1.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
2.
Provinces of Turkey
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Turkey is divided into 81 provinces. Each province is divided into a number of different districts, the provincial government is seated in the central district. The central area usually bears the name of the province, there are only two exceptions to this naming scheme, Antakya of Hatay province İzmit of Kocaeli province A province is administered by an appointed governor from the ministry of interior. Below is a list of the 81 provinces of Turkey, sorted according to their license plate code, after Zonguldak the ordering is not alphabetical but in the order of the creation of provinces, as these provinces were created more recently and thus their plate numbers were assigned thereafter. The numbers of the ISO code, the first two digits of the registration plates of Turkey and the first digits of the postal codes in Turkey are the same
3.
Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
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The Justice and Development Party, abbreviated AKP in Turkish, is a conservative political party in Turkey. Developed from the tradition of moderate Islamism, the party is the largest in Turkey, the party held a majority of seats for 13 years, but lost it in June 2015, only to regain it in the snap election of November 2015. Its electoral success has been mirrored in the three elections held since the partys establishment, coming first in 2004,2009 and 2014 respectively. The current party leader Binali Yıldırım is the Prime Minister of Turkey, the party has for a long time been supported by the Cemaat Movement of exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, whose influence in the judiciary has helped to weaken the opposition against the AKP. Having been an observer in the center-right European Peoples Party since 2005, it left to join the eurosceptic Alliance of Conservatives. Since then, the party has brought about tighter regulations on use, abortion and alcohol consumption, having temporarily blocked access to Twitter. Especially after the government corruption scandal involving several AKP ministers in 2013, the AKP favours a strong centralized leadership, having long advocated a presidential system of government and significantly reduced the number of elected local government positions in 2013. The AK Party was established by a range of politicians of various political parties. The core of the party was formed from the reformist faction of the Islamist Virtue Party, including such as Abdullah Gül. A second founding group consisted of members of the social conservative Motherland Party who had close to Turgut Özal, such as Cemil Çiçek. Some members of the True Path Party, such as Hüseyin Çelik and Köksal Toptan, some members, such as Kürşad Tüzmen had nationalist or Ertuğrul Günay, had center-left backgrounds while representatives of the nascent Muslim left current were largely excluded. In addition a number of people joined a political party for the first time, such as Ali Babacan, Selma Aliye Kavaf, Egemen Bağış. All of these people joined Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to found the new party, although the party is described as an Islamist party in some media, party officials reject those claims. These characterizations do not reflect the truth, and they sadden us, Çelik added, The AK Party is a conservative democratic party. The AK Partys conservatism is limited to moral and social issues, also in a separate speech made in 2005, Prime Minister Erdoğan stated, We are not an Islamic party, and we also refuse labels such as Muslim-democrat. Erdoğan went on to say that the AK Partys agenda is limited to conservative democracy, however, the partys leadership has also rejected this label. In 2005, the party was granted membership in the European Peoples Party. In November 2013, the party left the EPP to join the Alliance of European Conservatives
4.
Eastern European Time
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Eastern European Time is one of the names of UTC+02,00 time zone,2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The zone uses daylight saving time, so that it uses UTC+03,00 during the summer, a number of African countries use UTC+02,00 all year long, where it is called Central Africa Time, although Egypt and Libya also use the term Eastern European Time. The following countries, parts of countries, and territories use Eastern European Time all year round, Egypt, since 21 April 2015, used EEST from 1988–2010, Kaliningrad Oblast, since 26 October 2014, also used EET in years 1945 and 1991–2011. Libya, since 27 October 2013, switched from Central European Time, used year-round EET from 1980–1981, 1990–1996 and 1998–2012. Belarus, in years 1922–30 and 1990–2011 In Poland this time was used in years 1918–22, in time of World War II, Germany implemented MET in east occupied territories. Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol used EET as part of Ukraine in years 1991-94 and 1996-2014 Turkey, used EET in years 1910-1978, now uses year round DST timezone called Further-eastern European Time or Turkey Time. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus also uses FET, sometimes, due to its use on Microsoft Windows, FLE Standard Time or GTB Standard Time are used to refer to Eastern European Time. Since political, in addition to geographical, criteria are used in the drawing of time zones. The EET time zone, were it drawn by purely geographical terms, the easternmost part of the Republic of Macedonia, including the city of Strumica. The absolutely easternmost part of Serbia, in the Pirot District, the easternmost town in Norway, Vardø, lies at 30°51 E, which is located east of even of the central meridian of UTC+2, i. e. east of Istanbul and Alexandria. The Norwegian-Russian border is the place where CET borders Moscow time. There is a point at the Norway-Finland-Russia tripoint, near the town of Rayakoski. Belarus is located between 23°11′E and 32°47′E and is fully located with the physical UTC+2 area, but it uses UTC+3 year around. This also includes the city of Anapa, at the westernmost tip of the Krasnodar Krai near the entrance to the Sea of Azov, the Norway–Russia–Finland tri-zone point at Muotkavaara is surrounded by three different times in winter, two in summer. It had three time zones year-around before 2014, two of the four tripoints of Belarus and the tripoint of the Kaliningrad Region are surrounded by three different times in winter
5.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
6.
