Turkey

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye [ˈtyɾcije]), officially the Republic of Turkey,[a] is a country straddling Southeastern Europe and Western Asia. It shares borders with Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; I

raq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; and the Aegean Sea to the west. Istanbul, the largest city, is the financial centre, and Ankara is the capital. Turks form the vast majority of the nation’s population, and Kurds are the largest minority.[4]

One of the world’s earliest permanently settled regions, present-day Turkey was home to important Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe, and was inhabited by ancient civilisations such as the Hattians and Anatolian peoples.[11][12][13] Hellenization started in the area during the era of Alexander the Great and continued into the Byzantine era.[12][14] The Seljuk Turks began migrating in the 11th century

, and the Sultanate of Rum ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into small Turkish principalities.[15] Beginning in the late 13th century, the Ottomans started uniting the principalities and conquering the Balkans, and the Turkification of Anatolia increased during the Ottoman period. After Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453, Ottoman expansion continued under Selim I. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire became a global power.[11][16][17] From the late 18th century onwards