Everything about Turkish People totally explained
|pop1 = c. 56,400,000
|ref1 =
|region2 =
|pop2 = 1,977,000
|ref2 =
|region5 =
|pop5 = 746,000
|ref5 =
-
|region6 =
|pop6 = 262,652
|ref6 =
|region7 =
|pop7 = 358,000
|ref7 =
|region8 =
|pop8 = 39,419
|ref8 =
|region10 =
|pop10 = 156,000
|ref10 =
|region11 =
Northern Cyprus
|pop11 = 200,000
|ref11 =
|region12 =
|pop12 = 240,000
|ref12 =
|region15 =
|pop15 = 70,000
|ref15 =
|region16 =
|pop16 = 90,000
|ref16 =
-
|region17 =
|pop17 = 92,415
|ref17 =
|region18 =
|pop18 = 78,000
|ref18 =
|region19 =
|pop19 = 50,000 (in Kosovo)
|ref19 =
|region20 =
|pop20 = 37,000
|ref20 =
|region21 =
|pop21 = 54,595
|ref21 =
|region22 =
|pop22 = 53,000
|ref22 =
|region23 =
|pop23 = 24,910
|ref23 =
|region24 =
|pop24 = 50,000 (50% of the Muslim minority)
|ref24 =
|region25 =
|pop25 = 33,000
|ref25 =
|region26 =
|pop26 = 11,000
|ref26 =
|languages =
Turkish
|religions = Predominantly
Islam, mostly
Sunni and some
Shia adherents. Minorities of
Eastern Orthodoxy and
Judaism.}}
The
Turkish people (
Turkish:
Türk Halkı), also known as "
Turks" (
Türkler) are a
nation (
Millet) defined mainly as being speakers of
Turkish as a
first language.
In the
Republic of Turkey, an early history text provided the definition of being a Turk as
"any individual within the Republic of Turkey, whatever his faith who speaks Turkish, grows up with Turkish culture and adopts the Turkish ideal is a Turk." This ideal came from the beliefs of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In a historic context the word Turk or Turkish has also a wider meaning, because there are Turks in many other countries, in the
Balkans and elsewhere in
Europe, and in other continents. Today the word is primarily used for the inhabitants of Turkey, but may also refer to the members of sizeable Turkish-speaking populations in the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,
Republic of Macedonia,
Greece (in particular in
Thrace),
Kosovo (
Serbia),
Romania (in
Northern Dobruja),
Bulgaria,
Cyprus and other lands of the former
Ottoman Empire. Large Turkish communities have also been established in
Western Europe (particularly in
Germany,
France, and the
Netherlands),
North America, and
Australia.
History
The word "Turk" was first documented in the 6th century in
Central Asia The
Oghuz Turks were the main
Turkic people that moved into Anatolia. Many Turks began their migration after the victory of the
Seljuks against the Byzantines at the
Battle of Manzikert on August 26, 1071. The victory, led by
Alp Arslan, paved the way for Turkish hegemony in Anatolia.
In the centuries after Manzikert local populations began to assimilate to the emerging Turkish population. Over time, as word spread regarding the victory of the Turks in Anatolia, more Turkic
ghazis arrived from the
Caucasus,
Persia, and Central Asia. Turkish migrants began to intermingle with the local inhabitants, which helped to bolster the Turkish-speaking population.
The
Ottoman Empire, originally based in the
Söğüt region of western Anatolia, was also founded by the Oghuz Turks. Following the
Balkan Wars and the
Russian conquest of the
Caucasus and annexation of Crimea many Turkic speaking Muslims in the North Caucasus,
Balkans and Crimea emigrated to the territory of present-day Turkey. After the
fall of the Ottoman Empire and formation of the
Republic of Turkey these various cultures and languages melded into one supra identity and culture. The modern Turks of Turkey thus are composed of various Turkic groups from various regions.
By the late 19th century Turks were evenly spread throughout Eastern Europe and most noticeably the Balkans; however, territorial losses in the Balkans sparked a large scale exodus from that region. This was finalized by a
population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.
Göktürk era
Turks are the principal descendants of large bands of nomads who roamed in the
Altai Mountains (and thus are also called the
Altaic peoples) in northern Mongolia and on the steppes of
Central Asia. The original Central Asian
Turkic nomads established their first great empire in the 551 AD, a nomadic confederation that they called
Göktürks meaning "Sky Turk". A confederation of tribes under a dynasty of
Khans whose influences extended during the sixth to eighth centuries from the
Aral Sea to the
Hindu Kush in the land bridge known as
Transoxania. The Göktürks are known to have been enlisted by a
Byzantine emperor in the seventh century as
allies against the
Sassanians. In the eighth century some Turkish tribes, among them the
Oghuz, moved south of the Oxus River, while others migrated west to the northern shore of the
Black Sea.