Eastern European Summer Time
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Eastern European Summer Time is one of the names of UTC+3 time zone,3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries. During the winter periods, Eastern European Time is used, since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, previously the rules were not uniform across the European Union. Syria, since 1983 Ukraine, Moscow Summer Time in years 1981–89, regular EEST from 1992 In one year 1991 EEST was used also in Moscow, egypt has previously used EEST from 1957–2010 and 2014–2015. Turkey, has previously used EEST from 1970-1978 EEST, Moscow Summer Time from 1979–1983, and EEST from 1985-2016
7.
Vehicle registration plates of Turkey
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Turkish car number plates are license plates found on Turkish vehicles. The plates use a numbering system associated with the geographical info. In Turkey, license plates are made by authorized private workshops, the license plate is rectangular in shape and made of aluminum. On the left, there is the country code TR in a 4×10 cm blue stripe like in EU countries, the text is in black characters on white background, and for official vehicles white on black. On all vehicles two plates have to be present, being one in front and the other in rear except motorcycles, the serial letters use the Turkish letters except Ç, Ş, İ, Ö, Ü and Ğ. The blue stripe was introduced after the entry of Turkey to the European Customs Union in 1995, since then, the blue stripe area is often modified by car owners. The predominant modification of this sorts is to replace the color with red and put up the crescent. This type of modification is in the area of the law. Additionally, vehicle inspection stickers are often stuck on this area, 15×24 cm in rear only for motorbikes, motorcycles and tractors with rubber wheels, 11×52 cm in front and rear for cars, 21×32 cm rear available for off-roadss, vans, trucks and busses. The size is 15×30 cm for imported vehicles if the plate does not fit. On the other hand, a Dolmuş in Eskişehir has a plate of the form 26 M9999,99 - two digits prefix denoting the location, shows the province code number of the main residence of car holder. There are 81 provinces as listed below, X/XX/XXX – one, 9999/999/99 – four, three or two digits, depending on the number of letters before, not exceeding six letters and digits altogether. The ones after the original 67 provinces are newer additions, therefore, these province names go chronologically. Media related to License plates of Turkey at Wikimedia Commons License plates of Turkey Location codes on a map and more detailed info about district codes
8.
Humid subtropical climate
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A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterised by hot, usually humid summers and mild to cool winters. It normally lies on the southeast side of all continents, generally between latitudes 25° and 40° and it tends to be located at coastal or near coastal locations. However, in cases it extends inland, most notably in China. Under the Köppen climate classification, subtropical climates are found in the warmest parts of his Warm Temperate climates or Cfa and this climate features mean temperatures in the coldest month between 0 °C and 18 °C and mean temperatures in the warmest month 22 °C or higher. However, while some climatologists have opted to describe this type as a humid subtropical climate Köppen himself never used this term. The humid subtropical climate classification was created under the Trewartha Climate classification. The Trewartha system was a 1966 update of the Köppen climate classification and this was seen to effectively separate temperate climates like London or New York City from true subtropical locations like Brisbane or Savannah for example. Rainfall often shows a peak, especially where monsoons are well developed, as in Southeast Asia. Most summer rainfall occurs during thunderstorms that build up due to the surface heating and strong subtropical sun angle. Weak tropical lows that move in from adjacent warm tropical oceans, winter rainfall is often associated with large storms in the westerlies that have fronts that reach down into subtropical latitudes. However, many subtropical climates such as southeast Asia or Florida have very dry winters, with frequent brush fires, in Africa, the humid subtropical climates are found in two separate areas on the southern hemisphere of the continent. The Cwa climate is found over a portion of the interior of the Middle. Some lower portions of the Ethiopian Highlands also have this climate, the climate is also found in the narrow coastal sections of southern and eastern South Africa, primarily in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape provinces. South Africas version of this climate features heavy oceanic influences resulting in milder temperatures. This is particularly evident in its winters when temperatures do not drop as low as in other regions within the humid subtropical category. Locations in Asia with a subtropical climate differ from those in other continents in that they often have marked seasonal differences in precipitation. Cities near the boundary of this zone include Hong Kong, Hanoi. At Hainan Island and in Taiwan, the transitions from subtropical into fully tropical
9.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
10.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
11.
