Turkey

Republic of Turkey
Anthem: İstiklâl Marşı Independence March
Location of Turkey
Capital		Ankara 39°55′N 32°50′E
Largest city		Istanbul
Official languages		Turkish
Demonym		Turkish
Government		Parliamentary republic
-	Founder	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
-	President	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
-	Vice-President	Fuat Oktay
Legislature		Grand National Assembly
Succession to the Ottoman Empire
-	Treaty of Lausanne	July 24, 1923
-	Declaration of Republic	October 29, 1923
Area
-	Total	783,562 km2 302,535 sq mi
-	Water (%)	1.3
Currency		Turkish lira (TRY)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
-	Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Date format		dd/mm/yyyy (AD)
Drives on the		right
Calling code		90

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey, is a country in Asia Minor except for a tiny part around Constantinople (Istanbul) which is in Europe.

Turkey stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey borders eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest, Greece to the west, Georgia to the northeast, Armenia, Azerbaijan (the Nakhichevan exclave), and Iran to the east, Iraq and Syria to the southeast. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west, and the Black Sea to the north. Turkey also contains the Sea of Marmara, which is used by geographers to mark the border between Europe and Asia, thus making Turkey transcontinental.

History

The region comprising modern Turkey has overseen the birth of major civilizations such as the Hittite, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Because of its strategic location where two continents meet, Turkey's culture has a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition, often described as a bridge between the two civilizations. A powerful regional presence in the Eurasian landmass with strong cultural and economic influence in the area between the Adriatic Sea in the west and China 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 while continuing to foster relations with the Eastern world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the OECD and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE); a member state of the Council of Europe since 1949 and of NATO since 1952. Turkey joined the European Economic Community (today known as the European Union) as an associate member in 1963, the Western European Union as an associate member in 1992, and signed the EU Customs Union agreement in 1995. Since 2005, Turkey has been in full accession negotiations with the European Union. Turkey is also a member of the G-20, which brings together the 20 largest economies of the world.

Homosexuallity

The Turkish military allows men to avoid the draft if they prove themselves homosexual by submitting a photo of video of them being engaged in homosexual sex. Turkey only considers the man penetrated by another man as homosexual. They do not consider the man who penetrates the other man to be a homosexual.

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Turkey's top Muslim scholar and President of Religious Affairs, Ali Erbaş, said in a Friday Ramadan announcement that country condemns homosexuality because it "brings illness," insinuating that same sex relations are responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan backed Erbaş, saying that what Erbaş "said was totally right."

Criticism (2022)

The authoritarian and highly centralized presidential government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has set back Turkey’s human rights record by decades, targeting perceived government critics and political opponents, profoundly undermining the independence of the judiciary, and hollowing out democratic institutions. Turkey has withdrawn from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention) and is subject to a Council of Europe infringement procedure for its failure to implement a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights ordering the release of jailed human rights defender Osman Kavala. Turkey hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan and other countries.

U.S.-Turkey Relations under Biden (2022)

The U.S.-Turkey friendship dates to 1831, when the United States established diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire. After World War I and the founding of the Turkish Republic, the United States established diplomatic relations with the Republic of Turkey in 1927. The Economic and Technical Cooperation agreement – signed July 12, 1947 between the United States and Turkey – advanced the relationship further. The agreement implemented the Truman Doctrine and its policy “to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” The United States condemned the July 15, 2016, coup attempt in Turkey, and the United States continues to emphasize the importance of the Turkish government’s adherence to policies and actions that build public trust in the country’s democratic institutions and the rule of law, as well as upholding human rights commitments. Turkey is a key NATO Ally and critical regional partner, and the United States is committed to improving the relationship between our two countries. It is in our interest to keep Turkey anchored to the Euro-Atlantic community.

External links

• The Turkish Crime of our Century
• Turkish language
• Encyclopedia.com: Turkey