TURKEY in a Nutshell : Everything you need to know!

hey guys welcome back to another video in this one i'll attempt to cover turkey in a nutshell let's see how that's gonna play out [Music] turkey is a very unique and a diverse country located literally in the middle of the world well that depends where you consider the center of the world is but for us if there is such a thing that should be turkey and that being said let's start with the geopolitics turkey is located between europe and asia it's made up of two parts anatolia historically referred as the asia minor and the race its capital city is ankara since 1923 but the country's economically socially and culturally biggest city is istanbul turkey has well-defined natural borders with its eight neighbors and surrounded by waters on three sides to the south it's bordered by syria and iraq to the east iran armenia azerbaijan and georgia by the black sea turkey's neighbors with russia ukraine romania and to the west bulgaria and greece and then there is cyprus it's a little complicated situation but long story short it was mainly inhabited by greeks in 1570 when the ottoman empire conquered the island and turks have started settling there came under the british rule in 1878 and in 1960 cyprus gained independence from britain following a decade of ethnic tensions and coulda tossed in 1974 turkey launched an offensive to capture the northern part of the island the uan got involved and brokered a peace deal the turkish republic of northern cyprus was established and to this day it is only recognized by turkey and the island remains divided however republic of northern cyprus is not a part of turkey and then there's this situation in the west with greece most of the islands in the aegean sea belong to greece i mean even samos island which is stone throws away from the mainland turkey in miles and miles away from mainland greece this entire situation generally causes disputes between the two countries as to who owns how much of the aegean sea this problem further expands into the eastern mediterranean where turkey has ongoing oil and gas exploration campaigns speaking of oil and gas exploration campaigns the region where no issues have been encountered with regards to this is the black sea here the borders have been well defined so there are no conflicts arising between turkey and its neighboring countries in the region and as a result of uninterrupted search campaigns in 2020 turkey has finally struck a large gas field in the black sea this natural gas field is said to have 405 billion cubic meters of natural gas which the country is expected to make use of by 2023. let's take a look at our neighbors to the east georgia and iran have no border issues with turkey and the borders are always open however turkey's border with armenia is close why well the two states don't get along very well and i mean this topic requires a whole another episode on its own so we're just going to pass and then there is this little guy called nakjiwan autonomous republic it's a part of turkey's little brother azerbaijan but has no direct connection with the main land it's only bordered with turkey armenia and iran the geopolitics of turkey is not easy to understand the south turkey is bordered by syria and iraq turkey has cross-border military operations in these countries but not against those countries but rather against the organization called the pkk which is designated as a terrorist organization by turkey the united states the eu japan australia and other countries turkey has a large influence in the region however turkey and qatar are on good terms saudi arabia uae and egypt have a love and hate relationship with turkey bosnia albania and kosovo can be added to the list of friendly countries except for serbia russia and turkey have a deep history of wars and alliances and today these two countries are fine with each other although from time to time they find themselves on the opposite side of the table when talking about regional conflicts well that really summarizes turkey and russia's relationship these are two countries with generally conflicting interests but somehow they come together to find a mutual ground well there are always two sides to a story much like istanbul it's a city that has two sides and that's what i call a transition in fact istanbul is the only transcontinental city in the world that in my opinion accurately represents turkey's position turkey has always been the crossroads of the world on one side you have europe and the eu on the other side you have the middle east and asia although the country tries to have a balanced relationship with both sides sometimes it can find itself in the middle of conflicts but this didn't stop turkey from allying its neighboring powers turkey has been a member country of nato since 1952 and the country is negotiating its succession to the european union as a member state following its application to exceed the european economic community the predecessor of the eu in 1987. after 10 founding members turkey was one of the first countries to become a member of the council of europe in 1949 however turkey is still not a member of the eu and the turkish citizens are asked to obtain a visa to enter the schengen area that kind of puts the turkish passport in a weaker position compared to european countries but it's still a strong passport within the region with the green one that is issued to civil servants you can access the schengen area visa free well i mean the ordinary turkish passport allows with a free travel to 110 countries which is not bad some of those visa-free countries are located in the central asia they are members of the alliance of turkic-speaking countries these are generally known as istan countries such as kazakhstan kyrgyzstan uzbekistan and turkmenistan in addition to them azerbaijan is a sovereign state turkey also has an influence and a good relationship with the turkic speaking republics and territories in russia and china most notably with tatarstan bash kurdistan altai republic yakutsk in russia and east turkestan in china where uyghur people live okay you seem a little confused about how a middle eastern european country has a lot in common with people over there in siberia in china and to understand that we have to take you back in time way back in time historians generally agree that the first turkic people lived in a region extending from the central asia to siberia historically they were