Turkey is formally the Republic of Turkey, a transcontinental country situated generally on Anatolia in Western Asia, with a portion on the Balkans in Southeast Europe. It shares boundaries with Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and also Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; and the Aegean Sea to the west.

Cyprus is located off the south coastline. Turks form the large majority of the country’s population and also Kurds are the largest minority. Ankara is Turkey’s funding, while Istanbul is its biggest city as well as economic centre.

Among the world’s earliest permanently cleared up areas, contemporary Turkey was home to vital Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe, and was inhabited by old civilisations consisting of the Hattians, Anatolian peoples, Mycenaean Greeks and also others. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great which began the Hellenistic period, a lot of the old areas in modern Turkey were culturally Hellenised, which continued throughout the Oriental period.

The Seljuk Turks began moving in the 11th century, and the Sultanate of Rum ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it degenerated right into tiny Turkish principalities. Starting in the late 13th century, the Ottomans joined the principalities and dominated the Balkans, and also the Turkification of Anatolia enhanced throughout the Ottoman duration.

After Mehmed II conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, Ottoman development proceeded under Selim I. Throughout the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire ended up being an international power.

From the late 18th century onwards, the empire’s power declined with a gradual loss of areas. Mahmud II began a period of modernisation in the early 19th century. The Young Turk Transformation of 1908 restricted the authority of the Sultan and restored the Ottoman Parliament after a 30-year suspension, bring in the realm right into a multi-party duration.

The 1913 coup d’état put the country under the control of the Three Pashas, that helped with the Empire’s entry right into World War I as part of the Central Powers in 1914. During the war, the Ottoman federal government committed genocides versus its Armenian, Greek and Assyrian topics. After its loss in the war, the Ottoman Empire was segmented.