TURKEY

ORIENTATION

HISTORy

The occupation of İstanbul and İzmir by the Allies during the First World War prompted the establishment of the Turkish National Movement, (a military commander).

REPUBLIC ERA

By September 18th, 1922, the occupying armies were expelled, and the new Turkish state was established. On November 1st, the newly fouded parliment formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of Ottoman rule. The Treaty of Lausanne of July 24th, 1923, led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on October 29th, 1923, in the new capital of Ankara.

Mustafa Kemal became the First President of the Turkish Republic and subsequently introduced many radical reforms with the aim of founding a new secular republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past.

The republic of Turkey is a denominational

Estate. Turkey is officially a lay Estate.

The majority religion is Islamism, there is

also a 2% spread between Judaism and

Christianity.

Within Islam, the majority are Sunni (78%),

while the Alevis comprise the remaining

(20%).

TURKEY RELIGION

Turkish music comes from the Asiatic steppe, which contrasts with the classical Turkish music of the ottoman Imperial Court or with the military music. Turkish music is varied and rich in culture. In the past the folk music was spread by the Aşıklar (minstrels) who went from town to town singing and playing this music. A part of the traditional turkish music is the military ottoman music, which isn’t registered. Its origin is Central Asia.

TURKISH MUSIC

TURKISH DANCES

Horon. From the Black Sea, it’s interpreted only by men, dressed in black with silver ornaments. The dancers joined among each other follow the weapons’ knocks rhythm and the fast rhythm of the kemence (violin) with their feet.

Each turkish region has its own traditional dances and dresses. The most important are:

Kaşık Oyunu. The Spoon’s Dance is interpreted from Konya to Silifke by very ornamented couples. They follow the dance rhythm with wood spoons in each hand, which sounds like a castanet.

Kılıç Kankan. The Shield and Bursa’s Sword Dance represents the ottoman conquest of this city. Is danced only by men, dressed with ottoman military campaign suits, who dance following the swords and shield’s sound without music.

Zeybek. This dance comes from the Turkish Aegean. The dancers dressed with bright and colorful suits, called efe. It symbolizes the courage and the heroism.

The Turkish gastronomy is very well known today and has influenced other cooks in the use of spices, roast , meat, etc. The olive oil is very much used. They have a great diversity of ingredients. The vegetables are usually eaten as an accompaniment to meat.

The aubergine (Patlıcan) is a very important ingredient in the turkish cook. There are more than 40 tipes to cooking this vegetable.

The rice is the most common accompaniment.

GASTRONOMY

Turkish eat especially lamb’s meat. The Döner Kebab is a quick food made of roast meat.

The Turkish pizza or Lahmacun has a base of bread and meat beef, onion and some spices with lemon and parsley. It comes from Southeast Turkey.

The fish isn’t very tradicional in the Turkish’s cook, but nowadays it is been more used, like the mussels, the istavrit (mackerel), çipura (gilthead)...

The spices are very much used in the turkish cook. The most common are the saffron (that is the largest trader) the mint...

The yogurt is one of the basics’ Turkish food, and is used frequently as in the cacik, a cucumber cold soup. Sometimes it is eaten with kebabs and köft. One of the most famous drink in Turkey is the ayran, made of yogurt, salt and lemon.

The butter is very much used in the turkish cook, and it’s kwon as süzme yağ.

Some of the most famous cheeses in Turkey are fresh like graviera, Mihaliç, Ezine, otlu peynir ...

In Istanbul you can visit a lot of places but the most typical are:

-St. Sofia it was a mosque, nowadays is used as a museum. It was build from 532 at 537 a.c. during the power of Justiciano I.

PLACES TO VISIT

Grand Bazaar it’s a big market it has got 58 streets and more than 4000 shops. The shops are distributed in different trades. It was built in 1464.

Spice Bazaar is one the oldest bazaar in Turkey. Is located in the neighborhood Eminönü. Is the biggest bazaar after the Grand Bazaar. It was built in 1663.

Topkapi Palace it was built in 1465. It has 700000 m2 surrounded by Byzantine walls.

The cisterns. It was built in the sixth century it has a capacity of 1000000m3. It was used to supply water to the people.

The Golden Horn is the union of the Black sea to the Mediterranean sea. And he separated Asia from Europe.

Ataturk´s bridge is in the Bosforo and the fonder of the modern Turkey given his name.

Galata tower was build in 1348. It was de highest tower of the city.

Beyoglu street was buid in the sixteenth century. Beyoglu is one of Istanbul´s main shopping points, whit a European lifestyle.