Turkiye - The Western Asia and Southern Europe Country
Overview:-
Capital - Ankara
Largest City - Istanbul
Official language - Turkish
Spoken languages - Predominantly Turkish
Other languages
Kurdish
Zaza
Circassian
Laz
Arabic
Various others
Ethnic groups
70–75% Turks
19% Kurds
6–11% Others
Religion -. Islamism
Government - Unitary presidential constitutional republic
President - Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Vice President - Fuat Oktay
Assembly Speaker - Mustafa Şentop
Legislature - Grand National Assembly
Establishment
Ottoman Empire -. - 1299
War of Independence - 19 May 1919
Government of the Grand National Assembly
23 April 1920
Treaty of Lausanne - 24 July 1923
Republic declared - 29 October 1923
Current constitution - 9 November 1982
Area Total - 783,356 km2 (302,455 sq mi) (36th)
Population - 85,279,553
Density - 111/km2 (287.5/sq mi) (107th)
GDP (PPP)2023 estimate Total - $3.54 trillion(11th)
Per capita - $40,883 (46th)
GDP (nominal)2023 estimate Total - $942 billion (20th)
Per capita. - $10,863(79th)
Currency - Turkish lira (₺) (TRY)
Time zone - UTC+3 (TRT)
Driving side - Right
Calling code. - +90
Internet TLD. - .tr
Turkey , officially the Republic of Turkiye , is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east, Iraq to the southeast,Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is off the south coast. Most of the country's citizens are ethnic Turks, while Kurds are the largest ethnic minority.Ankara is Turkey's capital and second-largest city; Istanbul is its largest city and main financial center.
One of the world's earliest permanently settled regions, present-day Turkey was home to important Neolithic sites like Gobekli Tepe, and was inhabited by ancient civilizations including the Hattians, Hittites, Anatolian peoples, Mycenaean Greeks, Persians and others.
Following the conquests of Alexander the Great which started the Hellenistic period, most of the ancient regions were culturally Hellenized, and this continued during the Byzantine era.The Seljuk Turks began migrating to Anatolia in the 11th century, which started the Turkification process. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into small Turkish principalities. Beginning in the late 13th century, the Ottomans united the principalities and conquered the Balkans, while the Turkification of Anatolia further progressed during the Ottoman period. After Mehmed II conquered Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1453, Ottoman expansion continued under Selim I. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire became a global power.
From the late 18th century onwards, the empire's power declined with a gradual loss of territories.Mahmud II started a period of modernization in the early 19th century.The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 restricted the authority of the Sultan and restored the Ottoman Parliament after a 30-year suspension, ushering the empire into a multi-party period.The Three Pashas took control with the 1913 coup d'état, and the Ottoman Empire entered World War I as one of the Central Powers in 1914. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Greek and Assyrian subjects.After its defeat in the war, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned.
The Turkish War of Independence against the occupying Allied Powers resulted in the abolition of the Sultanate on 1 November 1922, the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (which superseded the Treaty of Sèvres) on 24 July 1923 and the proclamation of the Republic on 29 October 1923. With the reforms initiated by the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey became a secular, unitary and parliamentary republic. Turkey remained neutral during most of World War II, but entered the closing stages of the war on the side of the Allies.
Turkey played a prominent role in the Korean War and joined NATO in 1952. During the Cold War years, the country endured two military coups in 1960 and 1980, and a period of economic and political turmoil in the 1970s. The economy was liberalized in the 1980s, leading to stronger economic growth and political stability. Since 2002, the country's political system has been dominated by the AKP and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, under whom a decade of rapid growth in nominal GDP took place until 2013,which was followed by a period of recession and stagnation in terms of USD-based nominal GDP between 2013 and 2020,and high inflation as of 2023. The AKP government's initial economic achievements, which were financed through privatization revenues and loans, were overshadowed by democratic backsliding and an erosion in the separation of powers and civil liberties, which gained momentum after the parliamentary republic was replaced by an executive presidential system with a referendum in 2017.
Turkey is a regional power with a geopolitically significant strategic location.The economy of Turkey, which is a founding member of the OECD and G20, is classified among the E7, EAGLEs and NICs, and currently ranks twentieth-largest in the world by nominal GDP and eleventh-largest by PPP. Turkey is a charter member of the United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, a founding member of the OSCE, OIC, BSEC, ECO, MIKTA, TURKSOY and OTS, and an early member of NATO. After becoming one of the early members of the Council of Europe in 1950, Turkey became an associate member of the EEC in 1963, joined the EU Customs Union in 1995, and started accession negotiations with the European Union in 2005. Turkey has a rich cultural legacy shaped by centuries of history and the influence of the various peoples that have inhabited its territory over several millennia; it is home to 19 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is among the most visited countries in the world.
2023 Turkey - Syria Earthquake
On 6 February 2023, a Mw 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria.The epicenter was 37 km (23 mi) west–northwest of Gaziantep at 04:17 TRT (01:17 UTC). The earthquake had a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). It was followed by a Mw 7.7 earthquake nine hours later, centered 95 km (59 mi) to the north-northeast from the first, in Kahramanmaraş Province. There was widespread damage and tens of thousands of fatalities.
Damages and Casualties —---
In Turkey:-
There were at least 43,556 deaths and 108,068 injured across the 10 most affected provinces in Turkey (as well as some casualties and damage in Muş, Elazığ, Giresun, Mardin, Sivas, Kayseri and Batman provinces).At least 13.5 million people and 4 million buildings have been affected.About 345,000 apartments were devastated.Thousands were trapped under rubble when buildings collapsed.Many people remained missing in collapsed buildings. Some of those trapped under rubble live streamed their pleas for help on social media.
The Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change conducted damage inspections for 763,000 buildings; at least 41,791 buildings in 10 Turkish provinces were heavily damaged or destroyed,leaving about 150,000 people homeless. A damage assessment by the Turkish government revealed at least 61,722 buildings would have to be demolished including 11,900 in Gaziantep Province, 10,900 in Hatay Province, 10,800 in Kahramanmaraş Province and 6,600 in Malatya Province. The earthquake caused broad fissures on roads.During recovery efforts, body parts were often found in the rubble.
Adana Şakirpaşa Airport was closed due to runway damage. At least 300 buildings were razed in Malatya. The ceiling of Malatya Erhaç Airport experienced a partial collapse, as did the historic Yeni Camii mosque.Damage was also reported at the Arslantepe Mound, with UNESCO saying parts of site museum's temporary roof would have collapsed in several areas and some slips can be observed in some of the adobe walls of the mound.
In Gaziantep, many of the historical sites were severely damaged, such as Gaziantep Castle,Şirvani Mosque And Liberation Mosque. In towns such as Nurdağı, mass graves were created to bury the overwhelming number of dead.Gaziantep Oğuzeli Airport was forced to restrict its service to rescue flights. Six train carriages at a maintenance station overturned. Rockslides obstructed a railroad near Fevzipaşa Railway Station.
In Hatay Province, an unknown number of people are trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings.At least 9,224 buildings in the province were partially or totally destroyed.In Antakya about 3,100 buildings were destroyed, and up to 80 percent of the city's buildings needing to be demolished.The districts of Kırıkhan and İskenderun were razed. The runway of Hatay Airport was split and uplifted, leading to flight cancellations. By 12 February, the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality completed repairs on the airport,allowing its reopening.Two provincial hospitals and a police station were destroyed, and a gas pipeline exploded.The building that housed the assembly of Hatay State was destroyed, as was St. Paul's Church and the Habib'i Neccar Mosque, while damage was reported at the Antakya Synagogue and the Hatay Archaeology Museum. Several dozen buildings in Güzelburç district and nearly every house in the central and Cebrail districts collapsed.Most of the squad and coaching staff of the local football club Hatayspor were initially trapped in the collapse of their headquarters in Antakya before being rescued, with player Christian Atsu and sporting director Taner Savut dying.
In İskenderun, an industrial city in Hatay Province, a large fire at the port was reported on 6 February at 17:00 local time,believed to have originated from a container carrying
flammable industrial oil,forcing the port's closure and the diversion of many ships. It was reported to be extinguished on 6 and 8 February, only for it to reignite the next day each time.It was finally extinguished on 10 February.A total of 3,670 containers were destroyed by the fire and the port managing authority said it would take three months for operations to resume.Flooding occurred along the city shoreline, inundating streets as much as 200 m (660 ft) inland. The Cathedral of the Annunciation, seat of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia, was almost completely destroyed.
Mass burials occurred in Kahramanmaraş for more than 5,000 bodies.A city official said the mass grave would eventually be the burial ground for the 10,000 people killed. The Interior Ministry later confirmed that 941 buildings there had totally collapsed. At Ordekdede, a village in Pazarcik District, almost all single-story buildings were decimated. None of the 140 houses in the village were structurally stable. Thirty four people died in the village.In Elbistan, Kahramanmaraş Province, three buildings were destroyed by the initial earthquake and an estimated 2,000 buildings were destroyed by the second earthquake. At least 924 people died in the city.
In Adıyaman Province, over 600 buildings collapsed, including Adıyaman's city hall. In Şanlıurfa Province, 19 buildings collapsed.[118]
Diyarbakır Fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was also partly destroyed, while damage was also reported in structures at the adjacent World Heritage Site of Hevsel Gardens. In Şanlıurfa, structures around the Pool of Abraham were reported to have been damaged. The minaret at the religious shrine partially collapsed, sending rubble into the pools below and discoloring the water, which was also said to have been contaminated by sewage.
In Batman Province, twenty people were injured, one of them seriously, 218 buildings were damaged, and an additional fifteen were completely destroyed. In Kızıltepe District, Mardin Province, a woman died of a heart attack upon experiencing the quake.In Bingöl Province, several houses cracked and some livestock were killed by collapsing barns. In Samsun, damage occurred in Samsun Stadium. In Kayseri Province, 48 houses, 11 barns and a school were affected, while 73 buildings were severely damaged.Several houses were damaged and a barn collapsed in Muş Province.In Sivas Province, the second earthquake destroyed a few houses. In Giresun Province, a five-story building was damaged and evacuated.
An unoccupied apartment building was damaged, and later collapsed after the second earthquake in Elazığ. Three Turkish soldiers also died during rescue operations.
Those confirmed deceased included member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for Adıyaman Yakup Taş,Yeni Malatyaspor goalkeeper Ahmet Eyüp Türkaslan, who was killed by rubble from a collapsed building, former Turkish national handball team player Cemal Kütahya, who died along with his five-year-old son in the rubble of Rönesans Rezidans in Antakya, and Saul Cenudioğlu, leader of the Jewish community in Antakya, who died along with his wife. Former MP for Kahramanmaraş Sıtkı Güvenç died from earthquake injuries on 9 February.
In Syria:-
Over 6,689 people were killed,and over 14,500 were injured in Syria.The Syrian Ministry of Health has recorded over 2,221 earthquake-related deaths and 2,950 injuries in government held areas, most of which were in the provinces of Aleppo and Latakia.In rebel-held areas, at least 4,468 people have died, and 2,200 others been injured. It was estimated that up to 5.37 million people across Syria might have been made homeless, while a total of 10.9 million people, nearly half of the country's population, were affected.
