm and rainy winters. In the Black Sea climate, which is a temperate oceanic climate type seen on the Black Sea coast, precipitation is observed every season, and the natural vegetation is forest. In the country, the mountains that run parallel to the coast in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea prevent the arrival of temperate air masses from the seas inland.
There is a continental climate in the Central Anatolia Region, Eastern Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia regions, that is, in the interior. In this climate, annual and daily temperature differences are high; summers are hot and dry, winters are cold and snowy. In the eastern regions, winters are quite harsh.
Temperatures can drop as low as -30 °C and -40 °C (-22 °F and -40 °F) in Eastern Anatolia, and snow stays on the ground for at least 120 days of the year. In the west, winter temperatures are observed as an average of 1 °C (34 °F). July May is the month with the most rainfall, while summers are hot and dry, and July and August are usually the driest months in the country, temperatures can rise above 30 °C (86 °F) during the day.
Before the History!
The first settlements on the territory of Turkey begin in the Chipped Stone Age. After the various ancient Anatolian civilizations such as the Ionian civilization founded by the Hittites, Phrygians, Lydians and the Achaeans who fled Greece as a result of the Doric invasion, including the Tracians in Eastern Thrace, the Hellenistic Period began with the rule and conquests of Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia. Later, the Byzantine periods occurred, during which the Roman Empire and Anatolia, respectively, were Christianized. Later, with the migration of Turks from Central Asia to Anatolia, the dominance of Turks in the region increased. You can find out more historical information in the “history” section on our website.
Proclamation of the Republic
The occupation of Istanbul, Izmir and other Ottoman lands by the Entente Powers (Allies) after the Treaty of Mudros, which was signed at the end of the First World War, which resulted in the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, revealed the Turkish National Movement. With the departure of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, one of the prominent figures of the Dardanelles War, to Samsun on May 19, 1919, the Turkish War of Independence was started, aiming to cancel the conditions brought by the Treaty of Sèvres and to preserve the integrity of the country’s lands within the borders of the National Pact.

By September 18, 1922, all enemy forces in the country were expelled. On April 23, 1920, a republic-based democratic country was established in Ankara. On November 1, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey abolished the reign, and the 623-year-old monarchical Ottoman Empire was officially erased from the historical scene.
Mustafa Kemal, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, made many revolutions aimed at transforming the former Ottoman-Turkish state into a new secular republic. As part of these revolutions, the sultanate and the caliphate were abolished, women were given the right to choose and be elected, (It is one of the first countries in the world where women were given the right to vote and be elected.) the Latin alphabet began to be used, and many other changes were made. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey gave him the surname “Atatürk” (Means: Father of the Turks) with the Surname Law issued in 1934.
Cities & Population
According to the 2021 census, the population of the country is 84,680,273. The capital of Turkey is Ankara. The largest administrative divisions of the country are the provinces and there are 81 provinces. These provinces are divided into districts, in total there are 973 districts.
