Turkey – education
Turkey – education, The current Turkish education system can be traced back to 1924, when the Koranic schools were replaced by public schools. The reform work was followed by the introduction of the Latin alphabet in 1928.
In the centrally managed education system, the biggest challenges around the turn of the millennium are to even out differences in terms of regions, genders and ethnic groups. The ever-decreasing illiteracy rate, which includes women in particular, was almost 13% in 2008.
The school system, which is characterized by high class quotients, includes a not very widespread preschool for 3-5-year-olds, an eight-year compulsory and free primary school, of which the first five years are followed by almost everyone, while only approximately 70% complete compulsory schooling (1997). This is followed by 3-4-year upper secondary education, which includes general, vocational and technical schools; these educations are followed by a total of almost 55%.
Admission to the 30 universities, the oldest of which is the Hacettepe Üniversitesi in Ankara (established 1206 in Kayseri), and several hundred other higher education institutions is achieved by a passing central entrance examination alone. Pga. capacity problems, however, not all passed can anticipate admission.
ETYMOLOGY: The word Turkey comes from Turkish. Türkiye, from Mongolian türük ‘silk merchant’, see silk, but often interpreted as ‘the land of the strong’, cf. Old Turkish türk ‘strong’.
OFFICIAL NAME: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti
CAPITAL CITY: Ankara
POPULATION: 77,700,000 (Source: COUNTRYaah)
AREA: 779,500 km²
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE (S): Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Azerbaijani and others
RELIGION: Sunni Muslims 80%, Shia Muslims 19%, others 1%
COIN: lira
CURRENCY CODE: TRL
ENGLISH NAME: Turkey
INDEPENDENCE: 1923
POPULATION COMPOSITION: Turks 70-75%, Kurds approximately 18%, other minorities 7-12%
GDP PER residents: $ 10,482 (2014)
LIFE EXPECTANCY: men 71 years, women 75 years (2014)
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, HDI: 0.759
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, POSITION: 69
INTERNET DOMAIN NAME: .tr
Turkey is a republic in the Middle East that occupies the peninsula of Asia Minor (Anatolia) and part of Thrace in southeastern Europe. Turkey’s historical premise is the Ottoman Empire, which in its heyday included parts of North Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans.
In modern Turkey, there are major differences between the relatively prosperous western and southern Turkey, with Istanbul, Ankara and Adana, and the poor interior of Anatolia. approximately one-fifth of the country’s population are Kurds, living mainly in the south-eastern regions as well as in the industrial cities of western Turkey.
- AbbreviationFinder.org: Find two-letter abbreviation for each independent country and territory, such as TR which stands for Turkey.
For the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, see Cyprus.
Turkey (Plant Life)
Turkey (Plant Life), Several different plant geographical elements, Mediterranean, Euro-Siberian, Iran-Turan, etc., meet in Turkey; the flora comprises approximately 9000 species of vascular plants, many of which are endemic. In the relatively humid coastal areas by the Black Sea, deciduous forest grows, and in the mountains coniferous forest. Mediterranean vegetation (including garrigue, see also the Mediterranean region) dominates along the west and south coasts; there are forests of Lebanon cedar in the Taurus Mountains. In the dry Central Anatolia and in the eastern parts of the country there is often steppe vegetation with many species in the genera astragel, wormwood, feather grass, etc. in addition to several bulbous plants, eg tulips. In the mountains, pillow-shaped, prickly small shrubs dominate, in the genera Acantholimonand espersette (Onobrychis).
Turkey – language
Turkey – language, Official language is Turkish, spoken by approximately 55 million In addition, other Turkish languages are spoken, e.g. Azerbaijani (approximately 530,000). Of the Iranian languages, Kurdish and the closely related zaza are spoken by an estimated at least 10 million.
Until 2002, the use of Kurdish in education and media was banned in Turkey, but in the context of the country’s negotiations on EU accession, these bans have been gradually lifted, and the first Kurdish TV broadcasts were introduced in 2004.
In Anatolia, Caucasian languages are also spoken, among other things. Kabardian (approximately 550,000), Circassian (approximately 280,000), Georgian (approximately 40,000) and in the northeast near the border with Georgia laz (approximately 30,000. Arabic is spoken by about 400,000, mainly at the border with Syria, where also spoken New Syrian (approximately 4000).
In addition, in the European part of Turkey, Slavic languages such as Bulgarian (approximately 300,000) and Bosnian (approximately 55,000) as well as Albanian (approximately 65,000), Armenian (approximately 40,000), Greek (approximately 4000) and Judesmo (approximately 8000).
Turkey – religion
Turkey – religion, 98% of Turkey’s population are Muslims; the vast majority are Sunni Muslims who follow the Hanafi law school, but there is also a significant minority of Alawites (Shia Muslims). In addition, there are small groups of Jews and Christians; the patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul) is one of the most important figures of the Orthodox Church.
The Turkish Republic, proclaimed in 1923, was established as the only modern nation-state in the Middle East on a declared secular basis. The consistent separation of religion and politics led in 1924 to the abolition of the caliphate, the closure of traditional religious institutions, and the introduction of Western secular legal traditions.
From the early 1950’s, Islam again became part of the political debate, and later Islamist parties have emerged. They have been interpreted as a threat to the political foundation of modern Turkey, but have nevertheless played a central role in the country’s political development since the early 1970’s. The army has repeatedly taken political control to prevent the Islamic groups from gaining too much influence, but each time the Islamists have again managed to organize themselves politically.
Turkey’s religious affairs formally fall under the responsibility of the Prime Minister.
Turkey – Constitution
Turkey – Constitution, The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey dates from 1982. Legislative power lies with a unicameral parliament, the Turkish Grand National Assembly, with 465 members (at the April 1999 election), elected by direct universal suffrage for five years; the blocking limit is 10%.
The president and the government have the executive power. The President is appointed by Parliament for a term of seven years and may not be re-elected; he appoints the Prime Minister and, in consultation with him, the other ministers, and he heads the National Security Council, in which also the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of the Interior and the Defense, as well as the Chiefs of Defense.
The government can curtail a citizen’s declared fundamental civil rights if he or she violates the “indivisible unity of the state”. The president can veto bills, but his veto can be voted down by parliament.
Turkey – political parties
Turkey – political parties, the Democratic People’s Party, founded by Kemal Atatürk in 1923, was until 1946 the country’s only party. In 2000, five parties were represented in parliament. The majority of these originated in 1961-71, but were recreated under new names from 1986. Turkey has usually been ruled by coalition governments.
The most important parties in the 1990’s were the conservative middle-class parties The True Way Party, DYP, led by Tansu Çiller, and the Motherland Party, ANAP, led by Mesut Yilmaz (b. 1947), each with a voter backing of approximately 20%.
The surprise of the 1990’s was the strong voter turnout in Turkey’s cities for the Islamist Welfare Party, Refah Partisi. In 1996, the party entered into a coalition with the True Way Party, and its leader, Necmettin Erbakan (1926-2011), was head of government 1996-97.
Following the dissolution of the Islamist Fazilet Partisi by the Constitutional Court, two new parties were established in 2001, the Bliss Party, Saadet Partisi and the Justice and Development Party, Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AK).
The AK was established by Istanbul’s former mayor, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and proved to be the best organized of the two Islamist parties. At the election in 2002, AK became the big winner with 363 seats out of 550 possible and formed a subsequent government.
The only other party elected to parliament was the Republican People’s Party, which won 178 seats while the remaining 9 seats were won by independent candidates. In addition, there are a number of ultranationalist and Kurdish small parties without significance.
Turkey – economy
Turkey – economy, Although Turkey co – founded the OECD in 1960, the economy was largely state – led and protected from competition until the early 1980’s, when a severe political and economic crisis led to a military coup and an economic regime change.
The new government implemented market economy reforms, including the liberalization of foreign trade and capital markets, and privatized many small and medium-sized enterprises, but left the state in control of infrastructure, large industries, and several large banks.
The reforms created unemployment and budget deficits, but also a solid economic recovery, and until the mid-1990’s Turkey experienced the highest growth in the OECD area.
Since then, developments have been more mixed, and due to the lax economic policies of changing governments, Turkey experienced severe crises in 1994, 1998 and 2001, resulting in high inflation and large annual deficits in public budgets and the trade balance. Thus, in the 1990’s, consumer prices rose by 90% per year on average. In order to avoid too strong an erosion of competitiveness, measures were taken, among other things. to write down the currency, the lira, against a currency basket consisting of dollars and D-marks (euro from 1999).
