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.
For professional rafters and beginners. There are lots of wild water streams coming down from the Taurus Mountains, but a few of them are really difficult to handle on rafts. You need a well-trained body with powerful muscles to move down safely. Permission is also required.
Our explorations in the area of Lake Ohrid had surprisingly let us to two take-off spaces for paragliders situated in the Galicica National Park or above Struga in the border mountains to Albania.
An excursion tour together with our co-author Detlef Heinzel, who has lived in Gazipasa for several years, had led us again to Gazipasa, the still green and rural small town with a predominantly rural bustle, please follow his short report:
The museum in Alanya, which opened in 1967, consists of two main sections, in which archaeological and ethnological treasures are exhibited.
Kahramanmaraş is a provincial centre in the east of Turkey and has got 465.370 inhabitants (number from 2007). Up to the end of the Turkish Independence War the town and the province was only called Maraş.
Tarsus was the Capital of Cilicia, situated on the banks of the river Cydnus and commanding the road from the Mediterranean Sea to Central Anatolia through the Cilician Gate.
After leaving Alanya and driving for about two hours along very small, winding but breathtaking roads, past beautiful bays and lonely beaches, you will reach Anamur, a place not yet touched by mass tourism.
We headed from Mut towards Karaman on Highway 715, which is currently being improved. After the first bend about 22 kilometres after leaving Mut, we are struck by the silhouette of the Alahan Monastery higher up on the mountain.
We went to Karaman again with regard to preparation of the 2011 Paragliding Weeks. Here, the district governor drew our attention to the ancient city of Claudiopolis and invited us to see the district centre called Mut and its vicinity. This region is especially famous for growing of Mut Apricot, which is an aromatic apricot type.
Our invitation from the Municipality of Mut, especially by the Kaymakam….. includes one more special event when we were going to Kilise Tepe, about 25 Kilometers outside of Mut. Always following the Göksu River we at least were leaving the main road going into a farm road, then even going cross country.
Turkey is one of the richest countries in wetlands among the countries in Europe and the Middle East. These wetlands have great importance especially for wildlife as well as for local economy.
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.
Adana Airport (Turkish Adana Şakirpaşa Havalimanı) is one of the largest Turkish airports and is located near Adana.
A really nondescript town on the Turkish Riviera, which has got its fame almost exclusively due to its car-ferry harbor: Taşucu - Ferry to Girne / Kyrenia on Northern Cyprus.
After visiting Yilan Kalesi near Ceyhan and the Lambron Castle near Camliyaila, we drove back to Tarsus and then took the coastal road D 400 in the direction of Silifke via Anamur and Gazipasa to Alanya.
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.
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.
Apamea on Orontes river: Originally the city was called Pharnakes, after the conquest by Alexander the Great it was also called Pella for a short time.
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.
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: