Turkey is a vast land where East meets West in a rich mix of cultures, languages and religions and its natural attractions echo this diversity."

From the tranquil Turquoise Coast to the remote majesty of Mt. Ararat,from the fantasy rock formations of Cappadocia to peaceful river banks of Euphrates you will never stopped being impressed by the changing landscapes. Exploring legendary sites such as Ephesus and Troy, sunbathing on board a gulet in the calm Mediterranean Sea and strolling through the alleyways among the four thousand or so shops of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar.. But wherever and whenever you go, whatever you do, you can be sure of a warm and friendly welcome.and these experiences will ensure that you would have unforgettable memories to have and share..
I guarantee you'll quickly become a convert to ' Cay' ( tea),Türk kahvesi(Turkish coffee) and Turkish food but I can't possibly do it justice here - you'll simply have to find out for yourself!"

Huseyin Aydin
Destination Manager

 

History…

Modern Turkey is on the lands of Anatolia;the land of fertility and mother goddess and Asia Minor.

It is one of the oldest continually inhabited regions in the world, and it has repeatedly served as a battleground for foreign powers. The earliest major empire in the area was that of the HITTITES, from the 18th through the 13th century BC. Subsequently, the Phrygians, an Indo-European people, achieved ascendancy until their kingdom was destroyed by the CIMMERIANS in the 7th century BC. The most powerful of Phrygia's successor states was LYDIA. Coastal Anatolia (IONIA) meanwhile was settled by Greeks. The entire area was overrun by the Persians during the 6th and 5th centuries and fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BC. Anatolia was subsequently divided into a number of small Hellenistic kingdoms (including CAPPADOCIA, and PERGAMUM), all of which had succumbed to Rome by the mid-1st century BC. In AD 324 the Roman emperor CONSTANTINE I chose Constantinople, now Istanbul, as the capital of the Roman Empire. It subsequently became the capital of the Eastern Roman or BYZANTINE EMPIRE.

In 1055 a group of Central Asiatic Turks, the SELJUKS, conquered Baghdad and established a Middle Eastern and Anatolian empire. When this empire was broken up by the Mongol invasion, one of the remaining local powers became known as the Ottoman dynasty, after its leader OSMAN I. The OTTOMAN EMPIRE spread from northwestern Anatolia and captured Constantinople in 1453. At the peak of their power the Ottomans controlled much of the eastern Mediterranean. The Ottomans had a sophisticated system of internal administration and also organized the first standing army in Europe.

As the Ottoman Empire began to collapse under its own weight in the 18th and 19th centuries, it became a battleground for rival European powers, wedged as it was between the Russian and Austrian empires. By the outbreak of World War I the Ottoman Empire had essentially been divided into spheres of influence by the great European powers, but a reform movement was active within the Ottoman Empire itself. The YOUNG TURKS brought about a revolution in 1908 and were successful in introducing civil and social reforms of far-reaching consequence.

In 1922, however, the Turks, led by Mustafa Kemal (later known as Kemal ATATURK) and Ismet INONU, defeated the armies occupying Anatolia. Inonu then won what has been called "the greatest diplomatic victory in history" when the Treaty of Lausanne (see LAUSANNE, TREATY OF) recognized the Republic of Turkey. The republic was declared on Oct. 29, 1923, and Ataturk was elected its first president. Turkey remained neutral in World War II until it joined the Allies in February 1945. Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952.

Turkish arts

Islamic Art varies substantially from Western Art due primarily to restrictions in the Koran on depicting the human form. Rather than being representational of the profane world, the perfection of Ottoman art lies in the pure balance of color, line and rhythm in geometric patterns and designs.

Of the Ottoman arts, Calligraphy was the most important. Such mundane items as tax reports, property deeds and imperial edicts became exquisite works of art. This aptly reflects the bureaucratic nature of the empire, with its stress on writing and registering. Turkish calligraphers contributed to the development of new and more ornate styles of calligraphy. Each of the sultans had their own monogram in stylized script, called a Tugra. Sultan Ahmet III and Sultan Bayezit II were skilled calligraphers. In 1928 Ataturk introduced the Latin alphabet, sounding the death knell of the art of Arabic calligraphy in Turkey. Many of the greatest works were preserved in the extensive Ottoman archives and can be seen at Topkapi Palace and Ibrahim Pasha Museum (Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts).

Marbled paper or "Ebru" is an art form that was developed in Turkey in the fifteenth century. Mineral and vegetable dyes are sprinkled on water mixed with gum and the gall fluid of cattle, over which a sheet of paper is laid, creating unique and unrepeatable patterns. Traditionally, this paper was used for borders on Ottoman panels and miniatures, and for the inside covers and flyleaves of books. Today mass-produced marbled paper is used for such purposes, though the art of marbling continues.

