After our tour to Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania, we flew to Istanbul of Turkey for us finally to visit this historically important and biblically meaningful nation.
We spent a week in Istanbul and I literally explored the mega city a lot on foot and by all means of public transportation. So there are a lot to cover and I will split the coverage into three: I) General, II) Landmarks, and III) Culture. This is the first segment.
Turkey or Turkiye as changed not too long ago is situated as a bridge between Europe and Asia. In fact, Turkey is the only nation and Istanbul is the only city in the world that exists in two continents. The Asian part is called Anatolia and the European part is called Eastern Thrace. Combined, the country Turkey has a land mass of 783 thousand square km with a population of more than 82 million inhabitants. It is a huge country to begin with.
Moreover, its location is very strategic with the Turkish Straits that include the famous Bosporus Strait, which connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara in between. The Bosporus Strait is the portion from Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea. It stretches 31 km in length with the closest point between Asia and Europe being only 800 meter in width. Also, Istanbul occupies part of Europe and part of Asia, thus providing a channel for the movement of people and cargo. On the other hand, the connecting point could easily become a bottleneck if the relationship goes sour.
Before the current republic was established in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. But, its history dates back deeply into the Ottoman Empire, the Seljuk Empire, The Byzantine Period, and the Anatolia and Thrace in their classic antiquity. Istanbul was called Constantinople after Constantine the Roman Emperor. While we were visiting Istanbul, they were celebrating the 100th anniversary of their national foundation. Ataturk is deeply honored and revered among Turkish people.
Currently, Turkey's major ethnicity is Turks that moved from the Central Asia and dominated the region. The country claims to be an Islamic nation, but pursuing secularism. Thus, the government and the religion are separate, unlike many Islamic nations where the religion and the state are combined or comingled.
Turkey is a member of NATO, but creating a lot of troubles since it deviates significantly from the western Europe pursues. Its military remains strong and the current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been in power for 20 years, initially as Prime Ministry since 2003 and as President since 2014. He wasa reelected as President in 2023. He was close to Vladimir Putin of Russia until recently he all of sudden shows more amicable friendship to the west and the U.S. after the Ukrainian War.
Istanbul is not the capital city of Turkey, but is the largest city with a population of over 15 million inhabitants, representing approximately 19% of the nation's population.
We found this nation a fascinating place to visit and even to live for a while. - Jeffrey
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