Seljuk era
The
Seljuks were a Turkic tribe from Central Asia. In 1037, they entered
Persia and established their first powerful state, called by historians the
Empire of the Great Seljuks. They captured Baghdad in 1055 and a relatively small contingent of warriors (around 5000 by some estimates) moved into eastern Anatolia. In 1071, the Seljuks engaged the armies of the Byzantine Empire at
Manzikert, north of
Lake Van. The Byzantines experienced minor casualties despite the fact that Emperor
Romanus IV Diogenes was captured. With no potent
Byzantine force to stop them, the Seljuks took control of most of Eastern and Central Anatolia. They established their capital at
Konya (ca. 1150) and ruled what would be known as the
Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. The success of the Seljuk Turks stimulated a response from
Latin Europe in the form of the
First Crusade. A counteroffensive launched in 1097 by the
Byzantines with the aid of the Crusaders dealt the Seljuks a decisive defeat. Konya fell to the Crusaders, and after a few years of campaigning, Byzantine rule was restored in the western third of Anatolia. Although a Turkish revival in the 1140s nullified much of the Christian gains, greater damage was done to Byzantine security by dynastic strife in
Constantinople in which the largely
French contingents of the Fourth Crusade and their
Venetian allies intervened. In 1204, these Crusaders conquered Constantinople and installed Count Baldwin of Flanders in the Byzantine capital as emperor of the so-called
Latin Empire of Constantinople, dismembering the old realm into tributary states where West European
feudal institutions were transplanted intact. Independent Greek kingdoms were established at
Nicaea (present-day
Iznik),
Trebizond (present-day
Trabzon), and
Epirus from remnant Byzantine provinces. Turks allied with
Greeks in Anatolia against the Latins, and Greeks with Turks against the
Mongols. In 1261,
Michael Palaeologus of Nicaea drove the Latins from Constantinople and restored the
Byzantine Empire. Seljuk Rum survived in the late 13th century as a vassal state of the Mongols, who had already subjugated the Great Seljuk sultanate at
Baghdad. Mongol influence in the region had disappeared by the 1330s, leaving behind
gazi emirates competing for supremacy. From the chaotic conditions that prevailed throughout the Middle East, however, a new power was to emerge in Anatolia, the Ottoman Turks.
Beyliks era
Political unity in
Anatolia was disrupted from the time of the collapse of the Anatolia
Seljuk State at the beginning of the 14th century (1308), when until the beginning of the 16th century each of the regions in the country fell under the domination of
beyliks (principalities). Eventually, the
Ottoman principality, which subjugated the other principalities and restored political unity in the larger part of Anatolia, was established in the
Eskişehir,
Bilecik and
Bursa areas.
On the other hand, the area in central Anatolia east of the
Ankara-
Aksaray line as far as the area of
Erzurum remained under the administration of the Ilhani General Governor until 1336. The infighting in Ilhan gave the principalities in Anatolia their complete independence. In addition to this, new Turkish
principalities were formed in the localities previously under Ilhan occupation.
During the 14th century, the
Turkomans, who made up the western
Turks, started to re-establish their previous political sovereignty in the
Islamic world. Rapid developments in the
Turkish language and culture took place during the time of the Anatolian principalities. In this period, the Turkish language began to be used in the sciences and in literature, and became the official language of the principalities. New medreses were established and progress was made in the medical sciences during this period.
Ottoman era
Starting as a small tribe whose territory bordered on the Byzantine frontier, the
Ottoman Turks built an empire that would eventually stretch from
Morocco to
Iran, from the deserts of
Iraq and
Arabia to the gates of
Vienna.
As the power of the
Seljuk Sultanate of Rum weakened in the late 1200s, warrior chieftains claimed the lands of Northwestern
Anatolia, along the
Byzantine Empire's borders.
Ertuğrul Gazi ruled the lands around
Söğüt, a town between
Bursa and
Eskisehir. Upon his death in 1281, his son,
Osman, from whom the
Ottoman dynasty and the Empire took its name, expanded the territory to 16,000 square kilometers.
Osman's son,
Orhan, conquered
Iznik (Nicaea) and took his armies across the Dardanelles and into
Thrace and
Europe by 1362. By 1452 the
Ottomans controlled almost all of the former
Byzantine lands except
Constantinople. In 1453,
Mehmet the Conqueror took the city and made it his capital, extinguishing the 1100-year-old Byzantine Empire forever.
As an isolated military action, the taking of Constantinople didn't have a critical effect on European security, but to the Ottoman Dynasty the capture of the imperial capital was of supreme symbolic importance. Mehmet II regarded himself as the direct successor to the Byzantine emperors. He made Constantinople the imperial capital, as it had been under the Byzantine emperors, and set about rebuilding the city. The cathedral of Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque, and Constantinople--which the Turks called Istanbul (from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, "to the city")--replaced Baghdad as the center of Sunni Islam. The city also remained the ecclesiastical center of the Greek Orthodox Church, of which Mehmet II proclaimed himself the protector and for which he appointed a new patriarch after the custom of the Byzantine emperors.
Selim I (r. 1512-20) extended Ottoman sovereignty southward, conquering Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. He also gained recognition as guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Selim I's son,
Süleyman I (r. 1520-66), was called the "
lawgiver" (kanuni ) by his Muslim subjects because of a new codification of seriat undertaken during his reign. In Europe, however, he was known as
Süleyman the Magnificent, a recognition of his prowess by those who had most to fear from it. The reign of Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) is known as the Ottoman golden age. The brilliance of the
Sultan's court and the might of his armies outshone those of England's
Henry VIII, France's
François I, and Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V. After Süleyman, however, the empire declined rapidly due, in part, to poor leadership; many successive Sultans largely depended upon their
Grand Viziers to run the empire. When Süleyman died in 1566, the Ottoman Empire was a world power. Most of the great cities of Islam--
Mecca,
Medina,
Jerusalem,
Damascus,
Cairo,
Tunis, and
Baghdad were under the sultan's crescent flag. The Porte exercised direct control over Anatolia, the sub-Danubian Balkan provinces, Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. Egypt, Mecca, and the North African provinces were governed under special regulations, as were satellite domains in Arabia and the Caucasus, and among the Crimean Tartars. In addition, the native rulers of Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and Ragusa (Dubrovnik) were vassals of the sultan.
