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.
We were following the main road from Dursunbey to the right towards Beyel, continued to the fire station that brought us to about 800 meters above sea level in its park-like grounds, to the Dursunbey river and to the imposing canyons and on the way back to the local Amethyst Mine.
During our exploration along the Dursunbey Cayi, we came across a small stream which was to pass by car before we could reach into a rich, green lawn that was used by backpack hikers traveling with a tent during these days.
İstanbul is the biggest city in Turkey and the most popular due to its geographical location. To the south stretches the Marmara Sea, strewn with islands, and to the north is the Black Sea.
We visited Istiklal Street, probably the busiest street in Istanbul. This pedestrian street stretches between Taksim Square and the Tunel area for about 3 – 4 km in the Beyoglu district.
The other pleasant part of Istanbul is Adalar (Islands) strewn over the Marmara Sea. They are known as Princes’ Islands by foreigners because the rulers of the Byzantine Empire sent troublesome princes to these islands to rot away.
The Grand Bazaar is one of the largest covered markets in the world. It contains more than 4000 shops, restaurants, streets, gates and even two mosques. This old building was built over the remains of the Old Bedesten. The building of the Grand Bazaar has hundreds of silver plated domes with many windows.
The visitor to Istanbul has not only museums and well known historic and natural sights available to him. There is also an extremely exciting night life as well as many chances for shopping, especially for silver, copper and gold jewellery and, of course, carpets.
İstanbul’s Journey to Becoming the European Capital of Culture: The European Capital of Culture concept was launched for the first time in the 1980’s by Melina Mercouri, the Greek Minister of Culture of the period, and approved by the European Union Council of Ministers.
The Sultan Ahmet Mosque or with its more popular name, the Blue Mosque, is located in the oldest part of the city İstanbul, opposite of the famous Cathedral Hagia Sophia, just a short walk from Topkapi Palace.
Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (IATA: SAW, ICAO: LTFJ) is one of the airports serving Istanbul, Turkey. The facility is named after Sabiha Gökçen, the first female combat pilot in the world. It is on the Asian side of the bicontinental city, Istanbul.
Istanbul Airport (formerly Ataturk Airport (IATA: IST, ICAO: LTBA) (Turkish: Ataturk Uluslararası Havalimanı) is an international airport in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
The provincial capital of Çanakkale, is located in the Çanakkale Strait’s most narrow region. Çanakkale is located in an area and important stop to be able to take a trip to the 30 km Troy and Gelibolu peninsula.
There are many islands in the immediate vicinity of the Turkish mainland, which, however, mostly belong to the territory of Greece.
Not far from the border with Greece, about 10 kilometres away from the city of Enez near Ipsala, known to many travellers as a border crossing point, is the Lake Gala in South-West of Turkey, which is sometimes also known with the name Celtik Gölü.
Many buildings were built by Sinan, the master builder, during the Ottoman Empire, but his “masterpiece”, as he had seen it, is the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (Edirne Selimiye Camii).
Troy is probably one of the most well-known ancient cities. This is primarily due to Homer, who processed the history of the city of Troy in his famous epic "Iliad" almost 3,000 years ago.
Once in the vicinity of Bursa, we of course also wanted to see the large freshwater lake Uluabat (Uluabat Gölü), or as it is often called due to the former Greek city, the Apolyont lake.
Another late Roman bridge worth seeing is in the ancient landscape of Bithynia (in North-Western Anatolia), just about five kilometres outside the city of Adapazarı across the Sangarius River.
Originally, Adapazarı was a small village that was located on a branch of the Sakarya river and was simply called Ada after the Turkish occupation under Sultan Orhan I in 1324.
We were coming from Bursa on the D 575 towards Yalova. Since we only want to go on a day trip to Istanbul this time, we decided to take the speedboat ferry across the Sea of Marmara to avoid having to drive the much longer way around the bay of Izmit.