Turkey’s traditionally large trade deficit has not been fully offset by large surpluses in the tourism industry and transfers from Turkish guest workers in other countries, and by the end of 1998 the external debt had grown to more than half of GDP.
The country has had difficulty attracting foreign direct investors, which is why the deficit on external balances must be financed through borrowing abroad and portfolio investments (see international capital movements).
In order to strengthen investor confidence, Turkey entered into an agreement with the International Monetary Fund in 1998 on the monitoring of a stabilization program which, inter alia, must reduce inflation, reform the tax system and reduce public sector debt through privatization.
Cooperation with the IMF continued after the crisis in 2001, and it has succeeded in bringing inflation below 10%, while growth is extremely high (7.5% on average in 2002-05), aided by foreign investment. A new currency, the YTL (Yeni Türk Lirasi – New Turkish Lira), was introduced in 2005.
Turkey’s most important trading partners are the EU, which accounts for approximately half of foreign trade, as well as the United States and Russia. In the composition of exports, industrial goods with an increasing content of high technology are dominant. Turkey has a large trade and payments deficit; the external debt in 2005 was 51% of GDP.
Turkey became an associate member of the Community in 1963, and economic relations between the parties were expanded in 1996 with a customs union. In 1999, the EU launched a pre-accession program with Turkey, which, among other things, provided financial support from the EU to Turkey for the implementation of necessary structural reforms before membership negotiations could be considered.
In 2004, the European Commission assessed that the process of economic and political reform in Turkey was sufficiently advanced for the start of membership negotiations, which they did in 2005. However, admission is not expected to take place until 2014 at the earliest.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkey has expanded its cooperation with the countries around the Black Sea, including as co-founder of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.
Denmark’s exports to Turkey in 2005 amounted to DKK 2.35 billion. DKK, while imports from there were 4.55 billion. kr.
Turkey – social conditions
Turkey – social conditions, Turkey is characterized by great differences between country and city and between rich and poor. In the big cities live the economic elite, who have understood to benefit from the government’s efforts to promote the conditions for private investors and entrepreneurs, but here are also large groups of unskilled labor who have settled in slum areas (see gecekondu) in the outskirts of cities.
Social welfare benefits are extremely limited. The family has traditionally played a dominant role as a social and economic safety net, and its influence remains significant, for example in connection with marriage, just as within the family, which here must be understood more broadly than the nuclear family, people continue to help each other both financially and in connection with old age, illness and other social events. The financial means that Turks outside the country send home to the family constitute a significant element of the Turkish economy. Friendship services are widespread, and corruption a serious problem.
Women have had the right to vote since 1934 and other ordinary civil rights since 1926, such as the right to divorce, but in reality the view of women is still marked by tradition despite public efforts to provide equal access to education and employment and equal pay.
Turkey has repeatedly been in the spotlight due to the country’s treatment of ethnic minorities, the use of torture and the suppression of professional and political activities. has been a serious obstacle to the realization of Turkey’s desire for closer ties with the EU. Check youremailverifier for Turkey social condition facts.
Turkey (Health Conditions)
Turkey (Health Conditions), In 1960, the average life expectancy for the two sexes was 47 years; by 2008, it had risen to 70 years for men and 74 years for women. Infant mortality in 2008 was 26 per. 1000 live births against 147 in 1970. There are significant geographical variations with the eastern and southeastern regions being the most disadvantaged. In children, the most common cause of death is infections, often combined with malnutrition, in young accidents, and among middle-aged heart disease and lung disorders. Malaria has occurred in waves with peaks in 1976 and 1994; in 1997, 55 cases were diagnosed per 100,000 residents
The state runs part of the health care system, but there is also a large private sector. Society spent 3.8% on health care in 1996; the state accounted for approximately 43% of the expenses, private health insurance for 22%, while the rest came from direct patient payment. In 1996, the country had 1.1 doctors and 2.5 hospital beds per. 1000 residents
Turkey – legal system
Turkey – legal system, In 1926, the Swiss Civil Code was enacted as the new Turkish Civil Code and completely replaced the Muslim law that had been in force until now. As the new law was written for a society which, in its social, religious and economic structure, was totally different from the Turkish one, the application of the law entailed great difficulties of adaptation. For example, the new law only recognized marriages entered into for a civil authority. In the countryside and in small towns, marriages continued to be entered into as before, in that man and woman in the presence of parents or other witnesses and possibly with the blessing of a priest made the necessary promises. Children born in these marriages were by law born out of wedlock, even though people considered them marriages, and had to be later legislated to make them marriages.
