Turkey

TL;DR. Turkey is the region's bridge to Europe and the direct successor of the Ottoman Empire, yet a century ago it reinvented itself as a secular republic under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Big, populous, and powerful, it is a NATO member that long sought to join the EU, and it spends much of its energy debating how secular or religious, how Eastern or Western, it should be. Since 2003 it has been dominated by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, under whom it has grown more assertive abroad and, critics say, more authoritarian at home.

Key takeaways

Turks are a distinct people: Muslim but neither Arab nor Persian, with their own language.
Modern Turkey was built to be secular by Atatürk after the empire's fall.
It is a NATO member, a major regional power, and a balancer between the West and Russia.
Its defining domestic issues are the secular-religious divide and the Kurdish question.
Its minority history includes great sensitivity, above all the Armenian Genocide of 1915, which Turkey officially disputes.

Main events at a glance

When	Event
~1700 BCE	The Hittite empire; later Troy, Lydians, Greeks
330 CE	Constantinople becomes the Byzantine capital
1071	Seljuk Turks win at Manzikert, opening Anatolia
1453	Ottomans take Constantinople
1915	Armenian Genocide (term disputed by Turkey)
1919 to 1923	War of Independence; Republic founded (1923) by Atatürk
1924	The caliphate abolished
1952	Turkey joins NATO
1960 to 1997	Several military coups
1974	Turkey invades northern Cyprus
1984 onward	Conflict with the Kurdish PKK
2003	Erdogan era begins
2016	Failed coup and mass purges
2023	Centenary; Erdogan re-elected; a devastating earthquake

The land and the deep past

Anatolia (Asian Turkey) is one of the oldest stages of human civilization. It held the Hittite empire, the legendary city of Troy, Greek coastal cities, the wealthy Lydians (who minted some of the first coins), and was conquered in turn by Persians, Alexander the Great, and Rome. When Rome split, Anatolia became the core of the Christian Byzantine Empire, ruled from Constantinople, the greatest Christian city for a thousand years.

Turkic peoples arrived from Central Asia. The Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at Manzikert in 1071, opening Anatolia to Turkish settlement. Out of the patchwork that followed rose the Ottomans, whose four-century empire is covered in its own chapter. The capture of Constantinople in 1453 ended Byzantium and made the city the Ottoman capital.

From empire to republic

After the Ottomans lost World War I (allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary), foreign powers occupied Anatolia and planned to partition it. A nationalist resistance led by the general Mustafa Kemal won the Turkish War of Independence, fighting above all an invading Greek army (with the new Turkish movement receiving some arms from Soviet Russia), and in 1923 proclaimed the Republic of Turkey, with Kemal as first president. He was later given the surname Atatürk, "father of the Turks."

Atatürk launched one of history's most sweeping top-down transformations, to build a modern, secular, Western-facing nation-state:

Abolished the caliphate (1924), ending the institution that had symbolised Islamic leadership for centuries.
Made the state firmly secular (laiklik), separating religion from government.
Replaced the Arabic script with the Latin alphabet, reformed the language and dress, and extended the vote to women relatively early.

This secular, nationalist legacy, Kemalism, defined Turkey for generations, with the army acting as its self-appointed guardian.

Don't be confused: Turkey is Muslim but not Arab, and officially secular. Turks are a distinct people with their own language, neither Arab nor Persian. The population is overwhelmingly Muslim (mostly Sunni), but the state was built to be secular, a defining difference from Saudi Arabia or Iran. How religious public life should be is Turkey's central, ongoing argument.