established after the 6th century bce the hon hordes of attila who invaded and conquered much of europe in the 5th century it's argued by some scholars that they were one of the earlier turkic tribes while others argue that they were mongolic origin well turks and mongolians have a lot in common anyway they looked alike they talked to like and they fought alike so much so that at one point a great portion of genghis khan's army was made up of turkic warriors but that was in 12th century or 11th a.d uh prior to that turkic people had numerous empires in the sixth century the guktuks ruled the region from 552 to 745 gucterk leadership united the nomadic turkic tribes into the empire the empire retained elements of its original shamanistic religion tankerism although it received missionaries of buddhist monks and practiced a syncretic religion the guktuks were the first turkic people to write old turkic in a runic script the orkhon script the carnate was also the first state known as turk towards the end of the century the gucter's candidate was split into two eastern turkey candidate and western turkey candidate after the collapse of the counties turkic people and related groups migrated west from turkestan and what is now mongolia towards eastern europe iranian plateau and anatolia and modern-day turkey in many ways one of the most notable empires turks established was the celtic empires the borders of which stretched from the modern day tajikistan to turkey it's noteworthy leader alpastan's victory over the byzantines at the battle of manzakurt in 1071 ushered in the turkmen settlement of anatolia after the collapse of the celtic empire many smaller states in the name of baliks appeared in anatolia one of them evolved into the great ottoman empire which ruled most of balkans anatolia arabia caucasus and north africa for six centuries following the world war one the empire collapsed and the modern turkish republic was established due to this diverse ethnological composition turks are distinct from the people living in the neighboring countries and since we're talking about the people let's take a look at the modern turks out of 83 million inhabitants of the country about 70 of the population identify as ethnically turkish between 15 to 20 percent identify as kurdish and about 3 percent identify as arabs the rest is made up of zaza sarcasians persians romani albanians armenians greeks and others although the people of turkey are predominantly muslim turkey is officially a secular country with no official religion as far as the language is concerned turkish is the only language and pretty much is spoken by everyone other spoken languages are kurdish arabic persian aramaic zazaki las armenian and greek and more our currency is turkish lira our dialing code is plus 90 and we drive on the right side of the road this sounded a little like geography now and that's where the idea came from i mean thank you guys i learned much from you and since you guys were not you know able to come until the turkey episode so i basically decided why don't i do something before they get there i hope i didn't ruin your schedule if i did i'm sorry but i'm just gonna link your channel down there so people can go there and see where this video is really originated and when you're doing your turkey episode just please give me a call all right anyway this was the history of the turkish people but there is also the history of the land anatolia is the cradle of civilizations it truly is i mean near shangri-fa there's a neolithic archaeological site called gobeklite i mean this is this is crazy the site believes to have been a sanctuary of ritual significance is marked by layers of carved megaliths and is estimated to date to 9 to 10 millennium bce i have no idea what religious beliefs they had but based on the pillars and the depictions on them it looks like a pagan-ish religion i mean it's a very interesting subject and there's an insightful documentary about it by bbc if you're interested i'll leave the link somewhere around here you can click on it and you can actually watch it it's actually very good one of my favorite documentaries of all time but let's take a look at the timeline 6 500 bc a neolithical city is established at chatelhook in central asia the world's first known settlement 5000 bc stone and copper age people have already been living in anatolia for 20 000 years now 1900 bc to 1300 bc the high tide empire flourishes battles egypt patriarch abraham who has been dwelling in haran near chandler 1300 to 1260 bc the trojan wars described by homer in the iliad 900 bc to 353 bc rise of the friggin lydian and korean culture and the persians invaded the land in 334 alexander the great of macedon sweeps across asia minor in 129 bc anatolia becomes the roman province of asia with its capital at ephesus 5680 saint paul stays in the city of ephesus and writes his famous epistle which are the 21 of 27 books of the new testament 3 30 80 roman emperor constantine chooses the minor town of byzantium as the capital of the roman empire rebuilding it in the image of rome and renaming it constantinople 537 a.d inauguration of highest sophia church in istanbul by the emperor justinian until the arrival of turks and the byzantines empire ruled the land between 1037-1109 the land was invaded by the turkish empire of the great celtics between 1071-1243 celtic sultanate of rome an offshoot of the great celtic empire established in anatolia with its capital in konia stig poet in flasa for gelalet and rumi called mevlana takes up residence in konia 1299 the ottoman state is formed by osman bay from whom it takes its turkish name osman 1453 sultan mehmet ii conquered istanbul bringing the byzantine age to an end 1520 to 1566 reign of solomon the magnificent the great age of the ottoman empire the sultan ruled most of north africa most of eastern europe and all of the middle east 1914 ottoman empire enters the first world war on the side of the germans 1923 mustafa kemal ataturk establishes the republic of turkey and that's the current state of the land we live in today there's no doubt that it's an abundant land in terms of natural resources fertile lands a young population and a manufacturing economy and that's what we're going to talk about next the economy of turkey is an emerging market economy as defined by the international monetary fund the imf turkey is among the worst developed countries according to the cia world factbook the country is also