Turkey (Military)
Turkey (Military), The armed forces are (2006) at 514,850, of which 391,000 conscripts with 15 months of service. The Army is at 402,000, the Navy at 52,750 and the Air Force at 60,100. The equipment is Western produced, a mix of modern and older. The reserve comprises 378,700, the army part is 258,700, the navy part 55,000 and the air force part 65,000.
The army has 32 armored brigades as well as at least 11 infantry and 5 hunter brigades. In addition, there are a large number of specialized regiments and battalions as well as 37 armed and 95 transport helicopters. The fleet has 19 larger and 55 smaller combat units, 10 submarines, 35 demining vessels, 67 landing craft and vessels, 27 support vessels, 7 aircraft and 16 helicopters, as well as a 3,100 navy. The Air Force advises over 445 fighter jets, 7 tankers and 77 transport aircraft of various types. The security forces comprise just over 100,000.
Turkey controls the Bosphorus. In 1952, Turkey became a member of NATO following demands for Soviet naval bases on Turkish soil. In 1974, Turkey was at war with NATO partner Greece over Cyprus, Turkey’s armed forces have been deployed against the Kurdish rebel movement PKK and after the Gulf War, Turkey was the base for fighter jets that maintained the no-fly zone north of the 36th parallel in Iraq.
Turkey – mass media
The first Turkish newspaper, Takvım-i-Vekayi, was founded in Istanbul in 1831 and was a semi-official government magazine. From the mid-1800’s. actual dailies began to appear.
Although the newspapers have relatively large circulation, the printed press is poorly widespread, weakest in eastern Turkey. Radio and television reach the entire population. In 2005, 67 dailies were published. The leading figures are Cumhuriyet (Republic), which was founded in 1924 and has a circulation of approximately 58,000 and Hürriyet (Freedom), grdl. 1948, which with a circulation of approximately 519,000 is also one of the largest in the country.
Other major newspapers are Sabah (Morgen), grdl. 1985, edition approximately 446,000 and Milliyet (Nation), grdl. 1950, edition approximately 261,000. They are all based in Istanbul and are politically in the middle, but have no real party affiliation. In Ankara, the English-language Turkish Daily News, grdl. 1961, which has a circulation of approximately 54,000. The news agency Anadolu Agency was founded in 1920.
The state radio and television, Türkiye Radyo Televizyon Kurumu (TRT), grdl. 1964, has several nationwide radio channels, five nationwide television channels and two satellite television channels. In the early 1990’s, the state’s radio and television monopoly was abolished, and today there are over 1,000 private radio stations and about 300 private television stations. Among the largest TV channels are Channel D, Show TV, Star TV as well as the news channels NTV and CNN Türk. The population also has access to a number of foreign satellite programs, including Kurdish.
The military, political Islam and the Kurdish question are sensitive topics in the media; on the other hand, criticism of politicians and government officials is common.
Turkey – visual arts and architecture
Influences from the West already prevailed in the Ottoman Empire (art and architecture before 1923 are treated here). Following the example of Western European academies, the Istanbul Academy of Arts was founded in 1883. In the new Turkish Republic, Western influence was strengthened.
Kemal Atatürk sought to promote national culture, and he regarded the appreciation of art as one of the traditional characteristics of the Turks. This led to the creation of an art museum (1937) in Istanbul and to the sending of talented artists and architects to Western Europe, particularly France and Germany, to study.
Stylistically, it came to influence art and architecture in the first half of the 1900’s, exploring European styles, from Cubism and Fauvism to Realism and Abstraction, in painting and sculpture, while functionalism characterized architecture, as seen in Ankara, for example..