The Ottoman sultanate lasted for over 600 years, but its last three centuries were marked by stagnation and eventual decline. By the
19th century, the Ottomans had fallen well behind the rest of Europe in science, technology, industry, education, commerce and military might. Reformist Sultans such as
Selim III (1789-1807) and
Mahmud II (1808-1839) succeeded in pushing Ottoman bureaucracy, society and culture ahead, but were unable to cure all of the empire's ills.
Despite its collapse, the Ottoman empire has left an indelible mark on Turkish
culture and
architecture. Ottoman culture has given the Turkish people a splendid legacy of art, architecture and domestic refinement, as a visit to Istanbul's
Topkapi Palace readily shows.
The Republic of Turkey
The
Republic of Turkey was born from the disastrous
World War I defeat of the
Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman war hero, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later called
Atatürk), fled
Istanbul to
Anatolia in
1919; he organized the remnants of the Ottoman army into an effective fighting force, and rallied the people to the nationalist cause. By 1923 the nationalist government had driven out the invading armies, abolished the Ottoman Empire, promulgated a republican
constitution, and established Turkey's new capital in
Ankara.
The new government passed
drastic reforms in order to reconstruct Ottoman social structure and politics. Polygamy was abolished, women were granted suffrage and equal legal rights, secularism was institutionalized, the
Arabic alphabet was replaced by the
Latin alphabet for written
Turkish. The
Fez and
veil were outlawed, and European dress was encouraged.
Upon the founder's death, his place at the head of the party and the nation was taken by his comrade-in-arms General
Ismet Inönü, another hero of the War of Independence. Following Atatürk's advice, Inönü preserved Turkey's precarious neutrality during
World War II, figuring that the war could only end in disaster for Turkey.
Chronology of Major
Kemalist Reforms:
- 1922 Sultanate abolished (November 1).
- 1923 Treaty of Lausanne secured (July 24). Republic of Turkey with capital at Ankara proclaimed (October 29).
- 1924 Caliphate abolished (March 3). Traditional religious schools closed, seriat abolished. Constitution adopted (April 20).
- 1925 Dervish brotherhoods abolished. Fez outlawed by the Hat Law (November 25). Veiling of women discouraged; Western clothing for men and women encouraged. Western (Gregorian) calendar adopted.
- 1926 New civil, commercial, and penal codes based on European models adopted. New civil code ended Islamic polygamy and divorce by renunciation and introduced civil marriage. Millet system ended.
- 1927 First systematic census. 1928 New Turkish alphabet (modified Latin form) adopted. State declared secular (April 10); constitutional provision establishing Islam as official religion deleted.
- 1933 Islamic call to worship and public readings of the Kuran (Quran) required to be in Turkish rather than Arabic.
- 1934 Women given the vote and the right to hold office. Law of Surnames adopted--Mustafa Kemal given the name Kemal Atatürk (Father Turk) by the Grand National Assembly; Ismet Pasha took surname of Inönü.
- 1935 Sunday adopted as legal weekly holiday. State role in managing economy written into the constitution.
Geographic distribution
Turks primarily live in
Turkey. Significant minorities of Turks live in neighboring
Bulgaria (see
Turks in Bulgaria),
Cyprus (see
Turkish Cypriots), the
Western Thrace region of
Greece,
Republic of Macedonia, the
Dobruja region of
Romania and
Kosovo (especially in
Prizren).
Immigration in the 20th century has resulted in large Turkish communities in
Germany,
America and
Australia. Sizable populations are also found in several other European countries.
Turks in Europe
The largest number of Turkish immigrant workers is found in Germany, followed by the
Benelux countries,
France,
Austria, and
Switzerland. Germany took in an influx of men alone between 1961 and 1973. This was followed by the massive arrival of their families up until about 1981. Elsewhere in Europe the purely male migration took place from 1965 to 1974. Family reunifications were likewise spread over the period up until and including the first half of the '80s. As a result, Europe's Turkish population consists of a majority of families, with almost total male/female parity. The Turkish diaspora in Europe is growing steadily. For Western Europe as a whole it rose from 1.988 million in 1985 to 3.034 million in 1996 (2.944 million in the EU countries). This is a 52.6% increase over one decade.
Germany hosts 2.5 million Turkish immigrants. It is followed by importance by the Benelux countries,
France,
United Kingdom and
Austria. Between 1961-1973 there was a big influx of Turkish men alone in Germany, which was followed by the arrival of their families up until 1981. Five years later, the same phenomenon took also place in the rest of the countries. 35% of the Turkish living in Germany live in North Rhineland-Westphalia.
Berlin, with 136.400 Turkish hosts, by its own 5% of the Turkish immigrants in
Europe.
The Turkish population of Europe rose from 1.988 million in 1985 to 3.034 in 1996. This increase is explained by the continuation of migration through marriages and by the high birth rate of the Turkish population. This high rate has as a consequence that Turkish migrant population is very young (1/3 is under 18 years old). More than 80% of these young people have been born and schooled in Europe.
