Turkey

The Characteristics of
Turkey
By: Setareh Gerashi
Humanities.
Mr. Bonnalie - 8D
 Where Turkey is Located
• Turkey is located in Southeastern Europe and Southwestern
Asia, whilst bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and
Georgia, and bordering the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea.
The part of Turkey west of Bosporus is officially and
geographically part of Europe. Its neighboring countries
include Greece, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Georgia Bulgaria
and Azerbaijan.
• Three sides of Turkey is
surrounded by seas
including the Black Sea,
the Mediterranean Sea
and the Aegean Sea.
• The Sea of Marmara is
also very important
because it’s the only
gateway to allowing the
Black Sea out to the
world.
 Climate
• Turkey’s climate varies from region to region because of
geographical conditions. In Western Anatolia, there is a mild
Mediterranean climate with an average temperature of 9ºC in winter
and 29ºC in the summer. The same climate can be found in the
southern coat of Anatolia.
• Anatolian Plateau has a rather steppe climate
with a big temperature difference from day to
night. The is little rainfall but more snow. The
summer is an average of 23ºC and -2ºC in the
winter. The Black Sea area has a wet, warm
and a humid climate. Summer has an average
of 23ºC and 7ºC in the winter. In both Eastern
and South-Eastern Anatolia, there are long
cold winters with an average of -13ºC and
summer with 17ºC.
 Geographic Features
• Turkey is a high and mountainous country. Mountains in
Turkey cover large areas. On the other hand Turkey also has
many flat plains. Turkey has been separated into seven
geographical regions: the Mediterranean Region, Aegean
Region, Marmara Region, Black Sea Region, Central Anatolia
Region, Eastern Anatolia Region and Southeastern Anatolia
Region.
• The Great Agri Mountain (5,137m), located in the Eastern
Anatolia Region, is the highest mountain in Turkey.
• Turkey has many rivers and streams. All rivers are emptied
into the surrounding seas of Turkey. The Euphrates and Tigris
Rivers, the main river in the Eastern and Southeastern
Anatolia, flow into the Persian Gulf. The longest river inside
the boundaries of Turkey is the Kizilirmak, with a length of
1,355km long.
• The total area of Turkey’s lakes is approximately 9200km².
Eastern Anatolia has the most lakes in Turkey including Lake
 Physical
• The natural resources supplied from this country
include coal, iron ore, copper, and many others
natural resources.
• Turkey has severe earthquakes, especially in
Northern Turkey, along an arc extending from the
Sea of Marmara to Lake Van
• Turkey’s coastline has a
length of 7,200 km.
• The total area of both land
and water cover 780,580
sq. km.
• Turkey has the same
animals found in Europe,
Asia and Africa. Turkey is
home to many birds.
Turkish Vulture
 People
• Population of Turkey is approximately 71,158,647.
• 80% of the population are Turkish and 20% are Kurdish.
• About 99.8 are mostly Sunni Muslims while the other 0.2% are
mostly Christians and Jews.
• Because of urbanization, now approx. 70% of the populations
live in the cities whilst 30% live in rural areas.
• Turkey’s state does not have an official religion nowaday seeing
as Turkey isn’t so strict
on religious traditions and aspects.
• The official language is Turkish. Since
Turkey has many ethnic groups other
languages such as Kurdish, Dimli,
Azeri, Karbadian and including many
minor ones are also spoken. Interior of the Selimiye Mosque, Edirne
 People
• Foreign languages that are being spoken by middle and
higher class people are English (17%), German (4%) and
French (1%).
• Hospitality is very important in Turkish society as they are
very generous and most gracious.
• Many Kurds exist in Turkey because of the Ancient times,
they lived in what now is South-Eastern Turkey.
• Kemal Ataturk’s big change culturally split Turkey's urban with
the rural villagers. He had forced the people in the cities into
living a lifestyle like the Europeans.
 Customs & Traditions
• Symbolizing Turkish living is by the Turkish Baths (Hamam). They return
back to historic time where people went to public Turkish Baths because of
cleanliness upon the religion Islam. They are built all around the country.
• Turks are very generous and kind people. Hospitality exists in their blood.
They always make you feel comfortable, whether you are foreign or not.
Sometime they offer tourists coffee and sometimes invited to Turkish homes to
spend some time meeting each other.
• The Evil Eye. This is a distinctive item you should take back home as a
souvenir. It is a little stone that protects you from the ‘Evil Eye’. It means that
it protects you from people who talk about you, as a result curse or jinx you.
• Respect is very important. When visiting a family, you should take your shoes
off before entering the house and then kiss the elder and bring it to your
forehead. This is very much appreciated. Kissing or hugging the opposite
gender in public is often offensive to others. So it’s better avoiding that.
• Turkish people always welcome everyone and then for their curiousity start
asking you questions about your life and your business. This is not to be taken
offensively, but rather because of their interest of you.
 Political

