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Turkey: Modern Turkey
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Turkey's current boundaries were drawn in 1923 at the Conference of Lausanne, and Turkey became a republic with Kemal Atatürk as the first president. The Ottoman sultanate and caliphate were abolished, and modernization, reform, and industrialization began under Atatürk's direction. He secularized Turkish society, reducing Islam's dominant role and replacing Arabic with the Latin alphabet for writing the Turkish language. After Atatürk's death in 1938, parliamentary government and a multiparty system gradually took root in Turkey, despite periods of instability and brief intervals of military rule. Neutral during most of World War II, Turkey, on Feb. 23, 1945, declared war on Germany and Japan, but it took no active part in the conflict. Turkey became a full member of NATO in 1952, was a signatory in the Balkan Entente (1953), joined the Baghdad Pact (1955; later CENTO), joined the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the Council of Europe, and became an associate member of the European Common Market in 1963.
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The Anatolian peninsula (... called Asia Minor), comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest continually inhabited regions in the world due to its location at the intersection of Asia and Europe. The earliest Neolithic settlements such as Çatalhöyük (Pottery Neolithic), Çayönü (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A to Pottery Neolithic), Nevali Cori (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), Hacilar (Pottery Neolithic), Göbekli Tepe (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A) and Mersin are considered to be among the earliest human settlements in the world.[9] The settlement of Troy starts in the Neolithic and continues into the Iron Age. Through recorded history, Anatolians have spoken Indo-European, Semitic and Kartvelian languages, as well as many languages of uncertain affiliation. In fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical center from which the Indo-European languages have radiated.[10]
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Modern Turkey has a strong and varied economy. It has 7th largest army (4th largest ground army) in the world. Its warm climate lets many kinds of food crops grow, and livestock and forestry are important industries. Turkey is one of the countries in the world that can make enough food to feed itself. There is a strong manufacturing sector making airplanes, electronics, cars, clothing and textiles for home and for other countries.
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Modern Turkey began in 1923, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a Turkish army commander-turned-statesman, whose radical secular revolution changed Turkish society forever. In a series of reforms beginning in the 1920's, Ataturk, whose portraits are still commonly displayed, burned all bridges with Turkey's religious and imperial Ottoman past, shutting down religious orders, doing away with Islamic courts, religious instruction in schools, removing the caliphate, changing the Ottoman script, a mix of Arabic and Persian, to Latin letters, and rewriting criminal and civil law based on European legal codes.
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Modern Turkey encompasses bustling cosmopolitan centers, pastoral farming villages, barren wastelands, peaceful Aegean coastlines, and steep mountain regions. More than 70 percent of Turkey's population lives in urban areas that juxtapose Western lifestyles with more traditional ways of life.
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The Republic of Turkey was created in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atat�rk, a pragmatic leader who reformed Turkey into a modern, secular, and western-oriented republic. Over the years, fears of a shift from the secular and western oriented makeup of the country have led to a left-wing military coup in 1961, and fears of a shift towards the Eastern Block have led to two more right-wing military coups in 1971 and 1980. Democratic rule has since returned. Turkey became a member of NATO in 1952, and is seeking membership of the European Union.
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Modern Turkey