Turks in North America
In the
United States, the largest Turkish communities are found in
Paterson,
New York City,
Chicago,
Miami, and
Los Angeles. Since the 1970s, the number of Turkish immigrants has risen to more than 2,000 per year. Paterson has always been home to immigrants looking to make a start in the new world.
There is also a growing Turkish population in
Canada, Turkish immigrants have settled mainly in
Montreal and
Toronto, although there are small Turkish communities in Calgary, Edmonton, London, Ottawa, and Vancouver. The population of
Turkish Canadians in Metropolitan Toronto may be as large as 5,000.
Culture
The culture of Turkish people is a diverse one, derived from various elements of the
Ottoman Empire,
European, and the
Islamic traditions. Turkish culture is an immense mixture partly produced by the rich history. The original lands of Turks is Central Asia, bordering China. From this location, they were forced to move west for various reasons more than a thousand years ago. On the way to Anatolia they've interacted with Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, European and Anatolian civilizations, and today's Turkish culture carries motives from each one of these diverse cultures.
Because of the different historical factors playing an important role in defining a Turkish identity, the culture of Turkey is an interesting combination of clear efforts to be "modern" and
Western, alongside a desire to maintain traditional religious and historical values.
Language
Turkish is a very ancient language going back 5500 to 8500 years. It has a phonetic, morphological and syntactic structure, and at the same time it possesses a rich vocabulary. The fundamental features, which distinguish the
Ural-Altaic languages from the Indo-European, are as follows; vowel harmony's are used which is a feature of all Ural-Altaic tongues, the absence of gender, agglutination, adjectives precede nouns, and verbs come at the end of the sentence.
The
Turkish language is a member of the ancient
Oghuz subdivision of
Turkic languages, which in turn is a branch of the proposed
Altaic language family. Turkish is for the most part, mutually intelligible with other Oghuz languages like
Azeri,
Crimean Tatar,
Gagauz,
Turkmen and
Urum, and to a lesser extent with other Turkic languages.
Modern Turkish differs greatly from the
Ottoman Turkish language, the administrative and
literary language of the Ottoman Empire, which was influenced by Arabic and Persian. During the Ottoman period, the language was essentially a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, differing considerably from the everyday language spoken by the empire's Turkish subjects, to the point that they'd to hire
arzıhâlcis (request-writers) to communicate with the state. After the proclamation of the
Turkish Republic in early
20th century, many of the foreign borrowings in the language were replaced with Turkic equivalents in a
language reform by the newly founded
Turkish Language Association. Almost all government documents and literature from the Ottoman period and the early years of the Republic are thus unintelligible to today's Turkish-speaker without translation.
Historically, there were many dialects of Turkish that were spoken throughout
Anatolia and the
Balkans that differed significantly from each other. After the proclamation of the Republic, the
Istanbul dialect was adopted as the standard. There is no official effort to protect regional dialects, and some are currently under threat of disappearing as they face the standard language used in the media and educational system.
Turkish heritage
Some 180 million people have a Turkic language as their native language; an additional 20 million people speak a Turkic language as a
second language. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is
Turkish proper, or
Anatolian Turkish, the speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers, dwelling predominantly in
Turkey proper and formerly
Ottoman-dominated areas of
Eastern Europe and
West Asia; as well as in
Western Europe,
Australia and the
Americas as a result of immigration. The remainder of the Turkic peoples are concentrated in
Central Asia,
Russia, the
Caucasus,
China, and northern and
northwestern Iran.
Arts and Calligraphy
A transition from Islamic artistic traditions under the
Ottoman Empire to a more secular, Western orientation has taken place in
Turkey.
Turkish painters today are striving to find their own art forms, free from Western influence. Sculpture is less developed, and public monuments are usually heroic representations of Ataturk and events from the war of independence. Literature is considered the most advanced of contemporary Turkish arts.
The reign of the early
Ottoman Turks in the (
16th and early
17th centuries) introduced the Turkish form of
Islamic calligraphy. It was invented by Housam Roumi and reached its height of popularity under
Süleyman I the Magnificent (
1520–
66). As decorative as it was communicative,
Diwani was distinguished by the complexity of the line within the letter and the close juxtaposition of the letters within the word.
Architecture
Turkish architecture reached its peak during the
Ottoman period.
Ottoman architecture, influenced by
Seljuk,
Byzantine and
Islamic architecture, came to develop a style all of its own.
The years 1300-1453 constitute the early or first Ottoman period, when Ottoman art was in search of new ideas. During this period we encounter three types of mosque: tiered single-domed and sub line-angled mosques. The Junior Haci Özbek Mosque (1333) in Iznik, the first important centre of Ottoman art, is the first example of Ottoman single-domed mosques.
The architectural style which was to take on classical form after the conquest of
Istanbul, was born in
Bursa and in
Edirne. The Great Mosque (Ulu Cami) in Bursa was the first Seljuk mosque to be converted into a domed one. Edirne was the last Ottoman capital before Istanbul, and it's here that we witness the final stages in the architectural development that culminated in the construction of the great mosques of Istanbul. The buildings constructed in Istanbul between the capture of the city and the construction of the mosque of Sultan Bayezit are also considered works of the early period. Among these are the mosques of Fatih (1470), the mosque of Mahmutpasa, Tiled Pavilion and Topkapi Palace.
In Ottoman times the mosque didn't exist by itself. It was looked on by society as being very much interconnected with city planning and communal life. Beside the mosque there were soup kitchens, theological schools, hospitals,
Turkish baths and tombs.