Black Sea Region
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The Black Sea Region is a geographical region of Turkey. 4,137,166 people live in cities and 4,301,747 people in villages and this makes it the only one of the seven regions of Turkey in which more people live in rural rather than urban areas. The Black Sea region has a steep, rocky coast with rivers that cascade through the gorges of the coastal ranges, a few larger rivers, those cutting back through the Pontic Mountains, have tributaries that flow in broad, elevated basins. The higher slopes facing northwest tend to be densely forested, because of these natural conditions, the Black Sea coast historically has been isolated from Anatolia. The mild, damp climate of the Black Sea coast makes commercial farming profitable. Running from Zonguldak in the west to Rize in the east, the Samsun area, close to the midpoint, is a major tobacco-growing region, east of it are numerous citrus groves. East of Samsun, the area around Trabzon is world-renowned for the production of hazelnuts, all cultivable areas, including mountain slopes wherever they are not too steep, are sown or used as pasture. The western part of the Black Sea region, especially the Zonguldak area, is a center of coal mining, the North Anatolian Mountains in the north are an interrupted chain of folded highlands that generally parallel the Black Sea coast. In the west, the mountains tend to be low, with elevations rarely exceeding 1,500 meters, lengthy, trough-like valleys and basins characterize the mountains. Rivers flow from the mountains toward the Black Sea, the southern slopes—facing the Anatolian Plateau—are mostly unwooded, but the northern slopes contain dense growths of both deciduous and evergreen trees. Black Sea region has a climate, with high and evenly distributed rainfall the year round. At the coast, summers are warm and humid, and winters are cool, the Black Sea coast receives the greatest amount of precipitation and is the only region of Turkey that receives high precipitation throughout the year. The eastern part of that coast averages 2,500 millimeters annually which is the highest precipitation in the country, snowfall is quite common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two, and it can be heavy once it snows. The water temperature in the whole Turkish Black Sea coast is always cool and fluctuates between 8° and 20 °C throughout the year
12.
Ankara
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Ankara, formerly known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of the Republic of Turkey. With a population of 4,587,558 in the center and 5,150,072 in its province. Ankara was Atatürks headquarters from 1920 and has been the capital of the Republic since its founding in 1923, the government is a prominent employer, but Ankara is also an important commercial and industrial city, located at the center of Turkeys road and railway networks. The city gave its name to the Angora wool shorn from Angora rabbits, the long-haired Angora goat, the area is also known for its pears, honey, and muscat grapes. Ankara is an old city with various Hittite, Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine. The historical center of town is a hill rising 150 m over the left bank of the Ankara Çayı, a tributary of the Sakarya River. The hill remains crowned by the ruins of the old citadel, as with many ancient cities, Ankara has gone by several names over the ages. It has been identified with the Hittite cult center Ankuwaš, although remains a matter of debate. In classical antiquity and during the period, the city was known as Ánkyra in Greek and Ancyra in Latin. Following its annexation by the Seljuk Turks in 1073, the city known in many European languages as Angora. The form Angora is preserved in the names of breeds of different kinds of animals. The oldest settlements in and around the city center of Ankara belonged to the Hattic civilization which existed during the Bronze Age and was gradually absorbed c, 2000–1700 BC by the Indo-European Hittites. In Phrygian tradition, King Midas was venerated as the founder of Ancyra, but Pausanias mentions that the city was far older. Persian sovereignty lasted until the Persians defeat at the hands of Alexander the Great who conquered the city in 333 BC, Alexander came from Gordion to Ankara and stayed in the city for a short period. After his death at Babylon in 323 BC and the subsequent division of his empire among his generals, Ankara, by that time the city also took its name Ἄγκυρα which, in slightly modified form, provides the modern name of Ankara. Other centers were Pessinos, todays Balhisar, for the Trocmi tribe, the city was then known as Ancyra. The Celtic element was probably relatively small in numbers, an aristocracy which ruled over Phrygian-speaking peasants. However, the Celtic language continued to be spoken in Galatia for many centuries
13.
Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea
14.
Turkish language
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Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
15.
Kastamonu Province
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Kastamonu Province is one of the provinces of Turkey, in the Black Sea region to the north of the country. It is surrounded by Sinop to the east, Bartın, Karabük to the west, Çankırı to the south, Çorum to the southeast, the province has an area of 13,108 km², and a population of 322,759 people. The population was 361,222 people in 2010, the population density is 24.62 inhabitants per km². The province center has a population of 64,606, Kastamonu province is divided into 20 districts, It is not definitively known when Kastamonu was first founded. However, some dating back to the Early Middle Ages refer to the province. There are also some findings that date to about 100,000 years that suggest the region was inhabited at that time. There are theories that the word Kastamonu derives from Castra Comnenus, with the weakening of the Macedon kings, the Paphlagonia and Bithynia regions were engulfed by the newly formed Pontus kingdom. After the fall of the Pontus kingdom in first century BC, the capital center of this new city-state was Pompeiopolis, of which the remains still stand near Tasköprü District in Kastamonu. The region then fell under the hegemony of the Seljuq dynasty, followed by the Danishmends, Ottoman sultan Mehmed II incorporated the region back into the empire in 1461. During the Ottoman reign, the boundaries were expanded up to reach Constantinople. The sultans heirs were often sent to rule the province as governors to gain experience, when the Greeks noticed this activity, the İnebolu port was bombarded from the sea on 9 June 1921. The province is covered with forests, thanks to the mild Black Sea climate. Ilgaz National Park, where a micro-climate dominates due to the mountainous terrain, there is also a ski center with accommodation facilities located near the park. Ilgaz Mountain dominates the south of the province where hiking and whitewater rafting is possible at the Ilgaz Stream, the Ilgarini cave at Cide, the Alinca underground cave at Küre and the International Equestrian Tourism Center of Daday are other notable attractions. A 12th-century Byzantine castle, the 13th-century Atabey Mosque and the Ibni Neccar Mosque also located in the province, the Mahmut Bey Mosque, located in the village of Kasaba is known for its elegant wood carvings. Gideros Bay,13 km to Cide, is a resort with pensions. The ruins of the Roman city-state Pompeiopolis are found near Taşköprü, Kastamonu also has many mansions, which are traditionally built with an architectural style unique to this region. Many of these mansions have been restored following a 2000 declaration by the government to preserve the historical texture
16.
Zonguldak Province
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Zonguldak Province is a province along the western Black Sea coast region of Turkey. The province is 3.481 km² in size and has a population of 619,703 Its adjacent provinces are Düzce to the southwest, Bolu to the south, Karabük to the southeast, and Bartın to the east. Since the discovery of coal in the province, Zonguldak has become a coal production center. The Ereğli Museum, located in the town of Ereğli, is the museum in the city. Ereğli was founded during the 6th century B. C. by the Mariandynians, Ereğli was an important commercial wharf, which takes its name from the famous mythic hero, Hercules. The city preserved its importance during the Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, many natural and sandy beaches may be found along a fifty-mile stretch of the coast. The boroughs of the city are used as recreation areas for leisurely hikes by regional residents. Boroughs are artificial lakes intended to provide drinking water or serve other industrial purposes and these boroughs are, Ulutan Dam Lake at the center, Kızılcapınar Dam Lake, and Gülüç Dam Lake in Ereğli, Dereköy Pond at Çatalağzı borough and Çobanoğlu Pond at Karapınar borough. The most important waterfalls of the city are, Harmankaya at Center Kokaksu site, Değirmenağzı at Kozlu borough and Güneşli waterfalls at Ereğli, cehennemağzı Cave, Gökgöl, Kızılelma, İnağzı and Cumayanı are the notable caverns. The first specimen of Turkish coal was brought from Ereğli to Istanbul in 1822, however, in 1829, another specimen of coal was brought to Istanbul by Uzun Mehmet, a sailor and native of the village of Kestaneci, near Ereğli. This time attention was given to the discovery and the received a reward of a life pension. The first miners requested and delivered from the Austrian Government are the Austrian Croats known to have employed in the Ereğli Coal Mines. An investigation of Hazine-i Hassa records in the Ottoman archives shows that mining activities in the Ereğli Basin started in February 1841. This is confirmed by an article published in the 14 February 1841 issue of Ceride-i Havadis. Various places mentioned in the records are not known for sure, records of the period after the Sultan’s participation in the firm mention coal mines administered by the Company in Bezekli, Amasra, Karaburun areas and various places. After 1865, one of various places is named as Zone-Goul-Dagh or Zon-Goul-Dak. 1893-189689 AQ1704 Etudes et projets des ports de Zongouldak et de Koslou par A. Guérard, 1891-189789 AQ1705 Projet du port de Zongouldak. 189789 AQ1706 Projet du port de Zongouldak, 1897-189889 AQ1707 Projet du port de Zongouldak
17.
