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.
Another sight of Roman antiquity awaits the traveller of the Kizkalesi area at the end of a river bed, which the locals call Devil's Valley. Almost always dry as a bone in summer, you can use the Teufelstal river bed for a hike to the ancient stone sculptures of people – let’s go to Adamkayalar.
Excavations in the extremely fertile region of the Göksu Delta show a number of prehistoric relics, so that the settlement history at Silifke can be traced back to at least the Bronze Age.
Shortly after our return to Turkey, after an extensive round trip through Germany, our friend Detlef from Halle announced that he would be visiting us for the coming weekend.
About 18 kilometers east of Selinus, which is now known as Gazipasa, the ancient city of Antioch ad Cragum once stood high on the rocks above the sea.
Good luck to those who have been able to cross one of the busy streets in Turkey, even on the pedestrian crossing! A statement that Europeans receive with great surprise in their ears.
In March of this year we received a call from Germany, which came about through contacts at the Goethe Institute. On behalf of the Pro 7 series Galileo, Maximus Film GmbH was looking for places for the non-typical tourist documentation of travel destinations or tourist offers that the majority of German tourists might not find right away.
Our friend Martin had already invited to an event that required strength last year, but we couldn't do it due to time constraints. We were only able to talk our way out of it at the time because of the promise of participation this year: an insider rafting tour on the Alara River.
When our co-author Wolfgang Dorn travels to Turkey, it usually comes to a short get-together for a short trip to one of the many possible destinations along the Turkish Riviera.
After leaving Antalya on highway 400, passing Kemer, Phaselis and Olympos, the road rises briefly to more then 500 meters above sea level. Reaching the other side, the view falls down to the valley and plain of Kumluca in Finike Bay, well known for its fruit and vegetable growing.
The empire of Alexander the Great had been passed to his diadochi and was divided among them, historically followed the Seleucids as the ruling dynasty, another great power of Mesopotamia.
Long before the Turkish colonization of Anatolia and the two-stream country came about, there were successive high cultures that ruled the country. The earliest traces of human settlement in the region were discovered southwest of Antakya:
For the past two centuries, the region of the rising sun, the Middle East, often referred to by Europeans as the Orient, has been an essential part of archaeological research and the history of human development and their settlement areas.
The Salda Lake is the most famous and clearest crater lake in southern Turkey, the lake is located within the Yeşilova district in Burdur district, only about 150 kilometers from Antalya.
We have heard of the ancient city of Trebenna several times, but so far without any concrete information about the historical background or even the exact location of the city near Antalya.
Adada was an ancient Roman city in Pisidia, about 40 km southeast of Egirdir and 80 km northeast of Antalya, near the present-day village of Sagrak in the Sütçuler district of the Turkish province of Isparta, which is probably just known to hikers on St. Paul's Way.
What do paragliders, at least some of them, do when wind and weather conditions do not offer good flight conditions? Yes, right, you climb freely and without any equipment on the rocks of the take off.
We are on the way from Sanliurfa in the direction of Konya when we have to leave the highway D 21 coming from the direction of Adana at Pozanti in order to follow the course of the road 750 in the direction of Nigde / Karapinar.
If you drive the road between Karaman and Mut, you should take a short break at the village of Geçimli (Malya) and ask passers-by for directions to the church grotto and the monastery of Alaoda. There was no signage at that time.
Our journey through Southeast Anatolia also led to the biblical Antioch (Antakya) on the Asi, the river which in ancient times was called Orontes and is mentioned in biblical records.
Just a few kilometers east of Gazipaşa there is a somewhat irritating, but signposted, junction (N36.24353 / E032.34868) to the south with Macarköy / Kestros.