Examples of Ottoman architecture of the classical period, aside from Istanbul and Edirne, can also be seen in
Egypt,
Tunisia,
Algiers, the
Balkans and
Hungary, where mosques, bridges, fountains and schools were built.
During the years 1720-1890, Ottoman art deviated from the principles of classical times. In the 18th century, during the Lale (Tulip) period, Ottoman art came under the influence of the excessive decorations of the west; Baroque, Rococo, Ampir and other styles intermingled with Ottoman art. Fountains became the characteristic structures of this period. An eclecticism set in. The Aksaray Valide mosque in Istanbul is an example of the mixture of Turkish art and Gothic style.
Evil eye
The belief in the
evil eye, known as
nazar, is strong in Turkish culture. The belief says that when someone eyes your good fortune with envy, bad luck in some form may befall you. It is widely feared that an accolade or praise, however well meaning it may be, may be tinged with a bit of envy. The evil eye can be warded of by a
nazar amulet (Turkish:
nazar boncuğu or
nazarlık).
Music
Turkey is a country in western Asia and
Southeast Europe and on the eastern shore of the
Mediterranean Sea, and is a crossroads of cultures from across
Europe,
North Africa,
the Middle East, the
Caucasus and South and Central
Asia. The music of Turkey includes elements of
Central Asian folk music,
Arabic,
Persian classical music, ancient
Greco-Roman music and modern European and
American popular music. Turkey, rich in musical heritage, has developed this art in two areas, Turkish classical music (similar to Greco- Roman) and Turkish folk music (Similar to Central Asian). The biggest Turkish pop star of the 20th century was probably
Sezen Aksu, known for overseeing the Turkish contribution to the
Eurovision Song Contest and was known for her light pop music.
European
classical composers in the
18th century were fascinated by Turkish music, particularly the strong role given to the
brass and
percussion instruments in Ottoman
Janissary bands called
Mehter who were the fist marching military band in History.
Joseph Haydn wrote his
Military Symphony to include Turkish instruments, as well as some of his operas. Turkish instruments were also included in
Ludwig van Beethoven's
Symphony Number 9.
Mozart wrote the "Rondo alla turca" in his
Sonata in A major and also used Turkish themes in his operas. Although this Turkish influence was a fad, it introduced the
cymbals,
bass drum(called
davul), and
bells into the symphony orchestra, where they remain. For details, see
Turkish music (style).
Jazz musician
Dave Brubeck wrote his "
Blue Rondo à la Turk" as a tribute to Mozart and Turkish music.
Turkish
pop music boasts numerous mainstream artists with large followings since the
1960s like
Ajda Pekkan and Sezen Aksu, and younger pop stars like
Sertab Erener,
Tarkan,
Serdar Ortac and
Mustafa Sandal.
Underground music and the genres of
electronica,
hip-hop,
rap and
dance music saw an increased demand and activity following the
1990s.
Turkish rock music, sometimes referred to as
Anatolian rock, initiated during the 1960s by individuals like
Cem Karaca,
Barış Manço, and
Erkin Koray, has seen wide-range success and has grown a considerable fan base. A few of the more mainstream Turkish
rock bands include
Moğollar,
Mor ve Ötesi,
Kurban,
Duman, and
maNga. Individual rock performers like
Şebnem Ferah,
Özlem Tekin,
Teoman and
Emre Aydın have substantial fan-bases. Turkey also boasts numerous large-scale rock festivals and events. Annually held rock festivals include
Barışarock,
Rock'n Coke,
ZeytinliRockFest,
RockA during many of which internationally renowned bands / artists frequently take the stage together with Turkish artists.
In
2003, a Turkish singer Sertab Erener won the Eurovision Song Contest with her song
Everyway That I Can.
Literature
Persian culture and they developed literature using the Persian structures, such as mesnevi and gazel. With the 19th century and the
tanzimat period, artists began to use Western structures. The republican period is dominated by Western forms of literature.
The history of the language is divided into three main groups, old Turkish (from the 7th to the 13th centuries), mid-Turkish (from the 13th to the 20th) and new Turkish from the 20th century onwards. During the Ottoman Empire period Arabic and Persian words entered the Turkish language and it consequently became mixed with three different languages. During the Ottoman period which spanned five centuries, the natural development of Turkish was severely hampered.
Then there was the "new language" movement. In
1928, five years after the proclamation of the Republic, the
Arabic alphabet was replaced by the
Latin one, which in turn speeded up the movement to rid the language of foreign words. The Turkish Language Institute was established in 1932 to carry out linguistic research and contribute to the natural development of the language. As a consequence of these efforts, modern Turkish is a literary and cultural language developing naturally and free of foreign influences.
Turkish literature was the joint product of the Turkish clans and was mostly oral. The oldest known examples of Turkish writings are on obelisks dating from the late 7th and early 8th centuries. The Orhun monumental inscriptions written in 720 for Tonyukuk, in 732 for Kültigin and in 735 for Bilge Kagan are masterpieces of Turkish literature with their subject matter and perfect style. Turkish epics dating from those times include the Yaratilis,
Saka, Oguz-Kagan,
Göktürk,
Uygur and Manas.
The "Book of Dede Korkut", put down in writing in the 14th century, is an extremely valuable work that preserves the memory of that epic era in beautiful language.
