Since the founding of the republic in 1923 as the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey has been secular and Kemalist in orientation. The country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, initiated a modernization of Turkey through social and legal reforms modelled on various European nation states.
The current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been at the helm of the country since 2003. Since around 2012, he has led the country in an increasingly authoritarian manner. Freedom of expression and freedom of the press in particular are considered to be severely restricted. The currency and debt crisis triggered by its economic policies as well as high inflation have continued since 2018, which makes Turkey quite attractive from a tourist perspective.
The culture of today's Turkey is a fusion of the ancient Turkish nomadic culture of Central Asia and Siberia, the Greco-Roman era, the culture in the Ottoman Empire with its Byzantine, Persian, Arabic, Caucasian, Armenian and Kurdish influences, as well as the strong European direction since the founding of the Republic Ataturk. The cultural centre of the country is the metropolis of Istanbul.
With the political changes, the content of Turkish literature also changed. Early representatives include Fakir Baykurt, Sabahattin Ali, Sait Faik Abasıyanık and Yaşar Kemal, who put ordinary people at the centre of their work. With the turn to describing living conditions, social and political criticism of the state is inevitable. The state reacts with censorship and political violence. Authors like Nâzım Hikmet, Yaşar Kemal and Aziz Nesin spend many years in Turkish prisons because of the persecution of their publications. Kemal therefore referred to the prison as a “school of Turkish literature”.
Turkish cuisine has also influenced Greek and the rest of the Balkan cuisine - including etymology. For example, tzaziki comes from the Turkish cacık, and Ćevapčići comes from kabapcik. Yogurt also comes from Turkish Yoğurt. Doner kebab is made from beef, veal or poultry. In Turkey, but also in other countries, the kebab is also served on a plate.
During a rescue excavation by the German Archaeological Institute in the province of Izmir, layers from the post-Paleolithic period (Epipalaeolithic) were discovered for the first time in a cave between the modern locations of Dikili and Bergama (UNESCO World Heritage Site Pergamon-Bergama).
A few days ago, researchers in Alanda, Turkey, found the head and other parts of a statue of the Roman emperor Hadrian.
Our journey along the route of Seljuk Caravanserai chain this time took us to Afyonkarahisar region from the direction of Konya city along E 96 highway.
Adnan Menderes Airport (Turkish Adnan Menderes Havalimanı) is the airport at İzmir. It is located about 18 kilometres to the South of the third largest Turkish city, Izmir.
To expand their trading activities, Greek settlers from Miletus moved to many new regions, including the ancient Mysian landscape, which corresponds to the modern Balız near Erdek in the province of Balıkesir.
On the way to Çanakkale, we had passed the previously unknown place Menemen several times before already, which seemed neither to be particularly inviting as a modern town along the main road nor showing any special features.
The Clock Tower (Saat Kulesi), today İzmir’s landmark number one, was built by a Levantine French Architect Raymond Charles Pere in 1901 to commemorate 25th anniversary of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II's accession to the throne.
As a port town, İzmir has always been strategically important for trade between Anatolia and other Aegean cities. Not surprisingly, the region of Kemeralti on Izmir's shore is a bustling business centre.
As in several other towns in Turkey and other places in the Southeast of Europe, Kızılca has been touched by the bad influence of migration especially of the young population.
Many of the ancient sites we visited in Turkey are closely related to the history of Christian development and are explicitly mentioned in the Bible in this respect, as it is the case with Laodicea.
The founding of Laodicea probably dates back to King Antiochus II, who had built the new town between 261 and 253 BC on the old site of Diospolis and named it after his wife Laodicea.
Located in the Namazgah district of İzmir, the Agora is built in Roman times (2nd century AD) and was built three floors high near the center of the city called Smyrna according to the Roman city plan of Hippodamos.
Whoever has been driving through Izmir in certain years has certainly noticed the worsening traffic conditions in the growing Aegean metropolis. Since the beginning of the 1980s individual traffic on İzmir's roads has increased steadily.
Davutlar is a small town very close to Kuşadası in Aydın Province. It lies at the north of the Dilek Peninsula and to the south of Kuşadası.
A few kilometers south of Ayvalik, you will meet with the beach called "garlic beach" (Sarimsakli) next to the town of same name: Sarimsakli.
Another quite popular destination is the Devil's Table, Seytan Sofrasi, which is halfway between Ayvalık and Sarimsakli.
Altınkum is a district of Didim and is a small popular resort situated on the Aegean Coast of Turkey. The name of the resort "Altınkum" which means golden sand in Turkish is a beautiful place with three long smooth golden beaches, with a shallow sea for quite a long way out which is ideal for families with children.
The former metropolis Ephesus was located in a valley between two mountain ridges, whose slopes today are still without firming forests because of the once densely constructions, so the ridges are still in motion.
Early Sunday morning we started our trip back home to Antalya because we had got an invitation from the Director of Camlaralti Private College to come to Özdere, a small less important village on the way from Kusadasi to Seferihisar, for having breakfast together.
It was a quick decision during our stay in Izmir to take a day off for visiting to the new opened İzmir Wildlife Park.