Travel Blog | About TravelBlog | World Facts | Travel Wallpaper | Travel Forum | Backpackers Travel Insurance | Services | Cameras

Black Sea Travel Blogs

Background: Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives, but after the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey, mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK increased. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community; over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy, enabling it to begin accession membership talks with the European Union.



Links: Black Sea Travel Blogs (47) | Black Sea Travel Photos | Map of Black Sea | Turkey Travel Forum | Turkey Facts | Map of Turkey

Areas in Black Sea: Amasya | Artvin | Barhal | Safranbolu | Samsun | Sinop | Surmene | Trabzon

Turkey

Turkey Location


Recommended Books:

Hostels in Turkey
Latest Black Sea Blog Entries
Black Sea Photos











October 28th is the Republic's day in Turkey, they celebrate the end of the War for Liberation and the beginning of the Republic with Mustafa Kemal, Atatürk. Most of the celebrations are taken in schools and squares. 28 Ekinde Cumhurriyet bayrami ilk okuda kutluyorlar. [View Full Entry]

Pablo in Barhal - Pablo Martín Asuero | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
44 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 14 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: November 6th 2007 | 349 Views | [diary=217381]

2
3
4

Mehmet Karahan is one of my best friends in Barhal, he has a wonderful pension where I allways stay at least one night, It is a great cook and a very nice person, I realy like to talk with him. www.karahanpension.com is a traditional house next to the church, is very well known. He has had important gests like the sister of H. M. the Queen of England or my brother Yasar Yucel, among others. When he has time Mehemt takes care of his bees. Mehemt Karahan en iyi arkadaslarimde biri, onda çok iyi bir pesionu var ve çok guzel yemekleri [View Full Entry]

Pablo in Barhal - Pablo Martín Asuero | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
140 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 10 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: November 6th 2007 | 69 Views | [diary=217394]

2
3
4

Barhal is beautifil bat if I come back everiyear is because of them. After all those years I really feel at home there. Recep oncle's lastname is Kirimli, because his family came from Crimea, they don't remember when. Last year I climbed to Amanizket to say merhaba to him, se said to mi "I have seen you in my dreams, Insallah you will become muslim" I found it very sweet, the way he said so, I do not have the intention to do it, but I liked the way he said so, the way he expresed I meant something to him. [View Full Entry]

Pablo in Barhal - Pablo Martín Asuero | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
466 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 25 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: November 5th 2007 | 188 Views | [diary=217126]

Ali Barhali
Bekir Amca
Bekir Amca 1

By Nick on Safari
September 10th 2007

Coast to coast

 Middle East » Turkey » Black Sea » Sinop
The coolest bar around
The coolest bar around
At the top of thıs tower
Welcome back readers! We're gettıng ınto our last few days ın Turkey, and thıngs are startıng to get hectıc as we work our way back to Istanbul to meet our traın (and pıck up our carpets). We moved on from Amasya yesterday to a small fıshıng town named Sınop on the Black Sea coast. The bus rıde was very excıtıng... Turkısh bus drıvers thınk nothıng of ploughıng down the mıddle of the road. The horn ıs used often to tell people to get out of the way, and I thınk the ınd [View Full Entry]

Nick on Safari - Nick Ward | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
511 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 1 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 10th 2007 | 78 Views | [diary=200719]


Syklister flagger ut
Syklister flagger ut
til Trabzon... Ubekvemmelighetsflagg er det neppe!
Litt utpĺ formiddagen den 14. mai dukket noen velkjente fjell opp i horisonten. Knausen som er bedre kjent som Tyrkia steg fram over vannet. Furet, vćrbitt, anyone? Da det velkjente břnnegaulet fra nćrmeste moske blandet seg med havnestřyen og bilglammet, var bildet perfekt: Vi hadde forlatt slavernes velordnede verden, og ankommet tyrkernes brautende og blide anarki. Deilig. Faktisk oppleves kontrasten mellom Russland og Tyrkia sterkere enn da vi kom hjemmefra... Vi bevilget oss et par dager i Trabzon, og vasket klćr og sykler (sistnevnte operasjon framprovoserte atter en gang at vi bl [View Full Entry]

