Explore Turkey

Location:
Turkey

Currency:
Turkish lira (YTL);
old Turkish lira (TRL) before 1 January 2005

Communications:
The telephone code for Turkey: + 90

About:
Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives. After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey, mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK increased. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community; over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy, enabling it to begin accession membership talks with the European Union.

Situated just off the coast of France on the edge of the English Channel, the beautiful Channel Islands, a British Crown dependency since 1066, are fiercely independent and justifiably proud of their history and traditions.

They're in fact famous for stoic resistance during the German occupation in World War II, with remnants of that war still dotting the landscape.

This popular tourist destination is also an attractive offshore tax haven (for many companies), and as a result the islands have a thriving financial industry. In addition, they're known worldwide for locally grown flowers and for their prized purebred Guernsey cows.

The local language and pubs may be English, but the islands were once a part of Normandy, so many of the place names and roads, as well as the food are decidedly French.