Following Turkish migrations into
Anatolia in the wake of the Malazgirt victory in 1071, the establishment of various Beyliks in Anatolia and the eventual founding of the Seljuk and Ottoman Empires set the scene for
Turkish literature to develop along two distinct lines, with "divan" or classical literature drawing its inspiration from the Arabic and Persian languages and Turkish folk literature still remaining deeply rooted in Central Asian traditions.
Divan poets didn't have independent philosophies, they were content to express the same ideas in different ways. The most famous of the Divan poets were Baki, Fuzuli, Nedim and Nef'i.
Initially based on two foreign literary traditions, Arab and Persian, literature gradually stopped being merely imitative and took on Ottoman national characteristics.
To a certain extent, the Turkish folk literature which has survived till our day, reflects the influence of
Islam and the new life style and form of the traditional literature of Central Asia after the adoption of Islam. Turkish folk literature comprised anonymous works of bard poems and Tekke (mystical religious retreats) literature. Yunus Emre who lived in the second half of the 13th and early 14th centuries was an epoch making poet and sufi (mystical philosopher) expert in all three areas of folk literature as well as divan poetry. Important figures of poetic literature were Karacaoglan, Atik Ömer, Erzurumlu Emrah and Kayserili Seyrani.
Ottoman Shadow Plays
The Turkish tradition of shadow play called
Karagöz and Hacivat was performed by a single puppet master, who voiced all of the characters, and accompanied by a classical Ottoman music ensemble. Some believe that the first Karagöz-Hacivat play was performed for sultan
Selim I in Egypt after his conquest of the
Mamluks, but 17th century writer
Evliya Çelebi stated that it had been performed in the
Ottoman palace as early as the reign of
Bayezid I. The tradition of Shadow plays are still famous today, mainly in
Turkey, however is also used in celebrations throughout the
Turkish diaspora
Shadow Theater gained great popularity among the people and the Turkish puppeteers much improved the techniques they'd inherited from others. The colorless and motionless presentations of the Egyptian shadow play gained much rich coloring and mobility in the Turkish form of the art.
Poetry
Prose
The backgrounds of current novelists can be traced back to "Young Pens" (Genç Kalemler) journal in Ottoman period. Young Pens was published in Selanik under the Ömer Seyfettin, Ziya Gökalp ve Ali Canip Yontem. They covered the social and political concepts of their time with the nationalistic perspective. They became the core of a movement which will be called national literature.
With the declaration of republic, Turkish literature becomes interested in folkloric styles. This was also the first time the literature was escaping from the western influence and begin to mix western forms with others. During the 1930s
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu and Vedat Nedim Tor begin to publish
Kadro, a leftist revolutionary journal.
Kemal Tahir was a prominent modern Turkish novelist. Among authors translated into English is
Yaşar Kemal.
Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish
novelist of
post-modern literature. He is hugely popular in his homeland, but also with a growing readership around the globe. As one of Europe's most prominent novelists, his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He is the recipient of major Turkish and international literary awards. His most recent novel is "Snow". Pamuk won the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, with his melancholic point of view to various cultures in
Istanbul. However, a big debate is going on in Turkey about Pamuk winning; many Turks think that he won the prize because of his political ideas.
Religion
Contacts between the Turks and
Islam commenced at the beginning of the 8th century and some of the Turks began to favour Islam. However the pro-Arab policies of the
Umayyads (661-750 A.D.) restricted these relations somewhat. Later, many Muslem Turks took office in the Abbside government and because of this, great interest in the
Islamic world spread among the Turks beyond the River Ceyhun. The Turks became fully Muslem by the 10th century, and this resulted in the achievement to political unity. Following these developments, the first Muslem Turkish state was formed by the
Karahans.
The majority of Turks are,
Muslim. The most popular sect is the
Hanafite school of
Sunni Islam, which was officially espoused by the Ottoman Empire. There is, however, a significant number that adheres to the
Alevi sect of
Shia Islam. The presence of Alevis is estimated at 25-35% of the population, though some reports indicate only 10%. Religion has taken a shift towards more of a cultural identity amongst Turks rather than a set of fixed, theological beliefs due to
secularization.
In addition, there are small groups that adhere to
Christianity. Although they're primarily
Eastern Orthodox, there are
Roman Catholics and
Protestants as well.
Sciences and technology
From the sixteenth century onwards, noteworthy geographical works were produced by
Piri Reis, In 1511, Pîrî Reis drew his first map. This map is part of the
world map prepared on a large scale. It was drawn on the basis of his rich and detailed drafts an in addition, European maps including Columbus' map of
America. This first Ottoman map which included preliminary information about the New World represents south western Europe, north western Africa, south eastern and Central America. It is a portalano, without latitude and longitude lines but with lines delineating coasts and islands. Pîrî Reis drew his second map and presented it to
Süleyman the Magnificent in 1528. Only the part which contains the North Atlantic Ocean and the then newly discovered areas of Northern and Central America is extant.