Mosque
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A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. There are strict and detailed requirements in Sunni jurisprudence for a place of worship to be considered a mosque, many mosques have elaborate domes, minarets, and prayer halls, in varying styles of architecture. Mosques originated on the Arabian Peninsula, but are now found in all inhabited continents, the mosque serves as a place where Muslims can come together for salat as well as a center for information, education, social welfare, and dispute settlement. The imam leads the congregation in prayer, the first mosque in the world is often considered to be the area around the Kaaba in Mecca now known as the Masjid al-Haram. Others regard the first mosque in history to be the Quba Mosque in present-day Medina since it was the first structure built by Muhammad upon his emigration from Mecca in 622. The Islamic Prophet Muhammad went on to another mosque in Medina. Built on the site of his home, Muhammad participated in the construction of the mosque himself and helped pioneer the concept of the mosque as the focal point of the Islamic city. The Masjid al-Nabawi introduced some of the still common in todays mosques, including the niche at the front of the prayer space known as the mihrab. The Masjid al-Nabawi was also constructed with a courtyard, a motif common among mosques built since then. Mosques had been built in Iraq and North Africa by the end of the 7th century, the Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala is reportedly one of the oldest mosques in Iraq, although its present form – typical of Persian architecture – only goes back to the 11th century. The shrine, while operating as a mosque, remains one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims, as it honors the death of the third Shia imam. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As was reportedly the first mosque in Egypt, serving as a religious, like the Imam Husayn Shrine, though, nothing of its original structure remains. With the later Shia Fatimid Caliphate, mosques throughout Egypt evolved to include schools, hospitals and it was the first to incorporate a square minaret and includes naves akin to a basilica. Those features can also be found in Andalusian mosques, including the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, still, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb. The first mosque in East Asia was reportedly established in the 8th century in Xian, however, the Great Mosque of Xian, whose current building dates from the 18th century, does not replicate the features often associated with mosques elsewhere. Indeed, minarets were initially prohibited by the state, mosques in western China were more likely to incorporate elements, like domes and minarets, traditionally seen in mosques elsewhere. In turn, the Javanese style influenced the styles of mosques in Indonesias Austronesian neighbors—Malaysia, Brunei, Muslim empires were instrumental in the evolution and spread of mosques. Although mosques were first established in India during the 7th century, reflecting their Timurid origins, Mughal-style mosques included onion domes, pointed arches, and elaborate circular minarets, features common in the Persian and Central Asian styles
18.
Turkish bath
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A Turkish bath is the Islamic variant of the Roman bath, steambath, sauna, or Russian banya, distinguished by a focus on water, as distinct from ambient steam. In Western Europe, the Turkish bath as a method of cleansing, the process involved in taking a Turkish bath is similar to that of a sauna, but is more closely related to ancient Greek and ancient Roman bathing practices. The Turkish bath starts with relaxation in a room that is heated by a flow of hot, dry air. Bathers may then move to an even hotter room before they wash in cold water, after performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation. The difference between the Islamic hammam and the Victorian Turkish bath is the air, the hot air in the Victorian Turkish bath is dry, in the Islamic hammam the air is often steamy. The bather in a Victorian Turkish bath will often take a plunge in a pool after the hot rooms. In the Islamic hammams the bathers splash themselves with cold water and it is not wet air, nor moist air, nor vapoury air, it is not vapour in any shape or form whatever. It is an immersion of the body in hot common air. One of the Five Pillars of Islam is prayer and it is customary before praying for Muslims to perform ablutions. The two Islamic forms of ablution are ghusl, a cleansing, and wudu, a cleansing of the face, hands. In the most extreme of cases, cleansing with pure soil or sand is also permissible, often, hammams are located close to mosques and other places for prayer for those who wish to perform deeper cleansing. Islamic hammams, particularly in the Moroccan case, evolved from their Roman roots to adapt to the needs of ritual purification according to Islam, for example, in most Roman-style hammams, one finds a cold pool for full submergence of the body. The style of bathing is less preferable in the Islamic faith, for al-Ghazali, the hammam is a primarily male experience, and he cautions that women are to enter the hammam only after childbirth or illness. Even then al-Gazali finds it admissible for men to prohibit their wives or sisters from using the hammam, the major point of contention surrounding hammams in al-Ghazalis estimation is nakedness. In his work he warns that overt nakedness is to be avoided, … he should shield it from the sight of others and second, guard against the touch of others. He focuses extensively in his writing on the avoidance of touching the penis during bathing and he writes that nakedness is decent only when the area between the knees and the lower stomach of a man are hidden. For women, exposure of only the face and palms is appropriate, according to al-Gazali, the prevalence of nakedness in the hammam could incite indecent thoughts or behaviours and so it is a controversial space. Ritual ablution is also required before or after sexual intercourse, during those centuries of war, peace, alliance, trade and competition, the two cultures had tremendous influence on each other
19.
