TurkeyTurkey (Türkiye, ˈtyɾcije), officially the Republic of Türkiye (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti ˈtyɾcije dʒumˈhuːɾijeti), is a country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in West Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is off the south coast.
Balıkesir ProvinceBalıkesir Province () is a province in northwestern Turkey with coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean. Its adjacent provinces are Çanakkale to the west, İzmir to the southwest, Manisa to the south, Kütahya to the southeast, and Bursa to the east. The provincial capital is Balıkesir. Most of the province lies in the Marmara Region except the southern parts of Bigadiç Edremit, Kepsut, İvrindi, Savaştepe and Sındırgı districts and ones of Ayvalık, Burhaniye, Dursunbey, Gömeç and Havran, that bound the Aegean Region.
EskişehirEskişehir (USˌɛskɪʃəˈhɪər , esˈciʃehiɾ; from eski 'old' and şehir 'city') is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the Porsuk River, 792 m above sea level, where it overlooks the fertile Phrygian Valley. In the nearby hills one can find hot springs. The city is to the west of Ankara, to the southeast of Istanbul and to the northeast of Kütahya.
AyvalıkAyvalık (ˈajvaɫɯk) is a municipality and district of Balıkesir Province, Turkey. Its area is 305 km2, and its population is 74,030 (2022). It is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey. The town centre is connected to Cunda Island by a causeway and is surrounded by the archipelago of Ayvalık Islands, which face the nearby Greek island of Lesbos Ayvalık ('Quince Orchard') was an ancient Aeolian Greek port-town, called Kydonies (Κυδωνίες). Its name was changed to Ayvalık in the Ottoman era.
Atatürk's reformsAtatürk's Reforms () were a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social, and economic policy changes, designed to convert the new Republic of Turkey into a secular, modern nation-state, implemented under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in accordance with the Kemalist ideology. His political party, the Republican People's Party (CHP) ran Turkey as a one-party-state, implemented these reforms starting in 1923.
Ottoman architectureOttoman architecture is the architectural style that developed under the Ottoman Empire. It first emerged in northwestern Anatolia in the late 13th century and developed from earlier Seljuk Turkish architecture, with influences from Byzantine and Iranian architecture along with other architectural traditions in the Middle East. Early Ottoman architecture experimented with multiple building types over the course of the 13th to 15th centuries, progressively evolving into the classical Ottoman style of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Turkish National MovementThe Turkish National Movement (Türk Ulusal Hareketi) included political and military activities of the Turkish revolutionaries that resulted in the creation and shaping of the modern Republic of Turkey, as a consequence of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the subsequent occupation of Constantinople and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies under the terms of the Armistice of Mudros. The Turkish revolutionaries rebelled against this partitioning and against the Treaty of Sèvres, signed in 1920 by the Ottoman government, which partitioned portions of Anatolia itself.
Sea of MarmaraThe Sea of Marmara, also known as the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey’s European and Asian sides. It has an area of , and its dimensions are . Its greatest depth is . The Sea of Marmara is named after the largest island on its south side, called Marmara Island because it is rich in marble (Greek μάρμᾰρον (mármaron) "marble").
BursaBursa (Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, بروسه) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of Turkey's automotive production takes place in Bursa. As of 2019, the Metropolitan Province was home to 3,056,120 inhabitants, 2,161,990 of whom lived in the 3 city urban districts (Osmangazi, Yıldırım and Nilüfer) plus Gürsu and Kestel.
Mehmed IIMehmed II (محمد ثانى; II. Mehmed, icinˈdʒi ˈmehmed; 30 March 1432 - 3 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (Ebū'l-fetḥ; Fâtih Sultan Mehmed), was an Ottoman sultan who ruled from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, he defeated the crusade led by John Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce per the Treaties of Edirne and Szeged.