About Turkey (Please refer to your favourite travel guidebook or the internet for a more in-depth
overview)
Capital City
Ankara the second largest city after Istanbul is the capital of Turkey.
Currency
The currency in Turkey is the Turkish lira. The sign is ₺ and the code is TRY;
usually abbreviated as TL. The currency is also used in the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus. One Turkish lira is subdivided into one hundred kurus.
Language
Turkey’s official language, Turkish, and is the first language spoken by 90% of
the 71.1m population. Minority languages include Kurdish, spoken by 6% of the
population, although this isn't recognised as an official language.
Religion
Turkey has been home to all three great revealed religions—Judaism,
Christianity and Islam—for centuries. Today 99% of Turkey’s people today are
Muslim.
Location and size
The Republic of Turkey consists of Anatolia (a large peninsula in Western Asia
and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent) as well as a small area
of eastern Thrace and a few offshore islands in the Aegean Sea. Turkey has a
total area of 780,580 sq km, extending about 1,600 km southeast to northeast
and 650 km Northeast to Southwest. Of the overall area, 97% is in Asia, and 3%
in Europe. Turkey lies at the important Black Sea straits system—the
Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosporus. It is bordered on the North
by the Black Sea, on the Northeast by Georgia and Armenia, on the East by
Iran, on the Southeast by Iraq, on the South by Syria and the Mediterranean
Sea, on the West by the Aegean Sea, and on the Northwest by Greece and
Bulgaria.
Population
The current population of Turkey is 84 000 000 and the country has a
population density of 110 per Km2.
Internet coverage
Internet services are also widely available, particularly in town areas.