• Turkey’s government is a republican parliamentary

democracy. Its capital is Ankara.
• Turkey’s independence day is on 29th of October,
1923.
• Both the president and prime minister share the
executive power. At the present time, Turkey has
the National Assembly, which is the country’s
legislature. The government of the country was
taken over several times by the military, yet every
time it has returned into civilian hands.
 Government
• The public is very important in the government
because of making votes and electing
representatives.
• People are allowed to vote by the age of 18.
• The current president is Abdullah Gül and the prime
minister is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan .
• Although the majority of Turkey’s population is
Muslim, it is a secular state, meaning religion is kept
apart from the government. This made people’s lives
easier.
 Economy
• Turkey now has many modern factories in addition to the village farming
and craft making. Clothing, chemicals and oil processing are the most
important industries.
• Turkey’s economy has grown fast these years, so has inflation. Many
have left Turkey for better jobs and livings.
• Approx. 43% of Turkey’s labor force works in agriculture.
• The major crops in Turkey include grains, cottons, sugar beets and
hazelnuts.
• Turkey has ranked first artificial fertilizer producer in Europe and sixth
clothing exporter in the world.
• Turkey has starting building dams on the Tigris and Euphrates River in
the 1990s. Their function is to provide electricity and irrigation water for
crops.
 Analysis
(Social)
• Kemal Ataturk, founder of Republic of Turkey and its first president,
wanted to modernize Turkey. He thought of westernizing it. He started
by making the government secular, deleted the Islamic one. He then
introduced Hat Law in 1934. The men had to wear western style hats
instead of the fez. New laws banned women from wearing veils. For
education, he change the Arabic alphabet by the Latin one and closed
the Islamic schools. The European calendar and metric system were
used instead of the Islamic ones. He gave women more rights. They
were allowed to vote and encouraged to work. After time, the lifestyle
and attitude of middle-class Turks became similar to middle-class
Europeans. This also urbanized people and split them from the rural
villagers. This is very important because it modernized Turkey and
introduced it to the world. The education was improved and the
communication between Europe and Turkey became closer. It made
the more people become high-classed, chic and smarter.
 Analysis
(Political)

• Turkey’s government had decided to be secular,

separate from religion. Although in the Islamic law, men
are allowed to have as much as four wives, the Turkish
law only allows men to have one wife. This is important
to point out because now if married men want another
wife, they have to divorce their first one. This increases
the number of men divorcing in the country which is
actually bad. This also makes people move countries
because of the Turkish law in order to marry another
woman. This will affect Turkey by lowering the
population. If they had the Islamic law, then any men
could have as little as one wife and as much as four
wives. The freedom will be much better.
 Analysis
(Economy)

• Although the Turkish economy has continuously grown in the

recent years, inflation has become a big problem. Many of the
Turks have now moved to different countries such as
Germany, Dubai and America because their salaries are
higher. In 1994, it has been estimated that 1.5 million people
have migrated to different countries with higher incomes. This
has affected Turkey because, the country itself is causing its
people to migrate to different countries. They migrate hoping
that their salary will buy them more goods than it would in
Turkey. It also caused the population to decrease. It
discourages people in saving money for the future and
investing. Inflation has also caused Turkey’s exports less
attractive than other countries like China, where it is cheaper
and just as good.
 Bibliography
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