Makenna's Travel Blog: The Geography and History of Turkey

Geography plays a major role to tourists visiting Turkey. When planning your trip keep in mind the political position of Turkey and the major mountainous regions. Straddling the continents of Europe and Asia, Turkey's strategically important location has given it major influence in the region and control over the entrance to the Black Sea. Turkey forms a land bridge that connects countries with Eastern Europe. Modern Turkey is confined to mountainous lands and the Sea of Marmara contains the largest cities of Turkey. It also contains the two points that connect the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. The geographic challenge is to expand the economic success of these large cities and expand it to the rest of the region. Currently Turkish leaders are working to link the current government with its neighbors besides a decade long war with the Kurdish people. The Kurds mostly reside in the Taurus Mountains and Eastern Anatolian Plateau. Turkey is a crossroads between the East in West trying to work to transport consumer goods, but it is surrounded by many powerful and war torn countries looking to overtake the countries success.

Map of Turkey and the surrounding countries

The history of Turkey is a long and complicated and full of wars. Some crucial dates to understand are in 1452 Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire. Then, in the 15th and 16th centuries Turkey expanded into Asia and Africa. The decline of the Ottoman Empire began in 1683 with the Battle of Vienna, and continued till 1908 with the Young Turk Revolution. From 1918 to 1922, the Turkish National Movement of war and independence against foreign occupation and the Sultan occurred. Modern Turkey was founded in the 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire, by nationalist leader Kemal Ataturk, and soon after became Secular. The country has long tried to make progress towards democracy, and this was halted following the death of President Ataturk in 1938. Following his death, the army saw itself as an extension of the constitution and ousted the governments it believed challenged secular values. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 and became a part of NATO. But, the government quickly move towards being based on theocracy. A major ambition has been joining the European Union, it was launched in 2005 but has been very slow and still has not come about. A very important part of Turkeys history is the minority ethnic group the Kurds, who make up one fifth of the population. They have been engaged in war since 1984 when the Kurdish PKK group launched their guerrilla campaign, claiming the government is trying to destroy their identities. The current Republic of Turkey is home to 74.5 million people and the major languages are Turkish (the official language) and Kurdish, and the major religion is Islam. When traveling to Turkey it is extremely important to consider the location of Turkey and the long history of war. Not only is there an ongoing war with the Kurds, but in 2011 the Syrian war began and Turkey was drawn in. While in Turkey plan the safest possible route and consult a guide to make safety the priority.