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The Turkey of today is modern, westernized and trendy but its exotic and esoteric face exists in tandem - the whirling dervishes and bewitching belly dancers, caliphs on carpets and amazing amulets, bustling bazaars and spicy smells. Discover the cosmic duality of Turkey that stands with one foot in the Christian European West and the other in the Islamic Middle East ....and happily straddles the east-west divide.

It is the first of the Muslim countries to westernize and yet is an amazing mosaic of Islamic fundamentalists, cell phone toting young professionals, burkha-covered women, scantily clad belly dancers and beach goers. While the western part of Turkey has modernized, it is quite conservative in the eastern sections.

The nation is young, only 77 years old, with an exciting religious, cultural and historical past that it has inherited from classical and ancient Greece and Rome, the Christian Byzantines and the Muslim Ottomans. Turkey is the first of the Ottoman Muslim territories to become a republic and a democracy. As a travel destination, it has a great variety of options ranging from archaeological

and historical sights like cliffside monasteries and medieval churches to water sports and hiking.

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Turkish coffee and Turkish tea are well known but you need to acquire a taste for the coffee that can be a very bitter experience if you have it in a gulp!

Historically Speaking

Turkish civilization dates from the 6th millennium BC in Central Asia. It was known as Anatolia, present day Turkey, Iran and Iraq. The earliest known rulers are the Hittites, who were very powerful between 2000BC-1200BC. After the disintegration of the empire, the country was once again united during the Greco Roman period. Later, Christianity spread through Anatolia, through the efforts of St. Paul.

The Roman Emperor Constantine founded a new imperial city at Byzantium (modern Istanbul) in 330 AD and renamed it Constantinople. This city was the capital, of what became known as the Byzantine Empire, till 1453 AD. During the medieval era, when Western Europe was in the throes of the Dark Ages, the Byzantine Empire was the centre of western civilization, despite the threat of invasion from the Persians, Arabs and Turks from the East and the European Christian powers in the West. The Seljuk Turks conquered Persia and took over most of Anatolia from the Byzantines, who were left a reduced territory around Constantinople.

The Mongol invasion in the late decades of 1200 AD destroyed the Seljuk power and this led

to the creation of the Ottoman Empire. In 1453, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehemet II, conquered Constantinople. In the 16th century under the aegis of Suleyman, the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire reached its cultural zenith and its political sway extended deep into Europe, Asia and North Africa. The Turks employed the first modern standing army (the Janissaries) that gave them an edge over the European armies.

The Ottoman Empire based on military successes was not a secure economy (industry and agriculture), and Turkey started declining and in the 19th century. It actually came to be known as "The Sick Old Man Of Europe". Various regions started seeking independence when nationalistic waves spread all over Europe after the French Revolution and Napoleonic defeat. The Greeks in 1829, Serbs, Romanians and the Bulgarians in 1878 and Egypt in 1839 became independent. Tunisia, Tripolitania (Libya), and Albania and Macedonia (after the Balkan wars- 1912-1913) escaped from Turkish control. After the World War I, the Turks were shorn of their non-Turkish provinces- Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Arabia. The sadly defeated Turkey (most of Anatolia) was to be parceled between the victorious Europeans and Russians.

At this moment, when the light of Turkey seemed to be extinguishing, Mustafa Kemal, the father of modern Turkey took over. He defeated the Anzacs (the Australians and New Zealanders) at Gallipoli, and after dismantling the weak Ottoman rulers, defeated the Allied forces in the War of Turkish Independence. The final Turkish victory against the Greeks was at Smyrna (Izmir of today). The Turkish Republic was thus born, based in Anatolia and eastern Thrace.

The World War I treaties were revised. Turkey was reduced to a small but secure boundary. Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal) now started modernizing Turkey, by establishing a secular democracy, taking the focus off religion, introducing equal rights for women, the Latin script and European dress. The capital was also shifted from Istanbul to Ankara and Turkey is now way ahead of its neighbours in terms of liberalisation. Mustafa Kemal’s aggressive, rebellious but idealistic nature earned him the title of "young Turk"!

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Habitat

Turkey connects Europe and Asia and is balanced between the East and the West. The Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus Straits divide it into Asian and European parts. Eastern Thrace (European Turkey) is only 3% of the total land area of Turkey. The remaining 97% is Anatolia. A vast plateau rises eastwards towards the Caucasus Mountains. Turkey shares its boundaries with Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria. It has a rich topography varying between rolling steppes, meandering rivers, rich agricultural valleys and a craggy-beach coastline. It has a 1700 km drive from Edirne on the Bulgarian border to Kars on the Armenian border and a 1000 km hiking distance from the Black Sea in the north to the Mediterranean in the south. Turkey’s coastline is over 6,000 km long and has several popular tourist resorts.

In spite of once being densely forested, Turkey has been shorn of its forests to a great extent. Though some areas still have considerable forested regions the government is encouraging conservation and reforestation. In spring the Steppes are covered with a multitude of flowers. Turkey’s

temperate climate and the diverse topography favours the planting of a variety of crops, ranging from apples, apricots, bananas, cherries, citrus fruits, cotton, date palms, grapes, sugar beet to sunflowers and tobacco. Much of the world’s supply of hazel nuts (filberts), pistachios and walnuts are grown in Turkey. Among the cash crops, cotton, and wheat and barley are important.

The animal life in Turkey is quite similar to that in the Balkans, and most of European bears, deer, jackals, lynx, wild boars, wolves and rare leopards. The domestic animals include cattle, horses, donkeys, goats and several varieties of sheep, camels and water buffalo. Bird life is also very rich and varied with many eagles, vultures, storks as well as the rare bald ibis. Bird Sanctuaries have been established in several parts of Turkey.

The coastal waters of Turkey are rich with different kinds of fish, shellfish and other sea creatures, though over fishing and pollution are damaging the sea life of Turkey.

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