The modern republic and its alliances

Turkey's path since Atatürk has been turbulent but never colonised or broken by a neighbour. Its alignments:

The army staged or forced several coups (1960, 1971, 1980, and a "soft" one in 1997) whenever it judged secularism or order at risk.
Turkey joined NATO in 1952, firmly allying with the United States and Western Europe against the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and even sent troops to the Korean War.
A long, painful conflict with Kurdish insurgents (the PKK), beginning in 1984, has killed tens of thousands. Kurds are Turkey's largest minority.
In 1974 Turkey invaded northern Cyprus after a Greek-nationalist coup on the island, leading to its still-unresolved division and decades of tension with Greece (a fellow NATO member).
In Syria's war, Turkey backed certain rebel groups against Assad while also fighting the Kurdish forces there, whom it links to the PKK, and it hosts the world's largest refugee population (over three million Syrians).
More recently Turkey has played a careful balancing act, a NATO member that nonetheless bought Russian air-defence systems and brokered deals between Russia and Ukraine, asserting an independent course.

The Erdogan era

Since 2003, Turkish politics has been dominated by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP, a party with roots in political Islam:

Early on, strong economic growth and reforms that reduced the army's political grip won broad support and international praise.
Over time, power concentrated. After a failed military coup in 2016, the government carried out a vast purge of the bureaucracy, military, judiciary, media, and universities. A 2017 referendum replaced the parliamentary system with a powerful executive presidency.
Critics describe a slide toward authoritarianism, with pressure on the press, courts, and opposition; supporters credit Erdogan with empowering pious, long-sidelined Turks and raising Turkey's global standing.
Recent strains include high inflation and the devastating 2023 earthquake that killed over 50,000 people. Erdogan won re-election in 2023, the republic's centenary.

How people lived: daily life and lifestyle

Daily life in Turkey is famously social and is split along the country's central fault line. Cosmopolitan, secular Istanbul and Izmir feel European, with bars, galleries, and beach resorts, while much of conservative Anatolia is religious and traditional, and the two often vote and live very differently. What unites nearly everyone is tea (çay), drunk all day from tulip-shaped glasses, and the kahvaltı, the lavish Turkish breakfast spread. Other constants: passionate devotion to football, the hammam (Turkish bath) tradition, strong family ties, and a deep café and conversation culture. Religion ranges from devout observance to thoroughly secular, and how visibly Islam belongs in public life (the headscarf in state institutions, for example) has been one of the country's most charged debates.

Music, the arts, and notable people

Turkish culture is rich and layered. It runs from refined Ottoman classical music and the haunting Sufi tradition of the Mevlevi order, the "whirling dervishes" who spin in meditation to the reed flute (linked to the medieval poet Rumi of Konya), to the bağlama (saz)-driven folk music of Anatolia, to arabesk, modern Turkish pop (the global star Tarkan, the songwriter Sezen Aksu), and Anatolian rock.

Notable people across the centuries:

Rumi (Mevlana), the 13th-century Sufi poet whose work is read worldwide.
Mimar Sinan, the great Ottoman architect of Istanbul's grand mosques.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the republic's founder.
Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2006), and the poet Nazım Hikmet.

Religion, coexistence, and minorities

Turkey is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, but its minority history is significant and, in places, painful. Honest treatment means naming both coexistence and persecution:

Alevis, a large heterodox community (perhaps 10 to 20 million) related to Shia Islam and known for a more liberal, music-centered practice, are Turkey's biggest religious minority. They have faced discrimination and deadly violence, including the Maraş killings (1978) and the Sivas hotel fire (1993) that killed 35 Alevi intellectuals. Their houses of worship (cemevis) are still not granted the same official status as mosques.
Armenians. Once a large Christian community, devastated by the 1915 genocide (see the Ottoman chapter); a small community remains. Turkey officially disputes the genocide label, making this the country's most sensitive historical issue.
Greeks. Anatolia's ancient Greek Orthodox population was almost entirely removed by the 1923 population exchange with Greece, and the small remaining community in Istanbul was driven out by discriminatory measures, including the 1942 wealth tax (Varlık Vergisi) that targeted minorities and the 1955 anti-Greek Istanbul pogrom.
Jews. A historic Sephardic community, welcomed by the Ottomans after their expulsion from Spain in 1492, once thrived; it is now much smaller, also hit by the 1942 wealth tax.
Kurds, the largest minority (roughly a fifth of the population), are Muslims with their own language and identity. For decades the state suppressed Kurdish identity (calling them "Mountain Turks" and banning the language in public life), and the PKK conflict caused great suffering. Millions of Kurds are also fully integrated into Turkish society, including in business and politics.

