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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. To be updated

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By TurkeyDaily
September 7th 2008

Disclaimer

Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul

Today is day 12. The notion of a cohesive narrative or some jazz at this point would just be silly. I certainly don't want one, and if you do then Sammy Two-Toes will show you right out. So far, each day contains lots of novelty and lots of the quasi-familiar. Like a perfectly modern intra-city bus system which takes me everywhere, everyday, but on which I have yet to see ONE PERSON read a book, besides me. And there cats everywhere. I think my best offerings right now are word-bytes and anecdotes. Also, because days are episodic this wa [View Full Entry]

By GJSS
September 7th 2008

Fancy Tourist Town

Middle East » Turkey » Aegean » Fethiye

View Over Fethiye

I mentioned before that the Turks like to travel in style and I can report that this extends to the bus companies too. Mercedes Benz appears to have had a field day here with almost all the bus companies using new luxury air conditioned Mercedes Benz coaches. I guess it’s a kind of arms race – first one company ups the ante by buying a luxury coach and soon all the others have to do the same to compete. You get a comfortable reclining seat and shortly after departure complementary refreshments are served (water, coffee, tea, cola, cake, biscuits) and again [View Full Entry]

By olivernmoody
September 6th 2008

Chambers of the Sun Part 4

Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Canakkale

Ecce Homo Yellow Rose Pension, Çanakkale, nr. the Hellespont - September 6th I must have written university essays shorter than that last entry. This is becoming less a travel journal than a series of nascent dissertations, and is doubtless thoroughly tedious reading matter. I can only say that I am churning with such a ferment of ill-digested ideas that I have to condemn some of them to paper. Readers will be delighted to learn that the last two days have been almost wholly uneventful. Turkey is effectively a large network of coach rides with towns in between, and un [View Full Entry]

By HannahinIstanbul
September 6th 2008

şişli

Middle East » Turkey

şişli
The numbers are a little upside down from this view, but this is the largest clock I have seen! (it's the roof of the Cevahir mall)

Today Ryan and I ventured to şişli - another district in Istanbul (this was an adventure for us, since our Turkish is still very bad and we had to change from one dolmuş to another and get on the metro). We went to the Cevahir Shopping Centre, which is the largest mall in Europe and the seventh largest in the world. While not an amazing cultural experience, we were able to find some electrical adapters that we needed. [View Full Entry]

By FastEddie
September 6th 2008

Turkey

Middle East » Turkey

Kayseri, Turkey
After traveling through the night, on four different buses into central Turkey, I found a hotel in Kayseri and went to bed. When I woke the next day and looked out the window, I was stunned with this ... [more]

Following my cargo ship ride from Israel, I spent a few days on the island of Cyprus and then bought a ticket on a ferry bound for Turkey. I boarded the modern boat and sat down inside next to a middle-aged, pudgy, short man who was wearing jean shorts and had his white socks pulled high. The boat quickly filled up with its 300 passengers and then we were off. A few minutes into the trip, he leaned over and said something in Turkish. I gave him an apologetic shrug and told him I only spoke English. He then asked, “What [View Full Entry]

By JacksTravels
September 6th 2008

A Turkey looking at a Turkey in Turkey

Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul

A Turkey looking at a Turkey in Turkey
This is a zoo that we stopped at on our way to Anzac cove

We have spent a week in Turkey. Firstly we went to Istanbul. Istanbul is not the capital of Turkey but it is just a city. We are staying in old Istanbul. Basically all of the tourist sites were within walking distance. We went to the Blue Mosque. It is a very important building for Turkish people it is like their church. It has lots of half domes holding up one huge central dome. It was good fun to go to the Blue Mosque. Then we went to the Cistern Basilica. It is a place of underground worship, that the Romans built [View Full Entry]

By JJfromNJ
September 5th 2008

"Polıs! The Gay, Dırty Turk Stole My Bag!"

Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul

Capa 1
Typıcal vıew of Cappadocıa

It ended up takıng me 18 hours to get from Aleppo to Göreme, whıch ıs the vıllage we stayed at ın Cappadocıa. It ınvolved 3 buses and a mınıbus, and a lot of patıence. We met a Turkısh/Dutch couple and the Turkısh half was very helpful ın the search for a room. We ended up at the Bedrock. The 'cave rooms' as they are known werent really what I expected. Entıre hotels are buılt ınsıde caves. But they are so well decorated, ıts easy to forget where you are. Adrıan, the Swıss guy I had jo [View Full Entry]

By Shons
September 5th 2008

Cappadocia...Possibly the strangest place on earth

Middle East » Turkey » Central Anatolia » Cappadocia

Cappadocia

18 Aug - we have a leisurely breakfast on the train followed by a few hours of watching the Turkish countryside go by. Vast, dry, sandy, nothing-ness except for the odd, small settlement with cows and a minaret. A v relaxing way to spend a Monday morning...work life seems a distant memory already :) Arrive in the hippy hangout of Goreme in Cappadocia, WOW what a place. For those of you in the know, all I can say is Humbie moonbase :) Out of this world scenery. Over the ages, volcanic tufa (Heather - amazing climbing!) has been sculpted into strange [View Full Entry]

By olivernmoody
September 5th 2008

Chambers of the Sun Part 3

Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul

A Tale of Two (Closed) Buildings Hotel Türkuaz, Kadýrga, Ýstanbul - September 4th Apparently some people have been having problems getting to the site. Ýf you're not reading this, Ý can only apologise. Ýt's also quite unusual to find an internet café with USB connections, but Ý will have some photos up for you just as soon as Ý stumble into one. Given Ýstanbul's conscious effort to trim her Classical past to a set of ramshackle columns in the Hippodrome and a tumbledown triumphal arch on the Divan Yolu, Ý have had to exert my imagination a little in identifying the [View Full Entry]

By olivernmoody
September 4th 2008

Chambers of the Sun Day 2 - Istanbul

Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul

Change and Decay September 3rd AM - Sultanahmet, Istanbul I want this journal to be a hymn to the life poetical of Asia Minor, rather than to decline, and so I had better address the decline first. Istanbul is a carcass. She is like some great whale beached on the shores of the Bosphorus, startling in her beauty - the echoing caverns of light, the great vaults of the ribs, the priceless troves of ambergris - yet a carcass nonetheless. She can give testament to the long, slow withdrawing roar of Rome, of Byzantium, of the Umayyad Arabs (who were here [View Full Entry]

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Travel Blog » Middle East » Turkey