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by wickedwillie on January 15th, 2004

wickedwillie

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Why is Turkey considered a European country even though the largest part of the country is in Asia?

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  • by si raistrick on July 31st, 2004

    si raistrick

    Since Ataturk made major reforms to Turkey in the early to mid 20th century, Turkey has been a secular state, meaning it cannot be ruled by leaders of any particular religious denomination. Ataturk also revolutionised the language to use european script rather than arabic and employed european designers and architects to work on many of the cities. He is known as the 'founder of modern turkey' and is on all the banknotes. Most of modern Turkey's culture and aspirations still reflect Ataturk and his vision.

    Ataturk strongly believed that Turkey should be a part of Europe, and current Turkish politics also takes this overall view. As to whether or not Turkey is generally considered a part of Europe from the European point of view is a subject of hot debate, and I think it would be fair to say that opinion within Europe and the EU is currently divided.

    Historically, Turkey is surprisingly European, for example Istanbul used to be called Constantinople, after the Roman emperor constantine, and was the capital of the Roman Empire for many years, even more important to the Romans than Rome itself.

    Turkey is, and always has been a crossroads between Africa/the middle east in the South and East, and Europe and Russia in the North and West, although for the last 50 years Turkey's eyes have been mostly Westwards.

    Comments

    • The EU isn't the only one with divided opinions; not all Turkish people agree with the government

      Too Much Time On My Hands

      by Too Much Time On My Hands on September 6th, 2004

    1 comment | Post one | Permalink

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