Food: Turkey's own table

Turkish cuisine is one of the world's great culinary traditions, heir to Ottoman court cooking and blending Central Asian, Balkan, and Anatolian influences. It is distinct, vast, and regional:

Kebabs in many forms: the spicy Adana, the Urfa, the stacked döner, and the İskender (döner over bread with tomato sauce and yoghurt).
Meze spreads, mantı (tiny dumplings under garlic yoghurt), börek (flaky filled pastries), pide and lahmacun (Turkish flatbreads), dolma (stuffed vegetables), and köfte (meatballs).
A famous sweet tradition: baklava (with deep Ottoman roots, Gaziantep is the acknowledged capital), lokum (Turkish delight), and künefe (a hot cheese pastry).
Turkish coffee, thick and unfiltered (and culturally so important it lends its name to fortune-telling from the grounds), alongside the ever-present çay (tea), and the grand Turkish breakfast.

Education and the IQ question

Turkey has a large education system and a growing research and industrial base, including a notable defence-technology sector. On "national IQ," commonly cited datasets place Turkey in roughly the high 80s, but, as the education and IQ chapter explains, these figures rest on flawed methodology and are rejected by mainstream science; they are not a measure of a population's ability.

Everyday life: relationships, family, and home

How people meet and marry varies sharply across the country. In big, secular cities like Istanbul, Izmir, and Ankara, a modern dating culture is common, with apps, cafés, and mixed social circles. In more conservative, religious parts of Anatolia, courtship tends to be more traditional and family-involved, with introductions and matchmaking still playing a role and parents closely engaged in a child's choice of partner. Engagements (nişan) and weddings are major social events. One well-known custom is the pinning of gold coins and gold jewelry onto the bride and groom as gifts during the wedding celebration, a practical way for the community to help a new couple start out.

Family is the center of life, and respect for elders runs deep. A widely practiced gesture of respect is to kiss an older relative's hand and then touch it lightly to one's own forehead, especially during religious holidays. Many households keep close multigenerational ties, with grandparents involved in raising children and adult children staying in regular contact with parents. Children are generally treated with a lot of warmth and indulgence in public.

There is a notable public affection for animals, especially the street cats and dogs of cities like Istanbul, which are widely fed, sheltered, and looked after by ordinary people, shopkeepers, and municipalities. Cleanliness and hospitality shape the home: shoes are removed at the door, often swapped for indoor slippers, and guests are offered tea or coffee at once. The hammam (Turkish bath) is an old tradition of steam, washing, and scrubbing that survives both as a social ritual and a tourist experience.

School, work, and the economy

Schooling is compulsory for twelve years, split into primary, middle, and high school stages. The system is marked by an intense university entrance exam culture: placement in good universities depends heavily on nationwide standardized exams, and many students spend years in private cram courses (dershane) and study late to prepare, with families investing heavily in tutoring.

Working hours are typically full weekdays with a standard work week, though hours and formality vary between large corporate employers, small family businesses, and the large informal sector. Relationships and personal trust matter a great deal in business, and meetings tend to begin with tea and conversation.

Turkey has a large, diversified economy. It spans manufacturing (including a major automotive and white-goods industry), textiles and clothing, agriculture (it is a leading producer of hazelnuts, dried fruit, and many crops), construction, a huge tourism sector, and a fast-growing defense-technology industry known for drones and military vehicles. In recent years the country has struggled with very high inflation and a weakening currency, which has squeezed household budgets even as exports and tourism have stayed strong.

