Turkey

Turkish (Türkçe [ˈtyɾktʃe], Türk dili, also known as Türkiye Türkçesi 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languages of Cyprus. Significant smaller groups of Turkish speakers also exist in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece, other parts of Europe, the South Caucasus, and some parts of Central Asia, Iraq, and Syria. Turkish is the 18th-most spoken language in the world.

To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish—the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire—spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Perso-Arabic script-based Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with the Latin script-based Turkish alphabet.

The Gallipoli Peninsula (/ɡəˈlɪpəli, ɡæ-/ ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east.

Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name Καλλίπολις (Kallípolis), meaning 'beautiful city', the original name of the modern town of Gelibolu. In antiquity, the peninsula was known as the Thracian Chersonese (Ancient Greek: Θρακικὴ Χερσόνησος, romanized: Thrakiké Chersónesos; Latin: Chersonesus Thracica).

The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge (Turkish: 1915 Çanakkale Köprüsü) is a road suspension bridge in the province of Çanakkale in northwestern Turkey. Situated just south of the coastal towns of Lapseki and Gelibolu, the bridge spans the Dardanelles, about ten kilometres (six miles) south of the Sea of Marmara. The bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world—with a main span of 2,023 m (2.023 km; 1.257 mi), the bridge surpasses the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (1998) in Japan by 32 m (105 ft).

The bridge was officially opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 18 March 2022 after roughly five years of construction. It is the centrepiece of the planned 321-kilometre-long (199 mi) US$2.8 billion O-6 motorway, which will connect the O-3 and O-7 motorways in East Thrace to the O-5 motorway in Anatolia. The year "1915" in the official Turkish name honours an important Ottoman victory in the Gallipoli campaign comprising an unsuccessful Entente naval attack followed by invasions of the Gallipoli peninsula by the forces of Australia, New Zealand, France, and Great Britain, on 25 April 1915 and a second in August; the Entente land forces failed to make significant progress and were evacuated at the end of that year.

The Mediterranean Sea basin is estimated to host more than 10,000 islands, with 2,217 islands larger than 0.01 km. The two main island countries in the region are Malta and Cyprus, while other countries with islands in the Mediterranean Sea include Albania, Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Montenegro, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.

The Southern Sporades (Greek: Νότιες Σποράδες, romanized: Nóties Sporádes) are Greek islands situated between the Cyclades and Turkey. They correspond to the Dodecanese plus a few northern islands (especially Samos, Icaria and Fournoi Korseon).

Agathonísi (Greek: Αγαθονήσι) is a small Greek island and municipality located at the northernmost point of the Dodecanese in Greece. It is surrounded by many smaller islands and is home to two villages, both inland; Megalo Chorio ("Big Village"), and Mikro Chorio ("Small Village"). Between them is the small settlement of Agios Georgios (Saint George), which forms the island's only harbor and consists of a few hotels and restaurants. The island is also locally known as Gaidaro ("Donkey"), or by its ancient name Tragea.

The highest point on the island is 209 metres (686 feet) above sea level. This peak is located close to Mikro Chorio. The island covers an area of 13.5 square kilometres (5.2 square miles). It is made almost entirely of subcrystalline stratified limestones, and is covered with thorny macchia.

Leros (Greek: Λέρος), also called Lero (from the Italian language), is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies 317 kilometres (197 miles; 171 nautical miles) from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by a nine-hour ferry ride or by a 45-minute flight from Athens. It is about 32 kilometres (20 miles) from Turkey. Leros is part of the Kalymnos regional unit. It has a population of 7,992 (2021).

Kastellorizo or Castellorizo (US: /ˌkɑːstəˈlɔːrɪzoʊ/ KAH-stə-LOR-iz-oh; Greek: Καστελλόριζο, romanized: Kastellórizo), officially Megisti (Μεγίστη, Megísti), is a Greek island and municipality of the Dodecanese in the Eastern Mediterranean. It lies roughly 2 kilometres (1 mile) off the south coast of Turkey, about 570 km (354 mi) southeast of Athens and 125 km (78 mi) east of Rhodes, almost halfway between Rhodes and Antalya, and 280 km (170 mi) northwest of Cyprus. Kastellorizo is part of the Rhodes regional unit.

The island has become very popular in recent years among tourists looking for an isolated place in the Dodecanese, thanks also to the 1991 Oscar-winning movie Mediterraneo, by Gabriele Salvatores, which is set on the island during the Second World War.

Farmakonisi (Greek: Φαρμακονήσι) is a small Greek island and community of the Dodecanese, in the Aegean Sea, Greece. It lies in the middle between the chain of the Dodecanese islands in the west, and the coast of Asia Minor (Turkey) in the east. To the north of it are the island of Agathonisi, to the west the islands of Leipsoi, Patmos and Leros, and to the south the islands of Kalymnos and Pserimos. It forms part of the municipality of Leros, and had at the 2021 census a population of 21 inhabitants. Prominent historical monuments on the island include the church of Agios Georgios (Greek: Άγιος Γεώργιος) and the nearby ruins of an ancient Roman temple.

The area of Farmakonisi is 1.48 sq mi (3.8 km).

Pserimos (Greek: Ψέριμος Δωδεκανήσου) is a small Greek island in the Dodecanese chain, lying between Kalymnos and Kos in front of the coast of Turkey. It is part of the municipality of Kálymnos, and reported a population of 80 inhabitants at the 2011 census.

The main industry is tourism, with Greek and other European holidaymakers attracted by its remote location and beaches. There are a number of taverns, some of which offer accommodation.