Caravanserai
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A caravanserai (/kærəˈvænsəri/, was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the days journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of routes covering Asia, North Africa. Major urban caravanserais were built along the Grand Trunk Road in the Indian subcontinent. The word is rendered as caravansary, caravansaray, caravanseray. The Persian word کاروانسرای kārvānsarāy is a word combining kārvān caravan with sarāy palace, building with enclosed courts. Here caravan means a group of traders, pilgrims, or other travelers, the word serai is sometimes used with the implication of caravanserai. The Persian caravanserai was built as a road station, outside of towns. An inn built inside a town would be smaller and was known in Persian as a khan, in the Middle-East the term khan covers both meanings, of roadside inn as well as of inner-town inn. In Turkish the word is rendered as han, the same word was used in Bosnian, having arrived through Ottoman conquest. Welcoming all, thus meaning inn, led to funduq in Arabic, pundak in Hebrew, fundaco in Venice, fondaco in Genoa and alhóndiga in Spanish. Guards were stationed at every gate to ensure that taxes for these goods be paid in full, most typically a caravanserai was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, with a single portal wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts such as camels to enter. Caravanserais provided water for human and animal consumption, washing, and ritual purification such as wudu and they also kept fodder for animals and had shops for travelers where they could acquire new supplies. In addition, some shops bought goods from the traveling merchants, turkishhan. org, The Seljuk Han in Anatolia. Encyclopædia Iranica, p. 798-802 Erdmann, Kurt, Erdmann, berlin, Mann,1976, ISBN 3-7861-2241-5 Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture, Form, function and meaning, reprinted from, Traditions Architecturales en Iran, Tehran, No.2 &3,1976. Caravanserai, Traces, Places, Dialogue in the Middle East, milan,5 Continents Editions, ISBN 978-88-7439-604-7 Yavuz, Aysil Tükel. The Concepts that Shape Anatolian Seljuq Caravansara, muqarnas XIV, An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. Shah Abbasi Caravanserai, Tishineh Caravansara Pictures Consideratcaravanserai. net, Texts and photos on research on caravanserais and travel journeys in Middle East, caravanserais in Turkey The Seljuk Han in Anatolia
20.
