Explore Turkey - Türkiye - Turquie - Turkije - Türkei - Asia Minor -  Anatolia - Anatolie - Anatolië - TransAnatolie - TransAnatolia

 

"The gateway between Europe and Asia..."

"A country situated at the heart of the oldest continents of earth..."

"The crossroads of many important routes since centuries..."

"A bridge between ages, nations and civilizations..."

"The cradle of civilization..."

"The heartland of civilizations..."

Turkey is also a paradise of sun, sea, sand, mountains, forests, and lakes. 

Turkey offers the vacationer a complete change from the stress and routine of everyday life. From April to October, most places in Turkey have an ideal climate that is perfect for relaxing on sandy beaches or enjoying the tranquillity of forests, mountains and lakes.

Top Turkish Destinations

There is no doubt that one visit will not be enough, and you would like to come back again and again as you discover one extraordinary place after another. All of them, no matter how different, have one thing in common: the friendly and hospitable people of this unique country of civilisations.

Turkey is a new country in an old land. The modern Turkish state--beginning with the creation of the Republic of Turkey in the years immediately after World War I--drew on a national consciousness that had developed only in the late nineteenth century. But the history of nomadic Turkish tribes can be traced with certainty to the sixth century A.D., when they wandered the steppes of central Asia. Asia Minor, which the Turks invaded in the eleventh century, has a recorded history that dates back to the Hittites, who flourished there in the second millennium B.C. Archaeological evidence of far older cultures has been found in the region, however.

The term Turkey, although sometimes used to signify the Ottoman Empire, was not assigned to a specific political entity or geographic area until the republic was founded in 1923. The conquering Turks called Asia Minor, the large peninsular territory they had wrested from the Byzantine Empire, by its Greek name, Anatolé (sunrise; figuratively, the East), or Anatolia. The term Anatolia is also used when events described affected both that region and Turkish Thrace ("Turkey-in-Europe") because of the two areas' closely linked political, social, and cultural development.

Anatolia is a bridge connecting the Middle East and Europe, and it shares in the history of both those parts of the world. Despite the diversity of its peoples and their cultures, and the constantly shifting borders of its ethnic map, Anatolia has a history characterized by remarkable continuity. Wave after wave of conquerors and settlers have imposed their language and other unique features of their culture on it, but they also have invariably assimilated the customs of the peoples who preceded them.

The history of Turkey encompasses, first, the history of Anatolia before the coming of the Turks and of the civilizations--Hittite, Thracian, Hellenistic, and Byzantine--of which the Turkish nation is the heir by assimilation or example. Second, it includes the history of the Turkish peoples, including the Seljuks, who brought Islam and the Turkish language to Anatolia. Third, it is the history of the Ottoman Empire, a vast, cosmopolitan, pan-Islamic state that developed from a small Turkish amirate in Anatolia and that for centuries was a world power.

Finally, Turkey's history is that of the republic established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), called Atatürk--the "Father Turk." The creation of the new republic in the heartland of the old Islamic empire was achieved in the face of internal traditionalist opposition and foreign intervention. Atatürk's goal was to build on the ruins of Ottoman Turkey a new country and society patterned directly on Western Europe. He equated Westernization with the introduction of technology, the modernization of administration, and the evolution of democratic institutions.

Turkey in 1930s

• Explore Turkey - Türkiye - Asia Minor - Anatolia - Anatolie - Anatolië - Turquie - Turkije - Türkei with TransAnatolie Tour

• Découvrez la Turquie,  Anatolie, Turquie Musées, Les Villes, Culture avec TransaAnatolie Tour

• Ontdek Turkije - Kruispunt der Beschavingen - met TransAnatolie Tour

• Entdecken Sie die Türkei mit TransAnatolie Tour

• Türkiye (transanatolie.com)