Svartehavet rundt - Svein & Sten Erik | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
322 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 3 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 16th 2007 | 137 Views | [diary=159096]

Uren Luren Himmelturen
Hřyt hang de

Sinop sunset
Sinop sunset
sunset over the fortress in Sinop
It's time to give you some updates about my further way... I am in Hopa, a small city on the shore of the black Sea coast (Karadeniz) and ready to leave for Georgia. After I spent some delightful days in Sinop with exploring the beaches, eating great fish meals, discussing with old fishermen about the laic republic of Turkey and even seeing dolphins hunting, I decided to continue my journey. After leaving my host whose family has a small restaurant at the seaside, I hitchhiked to Samsun a quite big city on the coast. It wasn't very appealing, so I [View Full Entry]

Hiasi - Matthias | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1471 Words | 3 Comment(s) | 61 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 3rd 2007 | 412 Views | [diary=154680]

Sinop from the beach
Dolphins in the Black Sea
my host and his neighbours in Sinop

By Hiasi
April 20th 2007

Crossing the bridge

 Middle East » Turkey » Black Sea » Sinop
As promised I write you this time from Asia.... I am in Sinop, a city which is located on a small peninsula in the Black Sea in Northern Turkey. Since the last entry a lot of things happened and I try to give you a quite detailed insight in what happened, and which adventures I went through! After the great time ı still had with Vasili in Peristera, I continued my way, with many thoughts in my mind about the way he thinks and lives towards Kavala, which Zoran (the Macedonian) recommanded me to see. After an easy hitchhike without [View Full Entry]

Hiasi - Matthias | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
2532 Words | 6 Comment(s) | 64 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 20th 2007 | 479 Views | [diary=150596]

Istanbul is not Konstantinopolis
longing for the past...
Theodosian

It was yet another snowy departure for us tryıng to make our way to Sumela, we have to go up the mountaın passes agaın and ıt was pretty wıth all the colorful landscape wıth frostıng of snow but as we get up the pass ıt gets a bıt trıcky as there was a truck we passed by that overturned. We have a mınor breakdown at the sıde of the road and we used that tıme to play around ın the snow ıt got a bıt serıous and started a snow fıght. I had the good sense to stay ın the [View Full Entry]

Viajerong Pinoy - GIL BRIONES | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
567 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 21 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: April 4th 2007 | 160 Views | [diary=144728]

MOUNTAIN PASS SCENERY
MOUNTAIN PASS SNOW FIGHT
MOUNTAIN PASS SNOW FIGHT

Tuesday March 15. As I had planned I took the bus to Gerade to miss out the heavy traffic. It was a good decision as the traffic is scary along this stretch. The memory of Dave Cook underlines that choice. I set off cycling at 1 pm and made good progress as I climbed higher into the mountains. It got very cold and started to snow. The snow was driven by a strong wind and visibility was reduced. Lorries were seeing me too late but the main problem was the cold and the possibility of hyperthermia. I was seriously cold. [View Full Entry]

neil lockwood - neil lockwood | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
300 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 2 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 27th 2007 | 72 Views | [diary=142342]

Store oposite the hotel

Saturday March 17. I left Merzifon at 8 am. The road is flat at first but then become hilly. Some of the hills are very long. I pushed my bike for at least two hours up these hills. I stopped along the way for tea and bananas. I do enjoy their tea houses. Eventually I reached the top and it was a dramatic downhill to Samsun and sunshine! I booked into a good hotel, Otel Fuar. I had dinner at a fish restaurant and watched Bolton lose to Man United. They know much more about the Premiership than I do. [View Full Entry]

neil lockwood - neil lockwood | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
252 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 2 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: March 27th 2007 | 91 Views | [diary=142354]

School children in uniform.