Saffron
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Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Saffron crocus grows to 20–30 cm and bears up to four flowers, the styles and stigmas, called threads, are collected and dried to be used mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in food. Saffron, long among the worlds most costly spices by weight, is native to Southwest Asia and was probably first cultivated in or near Greece. As a genetically monomorphic clone, it was slowly propagated throughout much of Eurasia and was brought to parts of North Africa, North America. Saffrons taste and iodoform or hay-like fragrance result from the chemicals picrocrocin and it also contains a carotenoid pigment, crocin, which imparts a rich golden-yellow hue to dishes and textiles. Its recorded history is attested in a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical treatise compiled under Ashurbanipal, Iran now accounts for approximately 90% of the world production of saffron. A degree of uncertainty surrounds the origin of the English word saffron and it might stem from the 12th-century Old French term safran, which comes from the Latin word safranum or from Arabic, az-zafaran, having unknown origin. Safranum comes from the Persian intercessor zafarān, the domesticated saffron crocus, Crocus sativus, is an autumn-flowering perennial plant unknown in the wild. Its progenitors are possibly the eastern Mediterranean autumn-flowering Crocus cartwrightianus, which is known as wild saffron. The saffron crocus probably resulted when C. cartwrightianus was subjected to artificial selection by growers seeking longer stigmata. C. thomasii and C. pallasii are other possible sources, a corm survives for one season, producing via this vegetative division up to ten cormlets that can grow into new plants in the next season. Corms also bear vertical fibres, thin and net-like, that grow up to 5 cm above the plants neck, the plant grows to a height of 20–30 cm, and sprouts 5–11 white and non-photosynthetic leaves known as cataphylls. These membrane-like structures cover and protect the crocuss 5 to 11 true leaves as they bud and develop. The latter are thin, straight, and blade-like green foliage leaves, which are 1–3 mm in diameter, C. sativus cataphylls are suspected by some to manifest prior to blooming when the plant is irrigated relatively early in the growing season. Its floral axes, or flower-bearing structures, bear bracteoles, or specialised leaves, that sprout from the flower stems, after aestivating in spring, the plant sends up its true leaves, each up to 40 cm in length. The flowers possess a sweet, honey-like fragrance, upon flowering, plants average less than 30 cm in height. A three-pronged style emerges from each flower, each prong terminates with a vivid crimson stigma 25–30 mm in length. The saffron crocus, unknown in the wild, probably descends from Crocus cartwrightianus, if C. sativus is a mutant form of C. cartwrightianus, then it may have emerged via plant breeding, which would have selected for elongated stigmata, in late Bronze Age Crete
21.
Polis
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Polis, plural poleis literally means city in Greek. It can also mean a body of citizens, in modern historiography, polis is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, and thus is often translated as city-state. The term city-state, which originated in English, does not fully translate the Greek term. The poleis were not like other primordial ancient city-states like Tyre or Sidon, which were ruled by a king or a small oligarchy, the term polis, which in archaic Greece meant city, changed with the development of the governance center in the city to signify state. Finally, with the emergence of a notion of citizenship among landowners, the ancient Greeks did not always refer to Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and other poleis as such, they often spoke instead of the Athenians, Lacedaemonians, Thebans and so on. The body of citizens came to be the most important meaning of the polis in ancient Greece. The Greek term that meant the totality of urban buildings. Plato analyzes the polis in The Republic, whose Greek title, Πολιτεία, the best form of government of the polis for Plato is the one that leads to the common good. The philosopher king is the best ruler because, as a philosopher, in Platos analogy of the ship of state, the philosopher king steers the polis, as if it were a ship, in the best direction. Books II–IV of The Republic are concerned with Plato addressing the makeup of an ideal polis, in The Republic, Socrates is concerned with the two underlying principles of any society, mutual needs and differences in aptitude. Starting from these two principles, Socrates deals with the structure of an ideal polis. According to Plato, there are five main classes of any polis, producers, merchants, sailors/shipowners, retail traders. Along with the two principles and five classes, there are four virtues. The four virtues of a just city include, wisdom, courage, moderation, with all of these principles, classes, and virtues, it was believed that a just city would exist. Publication of state functions, laws, decrees, and major fiscal accounts were published, synoecism, conurbation, Absorption of nearby villages and countryside, and the incorporation of their tribes into the substructure of the polis. Many of a polis citizens lived in the suburbs or countryside, most cities were composed of several tribes or phylai, which were in turn composed of phratries, and finally génea. They had the right to vote, be elected into office, and bear arms, metics could not vote, be elected to office, bear arms, or serve in war. They otherwise had full personal and property rights, albeit subject to taxation, slaves, chattel in full possession of their owner, and with no privileges other than those that their owner would grant at will
22.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
23.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
24.