Symbols
The most widely used symbol by Turkish people is the crescent moon and a star. The
Turkish flag is also widely used by the
Turkish Cypriot community in the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Image:Ottoman Flag.svg The last flag of the Turkish Empire from 1844 to 1922
Image:Ottoman Naval Flag.svg|The late Ottoman Navy flag
Image:Ottoman1798.svg |Ottoman Naval Flag, flying on all military vessels 1793-1844
Image:OttomanReligious.svg|Ottoman Religious Flag, or the Flag of the Caliphate 1793-1844
Image:Ottoman flag.svg|The last flag of the Ottoman Empire from 1844 to 1923 was adopted with the Tanzimat reforms as the first official Ottoman national flag
Image:Flag of Turkey.svg|Flag of The Republic of Turkey
Turkish Timeline
Throughout history the Turks have established numerous states in different geographical areas on the continents of
Asia,
Europe and
Africa. Therefore, they encountered different cultures, influenced these cultures and have also been influenced by them. This list consists of the main events of the ancient Turks to today's modern Turks.
| c.552-744 |
Gokturk Empire/ Confederation in Central Asia |
| 732-735 |
Orkhon Inscriptions, first discovered records in Turkish |
| c.620-1016 |
Khazar Kingdom in Western Central Asia, (today's southern Russia and Eastern Ukraine) |
| 9th Century |
Oguz Confederation of tribes north of the Jaxartes (Syr Darya) and in Transoxania |
| 830-850 |
Turkish mercenaries from Central Asia found in service of Abbasid caliphs |
| 850-905 |
Tulunids (Turkish generals) rule Egypt virtually independently of the Abbasids |
| 900 |
Samanids rule in eastern Persia and borderlands of Turkistan; Turks are exposed to Persianate Islamic culture; preparation far incorporation of Turks into main body of Middle Eastern Islamic civilization |
| 10thc. |
Term ‘sultan’ (Arabic abstract noun meaning ”sovereign authority”) begins to be used to designate rulers |
| c.1000 |
Ghaznavids establish rule in Afghanistan, break Samanid power, and expand into Persia below Oxus River; champions of Sunni Islam within a predominantly Persian cultural context |
| 1040 |
Seljuks take Khorasan from Ghaznavids; soon control most of Persia with center at Isfahan; from there advance to defeat Buwayhids (Shi’i Persians) who had dominated Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad for a century |
| 1055 |
Seljuk sultans become de facto rulers in Abbasid Baghdad; two centuries of turmoil is ended and unity restored in eastern Islamic region; Persia and Mesopotamia are reunited and northern Syria added to the ”Great Seljuk” state |
| 1071 |
Battle of Manzikert (Malazgirt ) a decisive victory for Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan over Byzantines; break Byzantine line of defense in Eastern Anatolia; Turkish-speaking Muslims raid and settle in area now known as ”Turkey”; much of the Greek/ Christian veneer of indigenous Anatolian population gradually replaced by a Turkish/Muslim veneer |
| 1092 |
Death of Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah and his great vizier, Nizam al-Mulk; dynastic strife ensues |
| 1118 |
Seljuk Empire splits into principalities ruled by princes of the family, often over- shadowed by their ”atabeys” (tutor guardians ) |
| 12th century |
Seljuks of Rum (Konya, Anatolia) rule centra1 Anatolian plateau with center at Konya (Iconium). |
| 1204 |
Byzantium fatally weakened by 4th. Crusade and Latin occupation |
| c.1200 |
high point of Seljuk’s of Rum; by absorption of smaller Turkish principalities (Beyliks), Seljuk’s extend their jurisdiction to south coast of Anatolia; Turkish nomads (‘Gazis’) active in western border/march region adjacent to Byzantium |
| 1243 |
Mongols under Hulagu Khan’s move west, defeat Seljuk Sultan Kaykhusrav II, and establish over lordship in Seljuk Anatolia |
| Time |
Events |
| 1258 |
Mongols conquer Baghdad and bring Abbasid Caliphate to an end |
| 13th c. |
Turkish Anatolia fragmented as Mongol control weakens and is withdrawn; many small principalities (Beyliks ) emerge, one of them led by Osman (Turkish form of the Arabic/Muslim name, Uthmm; European corruption of Osman is Ottoman) in northwest Anatolia (around Iznik and Bursa) adjacent to Byzantine territories. |
| 1071-1300 |
Anatolia witnesses swift military penetration, ragged political conquest, partial and superficial cultural/linguistic conquest by Muslim Turks who, in their upper ranks were carriers of Persianate Muslim culture. That group was small in number but powerful. Below them, Turkish-speaking Muslims mix with indigenous population. Folk culture and folk religion often at odds with high culture and Islamic orthodoxy represented by the religious and political elite in the society. |
| 1288 |
Foundation of the Ottoman state by a warrier chieftain named Osman, at Sögüt near Bursa. |
| 1453 |
Conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) by Sultan Mehmet II 'the Conqueror'. |
| 1520-1566 |
Reign of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, the great age of the Ottoman Empire. The sultan rules most of North Africa, most of Eastern Europe and all of the Middle East. His navies patrol the Mediterranean and Red seas and the Indian Ocean. |
| 1699 |
Treaty of Karlowitz, the first time in over 400 years that the Ottomans were decisively defeated and forced to sign a peace treaty as the clear losers. The mighty empire was clearly in decline. |
| 1876-1909 |
Reign of Abdülhamid II, a ruthless despot who was the last of the powerful sultans. |
| 1914-1918 |
The Ottoman Empire enters World War I in alliance with Germany. Australian, British, French and New Zealand troops invade Gallipoli which is successfully defended by Ottoman forces led by Mustafa Kemal. Eventual defeat of the Ottomans, loss of most of the empire's territory, and occupation of parts of Anatolia by victorious foreign troops. |
| 1919-1923 |
Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) organizes remaining Ottoman military units into an army of resistance, and establishes a government of resistance at Ankara. |