With the new styles after 1960 and the end of the Western monopolization of the history of art, Turkish art has also distinguished itself internationally. This has especially happened after the dissolution of the military regime in the 1980’s, which, like developments in Eastern Europe, led to a new and mutual openness to the rest of the world. See also Turkish rugs.
Turkey – literature
The oldest known work written in Turkish is the Orkhon inscriptions from the 700’s, found in Mongolia; see also Turkish languages.
Medieval Turkish literature
Medieval Turkish literature originated in Anatolia from the 13th to the 14th century. Its genres are chronicles, legends, legends and folk poetry, among others. a. the great quatrain Dede Korkut and Nasreddin Hoca’s fables. The first Sufi poetry also arose here with, for example, Yunus Emre (see also Sufism).
The Ottoman literature
With the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Ottoman literature developed into a dominant poetry of great power and court until 1839. From the period, e.g. divan poetry (see divan), dervish poetry (see dervish) and folk literature.
The divan lyricists Baki (1526-1600) and Fuzuli (1495-1556) wrote collections of poems in a highly stylized language with Arabic-Persian and Turkish elements.
The poems are based on specific keywords such as soul, love, ruler, slave, garden, sigh and moon; in its subject matter, this divan poetry is often akin to the religious dervish lyric.
Next to the hoflyrikken played encyclopedic the literature a large part in the form of travel reports, history and geography, for example Evliya Çelebis (1611-84) travel book (ed. 1898-1938).
Folk literature often contains time-critical and satirical elements, and several of its troubadours were persecuted, such as Pir Sultan Abdal, who belonged to the Shiite minority and was executed for insulting His Majesty approximately 1560
The Western-oriented Tanzimat literature
Western-oriented Tanzimat literature began in 1839 with the so-called Tanzimat Declaration, which heralded political reforms. In the literary field, contemporary French novels were translated, and the divan lyric was heavily criticized.
This is especially true of Namık Kemal, who, as a writer, journalist and magazine publisher, helped found the modern literary public in Turkey. This development was continued by the visionary and socially committed lyricist and social debater Tevfik Fikret.
Republiklitteraturen
The Republican literature from 1923 until the 1960’s continued the optimism and belief in progress. This applies, for example, to the patriotic writers Halide Edib Adıvar and Yakub Kadri Karaosmanoğlu (1889-1974), whose novels are about the war against the Greeks and the opposition between city and country.
It was not only the belief in modernity that was at the center, but also the interest in Anatolia as the new Turkish territory that was to be cultivated and be the opposite of the Ottoman Empire’s association with Islam and the Persian-Arab culture.
The interest in everyday life, the popular and a simple language also included the so-called village teacher literature, with Mahmut Makal’s (b. 1933) novel Our Village (1950) and Yaşar Kemal’s epic novels building a modern mythology with elements from the pre – Ottoman period.
While realism was often linked to a socialist commitment to society, as with Aziz Nesin, Tahir Demir Kemal and Orhan Kemal, emigrant literature emerged in the 1960’s less marked by political theses, depicting the lives of former villagers in Western Europe, such as Fakir Baykurt, Aras Ören (b. 1939) and Güney Dal (b. 1944).
An important part of republican literature is modern theater, inspired by European avant-garde and epic theater, to which several of the great writers have written, such as Nâzım Hikmet, Aziz Nezin and Adalet Ağaoğlu.
The modern Turkish literature
Modern Turkish literature from the 1960’s to the present is characterized by a greater pluralism, a showdown with realism and nationalism and an increasing orientation both to the west and to the east.
As a counterweight to the realistic literature in Turkey stands partly the poetry with its enormous significance for the development of literature, partly the intellectual Turkish metropolitan novel, including Turkish women’s literature, which since the founding of the republic has held an important position with names like Füruzan (b. 1935), Adalet Ağaoğlu and Pinar Kür (b. 1949).
The lyric already developed in the interwar period two tendencies: a popular utopian and a language-conscious-experimenter with Nâzım Hikmet and Orhan Veli Kanık on one side and Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca on the other. Typical of both directions, despite their modernity, are also the deep roots of tradition and a suspicion of avant-garde art.
