The Beyond News

Turkey is a country bridging Europe and Asia. It shares borders with Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; and the Aegean Sea to the west. Turks form the vast majority of the nation's population and Kurds are the largest minority. Turkey's capital is Ankara while its largest city and financial centre is Istanbul.

One of the world's earliest permanently settled regions, present-day Turkey was home to important Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe, and was inhabited by ancient civilisations including the Hattians and Anatolian peoples. Hellenization started in the area during the era of Alexander the Great and continued into the Byzantine era. The Seljuk Turks began migrating in the 11th century, and the Sultanate of Rum ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into small Turkish principalities.Beginning in the late 13th century, the Ottomans started uniting the principalities and conquering the Balkans, and the Turkification of Anatolia increased during the Ottoman period. After Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453, Ottoman expansion continued under Selim I. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire became a global power. From the late 18th century onwards, the empire's power declined with a gradual loss of territories and wars. In an effort to consolidate the weakening empire, Mahmud II started a period of modernisation in the early 19th century. The 1913 coup effectively put the country under the control of the Three Pashas, who were largely responsible for the Empire's entry into World War I in 1914. During World War I, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek subjects.After the Ottomans and the other Central Powers lost the war, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned. The Turkish War of Independence against the occupying Allied Powers resulted in the abolition of the Sultanate on 1 November 1922, the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (which superseded the Treaty of Sèvres) on 24 July 1923 and the proclamation of the Republic on 29 October 1923. With the reforms initiated by the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey became a secular, unitary and parliamentary republic; which was later replaced by a presidential system with a referendum in 2017. Since then, the new Turkish governmental system under president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party, the AKP, has often been described as Islamist and authoritarian.

Turkey is a regional power and a newly industrialized country, with a geopolitically strategic location. Its economy, which is classified among the emerging and growth-leading economies, is the twentieth-largest in the world by nominal GDP, and the eleventh-largest by PPP. It is a charter member of the United Nations, an early member of NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank, and a founding member of the OECD, OSCE, BSEC, OIC, and G20. After becoming one of the early members of the Council of Europe in 1950, Turkey became an associate member of the EEC in 1963, joined the EU Customs Union in 1995, and started accession negotiations with the European Union in 2005.

Foods in  Turkey :
(1) Manti (Turkish Ravioli) : 

It takes time to make these heavenly little lamb/beef stuffed dumplings though the speed at which most Turkish women can make them is impressive! Covered in a yoghurt and spice-laden sauce, this dish is completely unique and delicious.

(2) Meze : 

Can’t decide what to have? With an assortment of dishes to pair with bread, Meze is the ideal way to try a bit of everything. There are typically beans, salads, spreads, seafood such as fried calamari and stuffed mussels and cheeses. Generally, meze is served at the beginning of a meal accompanied by either soft drinks, wine or Turkish raki, where you can relax, eat and socialise.

(3) Kumpir : 

For the ultimate carb-loading, a Turkish baked potato is like no other. The fluffy insides are whipped up with butter and cheese then it’s up to you which toppings to add – meats, veggies, sauces and more cheese. This tasty dish is a very popular street food and can be found throughout Turkey. Kumpir is so delicious, it’s like a party in a baked potato. Is your mouth watering yet?

(4) Menemen : 

Like messy scrambled eggs or a take on shakshuka, mememen is a breakfast dish of spicy eggs cooked with oil, tomato, peppers and spices. It’s usually served in the metal dish it’s cooked in and eaten with chunks of bread (of course). Although you’ll find Turkey has many contrasts of food due to the sheer size of the country, you’ll be surprised to find that menemen is a fairly standard breakfast across the whole country.

(5) Lahmacun : 

Who loves pizza? We do! Lahmacun is essentially a Turkish pizza which has a thin crispy crust and is topped with a delicious fresh sauce composed of tomatoes, peppers, flavoursome minced meat and herbs. Although it may look like a pizza, it does miss one essential pizza ingredient – Cheese! Because the dough is super thin this tasty dish can be eaten rolled up, burrito style, which is perfect for those days when you’re on the go.

Weather & geography in  Turkey   :
Turkey has a diversified climate, its regions contrast from each other due the diverse nature of the landscape, and particularly for the existence of mountains running parallel to the coasts. While coastal regions have milder climates, the inland Anatolia plateau has hot summers and cold winters with limited rainfall.Winters on the plateau are especially severe. Temperatures of −30 °C to −40 °C (−22 °F to −40 °F) do occur in northeastern Anatolia, and snow may lie on the ground at least 120 days of the year and in the mountains almost the entire year. In central Anatolia the temperatures can drop below -20 °C (-4 °F), with higher elevated parts dropping below -30 °C (- 22 °F) at times. Summers are hot and dry, with temperatures generally around or above 30 °C (86 °F) in the day. Nights are cool. Annual precipitation averages about 400 millimetres (15 in), with actual amounts determined by elevation. The driest regions are the Konya Plain and the Malatya Plain, where annual rainfall frequently is less than 300 millimetres (12 in). May is generally the wettest month, whereas July and August are the driest.

Per day Cost in  Turkey :
You should plan to spend around TRY434 ($50) per day on your vacation in Turkey, which is the average daily price based on the expenses of other visitors. Past travelers have spent, on average, TRY135 ($16) on meals for one day and TRY67 ($7.68) on local transportation.

History of  Turkey :
The history of Turkey, understood as the history of the region now forming the territory of the Republic of Turkey, includes the history of both Anatolia (the Asian part of Turkey) and Eastern Thrace (the European part of Turkey). These two previously politically distinct regions came under control of the Roman Empire in the second century BCE, eventually becoming the core of the Roman Byzantine Empire. For times predating the Ottoman period, a distinction should also be made between the history of the Turkic peoples, and the history of the territories now forming the Republic of Turkey. From the time when parts of what is now Turkey were conquered by the Seljuq dynasty, the history of Turkey spans the medieval history of the Seljuk Empire, the medieval to modern history of the Ottoman Empire, and the history of the Republic of Turkey since the 1920s.