| 1922 |
Encouraged by Great Britain, Greece invades Anatolia through Izmir and presses eastward, threatening the fledgling government in Ankara. |
| 1923 |
Defeat and expulsion of the invading armies. Abolishment of the last vestiges of the Ottoman Empire and Proclamation of the Turkish Republic by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, its founder and first president. Most ethnic Greeks in Turkey, and ethnic Turks in Greece, migrate to the opposite country. |
| 1923-1938 |
Atatürk's reforms: equal rights for women, secular government, prohibition of the fez and the veil, substitution of the Latin alphabet for the Arabic, Turkification of city names, everyone adopts a surname, etc. |
| 1938 |
Death of Atatürk, continuation of one-party rule. |
| 1939-1945 |
Turkey maintains a precarious neutrality during World War II. |
| 1946-1950 |
Institution of multi-party democracy. |
Possible genetic links
Turkey is
situated on the bridgehead between
Europe and
Asia. The data on the
DNA of Turkish people suggests that a human demographic expansion occurred sequentially in the
Middle East, through
Anatolia, and finally to the rest of Europe. The estimated time of this expansion is roughly 50,000 years ago, which corresponds to the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe. During
antiquity Anatolia was a cradle for a wide variety of numerous indigenous peoples as
Armenians,
Assyrians,
Hattians,
Hittites,
Hellenes,
Pelasgians,
Phrygians,
Thracians,
Medes and others. It is concluded that
aboriginal Anatolian groups (older than 2000 BCE) may have given rise to present-day Turkish population.
DNA results suggests the lack of strong genetic relationship between the
Mongols and the Turks despite the close relationship of their languages and shared historical neighborhood. Anatolians don't significantly differ from other
Mediterraneans, indicating that while the ancient Asian Turks carried out an invasion with
cultural significance (language), it isn't genetically detectable. Recent
genetic research has suggested the local, Anatolian origins of the Turks and that genetic flow between Turks and
Asiatic peoples might have been marginal.
According to a 1998 study:
The major components, 94.1% (
haplogroups E3b, G, J, I, L, N, K2, and R1), are shared with
European and
Near Eastern populations. In contrast, only a minor share of haplogroups are attributed to
Central Asian (C, Q and O; 3.4%),
Indian (H, R2; 1.5%), and
African (A, E3*, E3a; 1%) affinity. The comprehensive high resolution
SNP analysis of 513 individuals provides
evidence of slight paternal gene flow (<9%) from
Central Asia. Various estimates exist of the proportion of gene flow associated with the arrival of Central Asian
Turkic speaking people to Anatolia. One study based on an analysis of
Y-chromosomes from Turkey suggested that Central Asians have only made a 10% genetic contribution (Rolf et al. 1999). Another study suggests roughly 30% based upon
mtDNA control region sequences and one STR Y-chromosome (Di Benedetto et al. 2001). While it's likely that genetic flow from Central Asia to Anatolia has occurred repeatedly throughout prehistory, uncertainties exist with respect to the source populations and the number of such episodes between Central Asia and Europe. These uncertainties confound any assessment of the genetic contribution of the 11th century AD
Oghuz nomads responsible for the
Turkic language replacement. The recent Y-chromosome data provides candidate haplogroups to differentiate lineages specific to the postulated source populations, thus overcoming potential artifacts caused by indistinguishable overlapping gene flows.
Using Central Asian
Y-chromosome data from either 13 populations and 149 samples (Underhill et al. 2000) or 49 populations and 1,935 samples (Wells et al. 2001) where these diagnostic lineages occur at 33% and 18%, respectively, their estimated contribution is 8.5%. During the
Bronze Age, the population of Anatolia expanded and reached an estimated level of 12 million people during the late
Roman Period (Russell 1958). Such a large preexistent Anatolian population would have reduced the impact of the subsequent arrival of the Turkic-speaking
Seljuk and
Osmanlı groups from Central Asia. Although the genetic research of Anatolia still remains somewhat inchoate, the excavations of these new levels of shared Y-chromosome heritage and subsequent diversification provide new clues to Anatolian prehistory, as well as a
substantial foundation for comparisons with other populations. The results demonstrate Anatolia’s role as a buffer between culturally and genetically distinct populations, being both an important source and recipient of gene flow.(
see the plot:
). According to
Spencer Wells:
The question to what extent a gene flow from
Central Asia to
Anatolia has contributed to the current gene pool of the Turkish people, and what the role is in this of the 11th century invasion by
Oghuz Turks, has been the subject of several studies. A factor that makes it difficult to give reliable estimates, is the problem of distinguishing between the effects of different migratory episodes. Per Chinese records,
Kyrgyz Turks were the last Turks left ancient
Mongolia due to massive
Mongol settlement from east 600 A.D. Kyrgyz Turks possessed lighter hair color (including reddish), lighter eye colors and they were taller in height and strong people. Recent genetics research dated 2003 confirms the studies indicating that the
Turkic peoples originated from Central Asia and therefore are possibly related with
Xiongnu. According to the study, Turkish Anatolian tribes may have some ancestors who originated in an area north of Mongolia at the end of the Xiongnu period (3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE), since modern Anatolian Turks appear to have some common genetic markers with the remains found at the Xiongnu period graves in Mongolia:
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