Between the two tendencies, Turkish poetry has to this day unfolded great wealth and variety, not least in light of the neo-Islamic currents that have developed poets like Ismet Özel (b. 1944), who combine great knowledge of European modernism with Sufi background.
The major figures and inspirers of the modern Turkish metropolitan novel are Sabahattin Ali (1907-48) and Sait Faik, but especially Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar. He has crucially influenced the form-experimenting Turkish novel of today, breaking with the long tradition of realistic novels by incorporating influences from James Joyce, the new French novel, and the American meta-novel.
This inspiration can be found in Nedim Gürsel and especially Orhan Pamuk, who has a far greater sense of style, form, aesthetics than the realistic predecessors. Despite the great individual differences, modern Turkish literature seems under new conditions to continue the tradition of Tanzimat, both in its optimism, its cosmopolitan attitude and its form experiments, which are still able to span between European modernism and oriental tradition and all the time transform and renew both traditions into something special Turkish.
One of the most important new features in Turkish literature around the turn of the millennium is the attempt to distance oneself from the patriotic self-understanding and create greater literary possibilities and more differentiated descriptions of the private and personal.
This tendency to no longer regard actions and persons as types of general development is seen, among other things, in the great popularity that the new Turkish crime novel has gained.
Among the new, popular authors are Ahmet Ümit (b. 1960), who revolves around the oppression of minorities and abuse of power in the political system, for example in the Istanbul novel The Mist and Night (1996), and “the new Orhan Pamuk”, the author Buket Uzuner (b. 1955), which in his novels Mediterranean Waltz (1998) and A Cup of Turkish Coffee (2001) deconstructs Turkey and Istanbul as the center of the world, and in contrast emphasizes Turkey’s connection not only to Western modernism but also to Asian cultures.
In the new Turkish literature, the detective novel has acquired an almost symbolic and general meaning that extends far beyond the framework of the genre itself; it has become an expression of a pervasive-skeptical attitude to all great truths and rigid structures of power.
The driving force behind these tendencies, and the subject of much current Turkish literature, is undoubtedly the question of Turkey’s future as a member of the EU, which will demand radical reforms of Turkish society.
Turkey – theater
Apart from a distant connection to early shamanistic rituals, Turkish theater has for centuries been characterized by the Turks’ adoption of Islam with its distancing from theatrical activity. Dramatic portrayal, however, has been tolerated in religious contexts and in connection with important events at court, and among the upper class, diverse forms of performance have taken place. An original folk theater with fixed characters, a partly improvised plot and a certain satirical free language has developed. The simplest is a narrator who alone presents the action and its various characters with only two props, a club and a scarf. There are several puppet theater forms, the most popular of which are the shadow plays with the popular hero, Karagöz, who got a Greek successor, Karagiozis, and his fake opponent, Hacivat. Similar farces and satires are performed by actors under conditions reminiscent of commedia dell ‘arte.
The expansion of the Ottoman Empire in Europe in the 1500’s. brought with him an interest in Western theatrical forms, and from the mid-1800’s. Turkish drama developed rapidly. In 1913-14, André Antoine was invited to Istanbul to organize a permanent theater and a theater school in the city. After the establishment of the republic in 1923, the development took off with the establishment of educational institutions, state theaters in major cities and touring, and around 2000, Turkey has an extensive and multifaceted theater life.
Turkey – dance
Until the 1930’s, each community had its own limited repertoire of dances, which formed an integral part of the traditions and rituals associated with wedding and circumcision parties as well as at special seasonal events.
The repertoire, which generally consists of solo, group, couple (two men or two women), circle and chain dances, shows great regional and stylistic differences.
The Kurds also have their own dance traditions. Furthermore, there are special dance rituals among various religious sects within Islam such as the Sufi order Mawlawi and among Alawites.
In 1932-50, the creation of a network of local culture houses, ice rinks (‘people’s houses’), in the villages and the smaller provincial towns contributed to the collection of a large number of dances, which were partly processed for use by the local amateur dance groups in the individual culture houses.
Turkey – music
Turkish music has emerged from an interplay between forms of music from Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. These elements are today fused together into a fairly homogeneous music area.
The music is based on a system of keys, the maqam system, which consists of over 100 modes, which include micro-intervals. Beat rates from two to 120 counting units are used. Beats such as 5/8, 7/8 and 9/8 are quite common.