defined by economists and political scientists as one of the world's newly industrialized economies turkey has the world's 13th largest gdp by ppp that is 2.3 trillion dollars with a per capita income of 28 000 and by 2020 turkey wants to be within the top 10 economies in the world now to make that happen turkey has been investing into its infrastructure for years these are mega projects such as new major highway systems cross-continental tunnels massive suspension bridges international hub airports large-scale hydroelectric dam projects nuclear power plants and istanbul international finance center the country is among the world's leading producers of textiles motor vehicles transportation equipment construction materials consumer electronics and home appliances industrial activities account for a significant portion of the country's economy yet the juiciest part still though comes from tourism which is approximately between 11 to 12 of the gdp turkey ranks six in the world in terms of the number of international tourists arrival with 51.2 million foreign tourists visiting the country every year tourism is one of the most dynamic and fastest growing sectors in turkey according to travel agencies 11 out of 100 best hotels in the world are located in turkey over the years turkey has emerged as a popular tourist destination for many europeans competing with greece italy and spain i mean how could it not be right i mean just look at istanbul the capital of three empires the footprint of all still remains blue lagoon will strike you as maldives mount ararat the highest point of turkey and as described in bible is the resting place of noah's ark cappadocia with its unique geological historical and cultural futures and also the balloons martin is famous for its arctic architecture of its old city black sea region which is prettier than switzerland i mean well maybe that's a little too much but i mean in my opinion it's as pretty as switzerland right and pavocale is where the world's most famous minerals and hot springs are located i mean tourists from all over the world flock annually for a spa-like experience seeking therapeutic and medicinal benefits and some good old-fashioned relaxation i mean folks you name it we have it the tourism in turkey is so unique and so diverse that in antalya in the same day you can ski on the snowy mountains and swim at conialto beach which is known as the miami beach of turkey on the same day now tell me if this is not unique in fact everything about turkey is unique as its name well i mean it's it's it's a little funny but when i first started learning english i always ask myself why my country's name meant a bird that we eat i mean that didn't make a lot of sense to me until i learned the story behind its name it's a little complicated story but bear with me the word turkey means the land of turks which makes all the sense right the bird turkey story however is rather misunderstood and here is why first of all let's refer to this turkey bird with its scientific name malayas kalapawa the bird is endemic to the american continent it has literally nothing to do with turkey at all all right we got that that's good we called malayagra scala pavo hindi in turkish and that means india now we turks call the bird turkey india because the bird came to turkey well back then the ottoman empire from india but the bird that came from india was not malayagra scala power it was a guinea fol another type of bird which looks like malayas galapagos it came to india though from africa confused yet well there's more to the story the guinea fold that went to india from there came to turkey went to europe and europeans called it turkey or the turkey bird while we called it hindi or the hindi part now here is where it gets interesting when europeans discovered america they have misidentified malayas galapagos turkey because simply it looked like guineafol that they used to call turkey so the turkey bird we eat today has nothing to do with the country turkey its scientific name is malayas galapagos and it is endemic to the american continent which was misidentified by european settlers thinking that it was a guinea fold which turks referred to as hindi which meant india so guys it's a messed up story i understand but we love eating turkey i mean in turkey we basically eat you know eating anyway we have a huge appetite and that's the reason why we have one of the richest cuisines in the world all right let's start with the usual suspects right kebabs baklava pide known as the turkish pizza we have our own coffee simmet the national bagel covered in sesame seeds and turkish delight i mean do we have a national food no because all of them taste amazing i mean just to have a knockoff turkish food experience drop by your local turkish restaurant which is pretty much in every country right now the reason why the turkish cuisine is so rich has a lot to do with our history yeah but also because of the ingredients that are grown in this fertile lands that are experiencing four seasons i mean there is no denying that the weather here is fantastic we basically have three different climates in the western and southern coast of the country possesses the mediterranean climate with hot and dry summers and moderately warm and rainy winters where summers lasts nine months in the northern coast you have the oceanic climate which has high and evenly distributed rainfall year round and the rest of the country has a transitional and continental climate in which the winters are harsh and summers are hot and dry [Music] alright guys thank you very much for watching the video i have tried to squeeze this wikipedia information into one short video i don't know how short the video is by the way hope you guys enjoyed don't forget to subscribe to the channel and see you in the next video

Channel: Aladdin's Turkey

Views: 50,310

Rating: 4.9341931 out of 5

Keywords: living in istanbul on a realistic budget, the true cost of living in istanbul, living in istanbul, the cost of living, istanbul, cost of living in istanbul, living cheap in istanbul, istanbul best areas, Beat Areas to live in Istanbul, where to stay in istanbul, where to live in istanbul, istanbul places to see, turkey travel, antalya travel, cappadocia, fethiye, turkey things to see, what to see in turkey, turkey vlog, turkey (country), turkish culture, dos and donts

Id: zWawsDMOYLI

Length: 20min 15sec (1215 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021