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Turkey
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TURKEY

Capital: Ankara (pop. 2,890,025)

Population: 68,109,469

Area: 780,580 sq. km.

Economy: In 2002, Turkey ranked 84th on the UN's Human Development Index and 17th in total GDP, with a per capita GDP of $6,953. 18% of its population lives on less than $2 a day, and 39.99% of its revenues are paid toward foreign debt service (2001).

Main Language: Turkish

Monkey's Name: Majmun (my-moon)

Fun Fact: About 22 percent of Turkey's population are ethnic Kurds. Many Kurds have been pushing for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan linked with Kurdish populations in Iran and Iraq since the creation of the Turkish Republic of Turkey in 1923. The Kurdish question remains a highly contentious one in Turkish and international politics.
One country on two continents, Turkey embodies the maxim "crossroads of culture." Europe and Asia meet in Turkey, separated physically by the narrow waterway of the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, and culturally (at least for now) by the two faiths of Christianity and Islam. Whether one views this diametric as West-East, Occident-Orient or Europe-Asia, Turkey cannot help being both. Its largest city has served as the capital of one of the largest empires in European history (Byzantium's Constantinople) and one of the largest in Mid-East and Asian history, as Ottoman Istanbul.

The modern state of Turkey owes much of its coherence to the personality of one man, Mustapha Kemal Atatürk, a military man who fought on the losing side of World War I as a citizen of the dying Ottoman Empire and later on the winning side as a Turk nationalist against both the powerless last Ottoman Sultan and the Greeks, who in 1921 foolishly followed British advice and invaded Anatolia in a vain attempt to revive Byzantium. After that bloody war, Atatürk abolished the sultanate and became the first president of the modern state of Turkey (1923). His stubborn adherence to Western liberal concepts like secularized government and a professional army enabled the Turkish state to survive, despite vengeful designs on its lands by countless neighbors.

Despite decades of modernization, the visitor to Turkey is immediately cognizant of the remnants of old empires that once extended their tentacles from Constantinople/Istanbul. Nowhere is this more potent than in Istanbul, without a doubt one of the world's greatest cities.

The Monkey visited Istanbul in September of 2002. He stayed long enough to see many areas of this metropolis, and to set foot on the two continents that meet within its city limits. Having tasted Turkey there, the Monkey is impatiently awaiting his next chance to delve deeper into this ancient and fascinating meeting place of civilizations.

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The Monkey got an early morning shot by Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque.
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Asia (Istanbul)_9
Turkish fans of the Monkey should check out the photo from the Monkey's visit to Atatürk's birthplace in Thessaloniki, Greece.
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