In folk music, the most important genres are türkü, which are locally specific folk songs, as well as the troubadour style aşık, both accompanied by the string instrument saz.
Saz is the most widely used instrument in Turkey. Certain minorities, especially the South Caucasus Lazar and the Kurds in Eastern Turkey, have managed to retain their musical distinctiveness. Among the Roma, the clarinet and hand drum darbuka are among the most important instruments.
The classical repertoire stretches from the 14th century to the present. Many of the classical composers were members of the Mawlawi Sufi order, in whose music the ney flute plays a significant role. Among them was the composer Ismail Dede Efendi (1778-1846), who composed both secular pieces and religious music for the Sufi congregation.
Religious music also includes prayer calls (ezan) and religious hymns (ilahi). The military music includes the Turkish timpani kudüm and cymbals, which were also recorded in the European military orchestras in the 18th century.
In step with today’s media influence, Turkish music is exposed to massive pressure, especially from the West and the Arab countries. The majority of pop music, however, has retained a distinctly Turkish distinctiveness. Singer Sezen Aksu (b. 1954) is an example of a pop star who combines the foreign influence with a respect for Turkish music tradition.
Turkey – film
Turkey – film, Turkish film was dominated up to the 1940’s by theater and film adaptations of especially Mushin Ertugrul (1892-1979), from the 1950’s also by lighter genres. In the 1960’s, Turkish film was a transition more frontier-seeking in its subject matter, and Metin Erkesans (b. 1929) Susuz Yaz (1964, Dry Summer) won the Golden Bear in Berlin.
The military coup in 1971 was the background for several films in the 1980’s, including The Golden Palm Winners Yol (1981, The Road) by Yilmaz Güney (1937-84), which gives a rough portrait of a tradition-bound Turkey.
In the 1990’s, new, individualistic instructors emerged, such as Yilmaz Arslan (b. 1968) and Ferzan Ozpetek (b. 1959), who was in charge of the Turkish Bath (1997).
Fatih Akin’s major films have so far been German-produced, but because of his themes, people in Turkey have tended to regard him as one of his own. In 2004, he began a trilogy, Liebe, Tod und Teufel, with the film Gegen die Wand, which became an international success. The film received the Golden Bear at the Berlinade 2004 and 5 Lola awards (Deutscher Filmpreis). In 2007, he released the second part of the trilogy, Auf der anderen Seite.
Turkey (Cuisine)
Turkish cuisine has a rich food tradition based partly on Middle Eastern traditions in a broad sense, partly on the highly developed cuisine culture associated with the Ottoman court in Istanbul, which for centuries had the resources to experiment with a wealth of ingredients, spices and processing methods. Development has continued in modern Turkey in connection with an extensive restaurant life, especially in the cities.
The kitchen is typically built around menus with soups or many small starters, mezze, which can be pickled vegetables, eggplants in different varieties, seafood, salads, stuffed wine or cabbage leaves, olives, etc. The main courses are beef or lamb, often grilled; a specialty is baked meat dishes. In addition, a lot of fish is eaten. Then follow desserts in the form of sweet cakes or fruit and Turkish coffee or tea, strong and sweet.
The food is refined and varied spicy, but rarely strong; it is a principle that the raw material must be able to be tasted. Commonly used spices are allspice, paprika and cinnamon; in addition, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, yogurt and spicy olive oils are used.
Since most Turks are Muslims, pork or meat that is not ritually slaughtered is not eaten. Rules on not enjoying alcohol are enforced to some extent. In some areas of the province, alcohol is not served at all, while conditions in the big cities of western Turkey are almost the same as in Europe. In recent years, the American fast food chains have spread in fierce competition with the many small shops that sell grilled meat, kebabs and salads wrapped in pancakes.
Turkey (Wine)
Turkey has with over 600,000 ha the fifth largest area of grapes in the world, but only approximately 3% is used for wine. The annual production of approximately 50 mio. bottles are evenly distributed between red and white wine, to which is added a little rosé. Many of the over 1000 local grape varieties are ancient, but most wines today are made from French grapes. 50% is made by the Sea of Marmara, and the 21 large state farms account for 90% of exports. Most famous are the white Trakya and the red Busbağ.