TURKISH BRACELETS

The bracelet is a very ancient form of human adornment, and the designs of the earliest surviving examples suggest that, like so many other types of jewelry, they were originally a form of talisman or magic charm. The first bracelets were made of wood, stone, and soft metals occurring naturally in their metallic state, primarily gold and copper .As technology developed over the millennia it became possible to extract and work silver and other metals. Today bracelets are as popular as ever. Stylistically they fall into two categories, what we might call the classical imitating old forms, and modern designs in abstract and original styles.

All women, from the queen in her palace to the rural woman in her cottage, whatever their income or cultural level, have always enjoyed wearing bracelets. But apart from their decorative qualities, bracelets have had other functions. For example, copper bracelets are still believed to relieve pains in the joints, and in former times bracelets containing agate, a stone regarded as sacred amongst the Turks were believed to protect the weaver against bites by venomous animals. Bloodstones, meanwhile, were believed to stop bleeding.

Gold bracelets studded with precious stones were preferred by the wealthy, but silver was also used to make some of the finest bracelets in which the colored stones showed up against the white metal to wonderful effect. Silver puts up with the forging process with all the patience of a dervish suffering oppression and deprivation. When red hot it is drawn out into wire, or placed on a bed of pitch and designs hammered into the surface. Studded with stones, patterns chiseled out for niello designs, gold plated using mercury, or decorated with tiny silver drops to produce the jeweled effect known as Güverse, the bracelet completes its trial by fire on the forge and is ready to encircle the wrist of a loved one.

A wide range of other techniques are used to make or decorate silver bracelets. One of the loveliest is filigree, and similar types woven with circular or flat silver wire. Another is engraving. Often two or more techniques are combined in a single bracelet, and some techniques are associated with the place where they are commonly made, such as Trabzon Hasiri - a type of filigree bracelet, Kayseri Burmasi and Halep isi.

Although in the past hundreds of different types of bracelet were made, often the same craftsman making several types or developing innovations of his own, relatively few antique Turkish bracelets have survived. Even the names by which they were known are often not remembered today. As well as types known after the cities where they were most commonly made, there were names describing the forms, such as kabara (boss), kubbeli (domed), zincirli (chain), koruklu and tankli (also known as bascavus) bracelets.

Bracelets worn around the ankle are called halhal, an Arabic word meaning ankle. These are worn in many countries from Africa to India, including the eastern and southeast parts of Turkey. Traditionally halhal were made from a string of hollow spheres containing tiny metal beads, so that they made a pleasant tinkling sound as well as looking attractive. Rural women used to their children so that when they were busy working in the fields and orchards they could hear where they were playing even when they were out of sight, and would be warned by the sound if they strayed off.

Today, there are many decorative bracelets made with Nazar Bonjuk beads as well.

Nazar Boncuk beads

Nazar Boncugu in Turkish refers to a very traditional item in Turkey, it's a blue bead used as a talisman which is beleived that it would protect you against the evil-eye. The evil-eye superstition comes from very early times and it can be found in most of the cultures in the world. To prevent this unfortunate thing, Turks invented a blue bead which looks like an eye that looks straight back at the spell-caster. So this would guard you from any negative energy or from jealous looks of others for example.

Nazar bead is a huge tradition in Turkey, anywhere you go or any people you talk to can show you a bead in his pocket, or at home, or in his car etc. And if this Nazar bead is broken for whatever reason, it's beleived that it worked and protected you from some evil-eye that probabily you are unaware of at that moment.

The Nazar bead is usually made of blue glass, with white and yellow or white and blue again circles inside, that would be a typical Nazar Bonjuk. But there are other colors too, fashionable ones such as white color with blue circles inside. However, the blue is always the traditional color of this talisman. The Nazar bead has usually round shape, but it comes in all sizes and all kinds of shapes and decorations; sometimes as a keychain, or a photo frame, or a bracelet, with inscriptions, a refrigerator magnet, and so on. It became an art today, it's a part of the Turkish culture.

Nazar Boncuk doesn't have any religious significance, or it doesn't bring good luck, not a luck charme neither, it's just a pure belief against a superstition in order to ward off the danger of the "evil eye".

Flora & Fauna

The wide variation in topography and climate; the fact that Turkey is surrounded by four seas, each with its own ecological constitution; and the relatively late development of industry and agriculture has resulted in an phenomenal wealth of plant and animal life within Turkey’s borders. This extraordinary degree of biodiversity was augmented during the Ice Age, when northern animals strayed south seeking warmer climes, and many remained in their new homelands. Turkey is also situated on the main migratory routes for birds between Asia, Africa and Europe, thus increasing the number of species found here.

Anatolia as a Gene Centre

Turkey has almost as many species of wild flowers as the rest of Europe combined; of the over 9000 species so far identified more than one third are native to the country, many found nowhere else on earth. Turkey is regarded as an important gene centre for many cultivated crops, whose wild ancestors can still be found growing in Anatolia. The defence mechanisms and disease resistence of the wild forms tend to be more highly developed than those of the cultivated plants and can be transmitted through biotechnology. The wild forms remain a fundamental reference source when developing new and improved strains. Turkey is the home of over thirty species of wild wheat, along with barley, chickpeas, lentils, apricots, figs, cherries and many types of nuts. A large number of ornamental flowers were cultivated from Turkish wild forms, including most famously the tulip but also the crocus, snowdrop, and lily.

