ISA UCAK
Composition & Rhetoric II
Mrs. Martin
02.09.15

TURKIYE

The country that most caught my attention was the country of Turkey. I was astonished about how rich the country is with its history, culture, and the geographic. I have dug deep and knew this was the country I wanted to write about. Unfortunate to say Americans are not much aware of Turkey and its beauty. Only one fact of Turkey as a country is a bridge connecting the two continents of Europe and Asia is enough to impress. Lets start with the geographic standpoint of this country. Turkey is located in the Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia. The capital of Turkey is the city Ankara. According to the statistics in 2013 the population of Turkey was recorded to be over 74.93 million residents. When it comes to the religious standpoint, a little over 90% of Turkey is Muslim and the other 10% include Catholics, Jews, and other religions. In this essay we will focus more on Turkey’s rich history, admirable culture, and its religion.

Due to the fact that Turkey has a very large amount of history that needs to be covered, this paper will only include a brief summary of the rich history or Turkey. Under the control of the Byzantines, the art and architecture was thriving majorly. In fact one of the greatest architectural buildings of the time was the famously known church called the Hagia Sophia. The Justinian Empire built Hagia Sophia in the 6th century. In the 7th century a new power was rising. That new power was the Arabs. They tried to conquer Constantinople twice however, failed to do so. During the 11th century, people called the Seljuk Turks arose. They were coming from Central Asia and they were headed south in the map. The Seljuk Turks primarily conquered Baghdad in the year 1055 and they won the Byzantine army at the battle of Manzikert in the year of 1071. The Turks introduced Islam and the Turkish culture into Turkey. An estimate number of 1288 men all named Osman created a state within Turkey. This was a very major spark of the birth of the Great Empire, The Ottoman Empire. The glorious empire was widening its borders and in 1453 the Ottomans conquered Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire was completely wiped off. After the proud conquering of Constantinople later named Istanbul, the Turks exceeded its limits into the continent Europe. They conquered the Balkans and later Egypt. At the time, The Ottoman Empire (Turkey) was seen as an enormously powerful empire and a wealthy one as well. Very unfortunate to say, the Ottoman Empire had a dramatic downfall and lost majority of its land. Due to the reason that the Sultan was now powerless, the General Mustafa Kemal formed a national assembly in the capitol of Turkey Ankara. In November 1922 the national assembly put aside the sultanate and Mustafa Kemal became the president of Turkey. He introduced Turkey to a modern, and an improved state. Later years Mustafa Kemal, the founder of Turkey, endorsed education in the country and used a modified version of the Latin alphabet. This was the brief history of Turkey. Of course there is a continuation of this but that would be considered as recent history.

Aside from the large history of this country, it also is equipped with a very rich culture. Just like the country’s history, the culture is also very large. Therefore, this essay will include only some of the most important and the most common information about Turkey’s culture. Lets start off with the historical clothing and the current clothing or appearance culture of Turkey. The historical and the traditional clothing for Turkey was unisex. The women and the men wore almost identical and the clothes did not have a women and a men version. Those clothes were mostly made from leather and felt materials made from sheepskin, fur, and wool. The only difference would be that the women would cover up their hair due the religion requirements. The clothing that is more modernized is now seen as separated