Language, idioms, and words to know

The national language is Turkish, spoken by nearly everyone. It is a Turkic language, not related to Arabic or Persian, though centuries of contact left it with many borrowed words. Since Atatürk's reforms in 1928 it has been written in the Latin alphabet rather than the Arabic script. Kurdish and several other community languages are also spoken, mainly in the southeast.

A few useful phrases:

Merhaba, hello.
Tesekkür ederim, thank you.
Lütfen, please.
Afiyet olsun, an expression said around meals, roughly "may it be good for you" or "enjoy your meal."
Hosgeldiniz, "welcome," to which the reply is hos bulduk.

Turkish is rich in proverbs (atasözleri). A few well-known ones:

"Damlaya damlaya göl olur," literally "drop by drop a lake forms," meaning small steady efforts add up.
"Bir musibet bin nasihatten iyidir," "one calamity teaches more than a thousand pieces of advice," meaning hard experience is the best teacher.

On famous lines: Atatürk's well-documented words "Yurtta sulh, cihanda sulh" ("Peace at home, peace in the world") are widely quoted as a guiding principle of Turkish foreign policy. The poet Nazim Hikmet and the medieval mystic Rumi are both beloved sources of quotation, though Rumi wrote mainly in Persian, so lines attributed to him are usually translations.

Famous places to know

Istanbul. The great city on the Bosphorus, the strait that splits it between Europe and Asia. Highlights include the Hagia Sophia (a Byzantine cathedral, then a mosque, then a museum, and now a mosque again), the Blue Mosque with its cascading domes, and the sprawling Grand Bazaar, one of the world's oldest covered markets.
Cappadocia. A surreal landscape of soft volcanic "fairy chimney" rock formations, underground cities, and cave churches, famous today for sunrise hot-air balloon flights.
Ephesus. One of the best-preserved ancient Greek and Roman cities anywhere, with its grand Library of Celsus and great theater.
Pamukkale. Dazzling white terraces of mineral-rich water (the name means "cotton castle"), beside the ruins of the spa city of Hierapolis.
Troy. The site of the legendary city of Homer's Iliad, on the northwest Aegean coast.
The Mediterranean and Aegean coasts. Long stretches of turquoise sea, beaches, and resort towns, with ancient ruins scattered among them.

Fitting in: visiting, impressing people, and being a good citizen

Turkey is famous for warm hospitality, and a guest is treated with great generosity. Expect to be offered endless glasses of tea, and accepting is a friendly gesture. Practical etiquette:

Remove your shoes when entering someone's home unless told otherwise.
Dress modestly at mosques: shoulders and knees covered, and women cover their hair with a scarf; shoes come off before entering.
At the table, wait for elders to begin, and complimenting the food and the host is always welcome.

Some topics are genuinely sensitive. The Armenian issue (the events of 1915), Kurdish politics, and criticism of the state can all be touchy, and insulting Atatürk or his memory is a criminal offense in Turkey. It is best to listen more than argue on these, and to let hosts steer political talk. Enthusiasm for Turkish food, history, and landscapes is a reliable way to make a good impression.

Turkey is very tourist-friendly, with straightforward e-visas available online for many nationalities and a well-developed tourism industry. Visa rules and exact requirements change, so check official sources before you travel. This is general information, not legal advice.

Today, and how to talk about it

Turkey in the mid-2020s is a powerful, proud, internally polarised country, pulled between secular and religious visions, between Europe and the Middle East, and between democracy and strongman rule, while acting as a serious regional power.

If you talk with Turks: national pride is strong, and Atatürk in particular is revered by many (insulting him is even a crime), though attitudes toward him and toward Erdogan split sharply along the secular-religious line, so tread thoughtfully on party politics. The Armenian question and the Kurdish issue are sensitive. Enthusiasm for Turkey's history, hospitality, and especially its food, tea, and coffee is always a warm starting point.

That completes the countries. The next chapters pull back to the threads that connect them all, starting with the geopolitics. 👉

Understanding the Middle East: History, Politics, and Culture