Turkey has a very colourful history and evidence has been found of the earliest forms of civilizations living in the lands that now are classed as part of this country.

Empires that ruled for centuries include, but are not exclusive to the Lycians, Romans, Greeks and Selcuk Dynasty. All over Turkey but specifically on the South West coast are historical sites relating back to these periods.

One of the most prominent empires to rule was the Ottomans. If you go to Istanbul, visit the former home to rulers of the Ottoman empire, Topkapi Palace.

They ruled for approximately 900 years however by the year 1918, the Ottoman sultans sided with the losing countries of the First World War and the Anatolia region was due to be separated for ruling by the winning countries.

This prompted the war of independence led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The war was won in 1923 so independence was declared and the Republic of Turkey was formed. One of Mustafa’s first decisions was to move the capital, formerly Istanbul to Ankara in the center of the country.

Many people who have not visited Turkey before assume it to be a third world country however there are major cities such as Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara that are a thriving hub for local and international businesses as well as tourism.
Turkey is also quite unique in that Turkish culture is a mix of Ottoman, Greek and western influences.

The West and South coast of Turkey as well as the Istanbul peninsula are mostly known for western influences while the East is classed as traditional Turkey which has influences from the Kurdish culture.

The North of Turkey is called the Black Sea region and the towns along this area are known for their natural beauty and green hills thanks to the months of rainfall.

Turkish culture is welcoming to strangers and friendly. The emphasis is on family and friends and you will find it easy to strike up a conversation or make friends with Turkish people, no matter which destination you decide to visit.

As of 2018, the population of Turkey was estimated at just over 82 million.

The largest city in Turkey is Istanbul which contains around 14 million people. The capital, Ankara, is home to over 5 million people. The majority of the Turkish population is centered in urban areas and along the coast.

Turkish is a Turkic language spoken by about 88 million people, mainly in Turkey, and also in Northern Cyprus, Germany, Bulgaria and other countries. There are about 82 million speakers of Turkish in Turkey, about 2 million in Germany, 606,000 in Bulgaria, 500,000 in the UK, 300,000 in Northern Cyprus, 165,000 in the USA, 130,000 in Uzbekistan, and smaller numbers in other countries.
Turkish is an official language in Turkey, Northern Cyprus, and Cyprus. It is recognised as a minority language in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Iraq, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Romania.

The ancestor of modern Turkish, Oghuz, was bought to Anatolia from Central Asia during the 11th century AD by Seljuq Turks. This developed into Ottoman Turkish, and contained many loanwords from Arabic and Persian.

Until 1928 Turkish was written with a version of the Perso-Arabic script known as the Ottoman Turkish script. In 1928, as part of his efforts to modernise Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk issued a decree replacing the Arabic script with a version of the Latin alphabet, which has been used ever since. Arabic and Persian loanwords were also replaced with Turkish equivalents. Nowadays, only scholars and those who learnt to read before 1928 can read Turkish written in the Ottoman Turkish script.