Anatolia is similarly rich in fauna, with over 80,000 species. It is the original homeland for the fallow deer, the pheasant and the domestic sheep. Lions, tigers and leopards once prowled freely across the Anatolian steppe. Today, the mountains and national parks still abound with wildlife, such as brown bears, wild boar, lynx, wolves, water buffalo, the occasional leopard and over 400 species of birds, several of them endangered. Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean coasts provide refuge for the endangered monk seal andthe logger-head turtle. Of the world's 300 remaining monk seals, 50 live in Turkish waters.

Floral Regions

Much of the coastal and more temperate areas of Turkey are covered in maquis (dwarf forest) or Red Pines, which require little water to tide them over dry summers. They are, however extremely susceptible to the forest fires which destroy around 20,000 hectares of Turkey's forests annually. At higher altitudes woods of plack pine, fir and cedar grow. The mild Mediterranean climate enables the valleys and lowlands to grow a range of tropical fruit. As tastes in urban centers broaden to include more 'exotic' fruit, the market garden industry has responded by expanding its range which in recent years has included homegrown kiwis, bananas, avocado and mushrooms. The Aegean region in particular is known for its olives, grapes, cotton and tobacco.

The higher slopes of the verdant Black Sea region are thick with beech, oak, maple, alder, Scots Pine, and Oriental Spruce, while the narrow coastal strip and lower slopes are used to grow tea, hazelnuts, flax, maize, cherries and plums. All of these plants are suited to a temperate climate with plenty of rain -- never a problem in the Black Sea region.

Steppe is the most common landscape in Turkey today, stretching all the way from Thrace to the Iran/Iraq border. Thousands of years of deforestation and erosion has increased it from 15% to 35% of the total land area of Turkey. Steppe is characterised by the diversity of life which it sustains, especially in spring, when the rolling landscape is carpeted in a multicoloured profusion of delicate featured but hardy flowers, including daisies, crocuses, violets and poppies. This landscape has been the inspiration of carpet and kilim weavers for centuries. Much of Turkey's western and central steppe is used for the cultivation of cereals, sunflowers and sugar beet, as well as pasture land for large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. The further east one moves the more sparse and barren the landscape becomes, with alternating arid, semi-desert lowlands and towering mountain peaks.

Wetlands are extremely valuable ecosystems which are found in abundance in Turkey. Although they do not have the diversity of the steppe, they make up for this in an organic productivity as high as tropical rain forests. By international definition, there are nineteen Grade A wetlands in Turkey, five of which (Kusgolu, Goksu Delta, Sultansazligi, Lake Burdur and Lake Seyfe) are registered as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. Rushes and reed, buttercups, water mint, waterlilies and tamarisks are commonly seen plants while the waters teem with plankton, algae and water weeds. As a result of this rich food source, the wetlands are inhabited by large flocks of birds, who require hugh amounts of food relative to body weight in order to survive. Species found include flamingos, wild ducks and geese, teal, herons and tern, and numerous endangered species such as the Dalmatian pelican, pygmy cormorant and the slender billed curlew. The Southeast is similarily a haven for threatened species. Biricek is one of only two places left on earth where the bald ibis nests.

Environmental preservation and conservation is in its infancy in Turkey, but many individuals and increasingly the government are aware of the incredible natural assets which Turkey posesses, and of the urgency of protecting them. Many international conventions have been signed and many projects are under way to protect threatened species and habitats. The caretta caretta turtle almost lost its
breeding ground at Dalyan to a hotel development, but public outrage and international attention had the area declared an Environment Protection Zone. Other areas of the coast are also being protected and studies of their habitats undertaken. Education and research programmes are being put in place by a number of environmental protection organisations.

Cultural and natural heritage

An important subject to be dwelt upon in the world and in Turkey too, is the preservation of cultural values, so that these can be handed down to future generations.

Turkey is lucky in that it has a richness and variety in cultural and natural resources and the preservation and development of these have been stipulated by law. Many organizations have been set up in connection with this subject and preservation has now become a subject that concerns many organizations, institutions and people.

Turkey has approximately 2,700 historical ruins some dating back to prehistoric times and 41,000 works of culture.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) encourages the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding and universal value to humanity. World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located. In the UNESCO "World Cultural Heritage List" there are 9 heritage sites from Turkey, out of 830 properties around the world (644 cultural, 162 natural and 24 mixed properties in 138 member countries). These are:

• Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia (1985)
• Great (Ulu) Mosque and Hospital (Darüssifa) of Divrigi in Sivas (1985)
• Historic Areas of Istanbul (1985)
• Hattusha (Bogazköy) - Hittite Capital (1986)
• Nemrut Mountain in Adiyaman (1987)
• Hierapolis - Pamukkale (1988)
• Xanthos - Letoon near Antalya (1988)
• City of Safranbolu (1994)
• Archaeological Site of Troy (1998)

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