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 The
lands of Turkey are located at a point where Asia, Africa and Europe are
closest to each other, and straddle the point where Europe and Asia
meet. Geographically, the country is located in the northern half of the
hemisphere at a point that is about halfway between the equator and the
north pole, at a longitude of 36 degrees N to 42 degrees N and a
latitude of 26 degrees E to 45 degrees E. Turkey, as a country roughly
rectangular in shape, has a width of approximately 550 kilometers and a
length of approximately 1500 kilometers.
Because of its geographical location, the mainland of Anatolia has
always found favor throughout history, and is the birthplace of many
great civilizations. It has also been prominent as a centre of commerce
because of its land connections to three continents and the sea
surrounding it on three sides.
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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the
Turkish Republic and its first President, stands as a towering figure of
the 20th Century. Among the great leaders of history, few have achieved
so much in so short period, transformed the life of a nation as
decisively, and given such profound inspiration to the world at large.
Emerging as a military
hero at the Dardanelles in 1915, he became the charismatic leader of the
Turkish national liberation struggle in 1919. He blazed across the world
scene in the early 1920s as a triumphant commander who crushed the
invaders of his country. Following a series of impressive victories
against all odds, he led his nation to full independence. He put an end
to the antiquated Ottoman dynasty whose tale had lasted more than six
centuries - and created the Republic of Turkey in 1923, establishing a
new government truly representative of the nation's will.
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The
Turkish language is spread over a large geographical area in Europe and
Asia; recent studies show that this language goes back 5500 years, and
perhaps even 8500. At the same time, it is one of the most widely spoken
tongues in the world - the sixth most widely spoken , to be precise. It
is spoken in the Azeri, the Türkmen, the Tartar, the Uzbek, the Baskurti,
the Nogay, the Kyrgyz, the Kazakh, the Yakuti, the Cuvas and other
dialects. Turkish belongs to the Altaic branch of the Ural-Altaic family
of languages, and thus is closely related to Mongolian, Manchu-Tungus,
Korean, and perhaps Japanese. Some scholars have maintained that these
resemblances are not fundamental, but rather the result of borrowings,
however comparative Altaistic studies in recent years demonstrate that
the languages we have listed all go back to a common Ur-Altaic.
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