Turkey Europe - Pictures of Istanbul, Travel, Economy and Map

Dwellings in Cappadocia.

Ruins of the Library of Celsus, Ephesus, Anatolia.

Geography

Country name: Republic of Turkey (local: Turkiye Cumhuriyeti).

Capital: Ankara.

Government type: republican parliamentary democracy.

Independence: 29 October 1923 (successor state to the Ottoman Empire).

Administrative divisions: 81 provinces (iller, singular - il); Adana, Adiyaman, Afyon, Agri, Aksaray, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya, Ardahan, Artvin, Aydin, Balikesir, Bartin, Batman, Bayburt, Bilecik, Bingol, Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Canakkale, Cankiri, Corum, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Duzce, Edirne, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Hatay, Igdir, Isparta, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Karabuk, Karaman, Kars, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kilis, Kirikkale, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Kocaeli, Konya, Kutahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Mugla, Mus, Nevsehir, Nigde, Ordu, Osmaniye, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Siirt, Sinop, Sirnak, Sivas, Tekirdag, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Usak, Van, Yalova, Yozgat, Zonguldak.

Total area: 780,580 km².

Terrain: high central plateau (Anatolia); narrow coastal plain; several mountain ranges.

Highest point: Mount Ararat 5,166 m (the legendary landing place of Noah's Ark, is in the far eastern portion of the country).

Coastline: 7,200 km.

Climate: temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters; harsher in interior.

Ports and harbors: Gemlik, Hopa, Iskenderun, Istanbul, Izmir, Kocaeli (Izmit), Icel (Mersin), Samsun, Trabzon.

Note: strategic location controlling the Turkish Straits (Bosporus, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas.

Nonetheless, occasional clashes have occurred between Turkish security forces and armed PKK militants, many of whom remain in northern Iraq. In April 2002, the PKK changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK). In 2003, the group changed names again, becoming the Kurdistan People's Congress (KHK).

The group - whose leader, Abdullah OCALAN, was captured in Kenya in February 1999 - has largely ceased violent attacks since it declared a unilateral cease-fire in September 1999.

Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to protect Turkish Cypriots and prevent a Greek takeover of the island; the northern 37 percent of the island remains under Turkish Cypriot control. Relations between the Turkey and Greece have improved greatly over the past few years. In 1984, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Marxist-Leninist, separatist group, initiated an insurgency in southeast Turkey, often using terrorist tactics to try to attain its goal of an independent Kurdistan.

Present-day Turkey was created in 1923 from the Turkish remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Soon thereafter, the country instituted secular laws to replace traditional religious fiats. In 1945 Turkey joined the UN.

Main source: CIA - The World Factbook 2004.

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, once the world's largest Byzantine church. Built between 532 and 537 as the Cathedral of Constantinople by the Emperor Justinian. Since 1935 it is a museum.