|
 |
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially
as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is
a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula
in western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of
southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries:
Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the
northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhichevan) and
Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The
Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea
and Archipelago are to the west; and the Black Sea is to the
north. Separating Anatolia and Thrace are the |
|
Sea of Marmara and the Turkish Straits (the
Bosporus and the Dardanelles), which are commonly reckoned to
delineate the border between Asia and Europe, thereby making
Turkey transcontinental.
Due to its strategic location astride two continents, Turkey's
culture has a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition. A
powerful regional presence in the Eurasian landmass with strong
historic, cultural and economic influence in the area between
Europe in the west and Central Asia in the east, Russia in the
north and the Middle East in the south, Turkey has come to
acquire increasing strategic significance.
Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional
republic whose political system was established in 1923 under
the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, following the fall of
the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Since then,
Turkey has become increasingly integrated with the West through
membership in organizations such as the Council of Europe, NATO,
OECD, OSCE and the G-20 major economies. Turkey began full
membership negotiations with the European Union in 2005, having
been an associate member of the EEC since 1963, and having
reached a customs union agreement in 1995. Meanwhile, as a
Muslim-majority country, Turkey has continued to foster close
cultural, political, economic and industrial relations with the
Eastern world, particularly with the states of the Middle East
and Central Asia, through membership in organizations such as
the OIC and ECO. Turkey is classified as a developed country by
the CIA and as a regional power by political scientists and
economists worldwide. |