Yelabuga
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Yelabuga is a town in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kama River and 200 kilometers east from Kazan. The former name of the city was Alabuga and its history dates back to the 10th century, when a Volga Bulgarian border castle, the so-called Alamir-Sultan castle was built by Bulgarian Khan Ibrahim in 985 CE. The castle was built on the place of the tomb of Alamir-Sultan. The name Alabuga originally referred to the tower of the castle, the castle was later abandoned, and its remains are now known as Şaytan qalası. In the second half of the 16th century, a Russian village was founded on the same spot, within the framework of administrative divisions, Yelabuga serves as the administrative center of Yelabuzhsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As a municipal division, the town of significance of Yelabuga is incorporated within Yelabuzhsky Municipal District as Yelabuga Urban Settlement. Oil industry is present in the town, in the 1990s, a Ford assembly plant operated in the town. In 2008, Sollers JSC built a new factory to produce the Fiat Ducato, there is also a factory for the production of household appliances, domestic oil electric heaters, electric meat grinders Italian group DeLonghi. Public transportation needs are served by a bus and taxi networks, plans for a trolleybus route are being discussed. The town is the birthplace of painter Ivan Shishkin, nadezhda Durova, who, disguised as a man, was a highly decorated cavalry officer during the Napoleonic Wars died there in 1866. It is also where the Russian poet Marina Tsvetayeva committed suicide in 1941, the poet is buried at the municipal cemetery. Near Yelabuga is the Nizhnyaya Kama National Park, Yelabuga is twinned with, Safranbolu, Turkey Aleksin, Russia Beryozovsky, Russia Weilheim in Oberbayern, Germany Министерство юстиции Республики Татарстан. Приказ №01-02/9 от4 февраля2014 г, «Об утверждении реестра административно-территориальных единиц и населённых пунктов в Республике Татарстан», в ред. Приказа №01-02/160 от11 марта2015 г, Опубликован, Официальный сайт правовой информации Министерства юстиции Республики Татарстан,27 февраля2014 г. Закон №22-ЗРТ от31 января2005 г, «Об установлении границ территорий и статусе муниципального образования Елабужский муниципальный район и муниципальных образований в его составе», в ред. Закона №145-ЗРТ от30 декабря2014 г, «О внесении изменений в Закон Республики Татарстан Об установлении границ территорий и статусе муниципального образования Елабужский муниципальный район и муниципальных образований в его составе». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, Республика Татарстан, №№18–19,1 февраля2005 г. Unofficial website of Yelabuga Unofficial website of Yelabuga Website about Yelabuga Article about Yelabuga, Nizhnekamsk and the surrounding area Population of Yelabuga by mother tongue in 1897
25.
Republic of Macedonia
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Macedonia, officially the Republic of Macedonia, is a country in the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the states of the former Yugoslavia. A landlocked country, the Republic of Macedonia has borders with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, the countrys geography is defined primarily by mountains, valleys, and rivers. The capital and largest city, Skopje, is home to roughly a quarter of the nations 2.06 million inhabitants, the majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25 percent, followed by Turks, Romani, Serbs, Macedonias history dates back to antiquity, beginning with the kingdom of Paeonia, a Thracian polity. In the late sixth century BCE the area was incorporated into the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Romans conquered the region in the second century BCE and made it part of the much larger province of Macedonia. Macedonia remained part of the Byzantine Empire, and was raided and settled by Slavic peoples beginning in the sixth century CE. Following centuries of contention between the Bulgarian and Byzantine empires, it came under Ottoman dominion from the 14th century. Between the late 19th and early 20th century, a distinct Macedonian identity emerged, although following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, Macedonia remained a constituent socialist republic within Yugoslavia until its peaceful secession in 1991. Macedonia is a member of the UN and of the Council of Europe, since 2005 it has also been a candidate for joining the European Union and has applied for NATO membership. Although one of the poorest countries in Europe, Macedonia has made significant progress in developing an open, the countrys name derives from the Greek Μακεδονία, a kingdom named after the ancient Macedonians. The name is believed to have meant either highlanders or the tall ones. However, Robert S. P. Beekes supports that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology, the Republic of Macedonia roughly corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Paeonia, which was located immediately north of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia. In the late 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persians under Darius the Great conquered the Paeonians, following the loss in the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 479 BC, the Persians eventually withdrew from their European territories, including from what is today the Republic of Macedonia. In 356 BC Philip II of Macedon absorbed the regions of Upper Macedonia, the Romans established the Province of Macedonia in 146 BC. Roman expansion brought the Scupi area under Roman rule in the time of Domitian, and it fell within the Province of Moesia. Whilst Greek remained the dominant language in the part of the Roman empire. Slavic peoples settled in the Balkan region including Macedonia by the late 6th century AD, during the 580s, Byzantine literature attests to the Slavs raiding Byzantine territories in the region of Macedonia, later aided by Bulgars. Historical records document that in c.680 a group of Bulgars, Slavs and Byzantines led by a Bulgar called Kuber settled in the region of the Keramisian plain, presians reign apparently coincides with the extension of Bulgarian control over the Slavic tribes in and around Macedonia
26.
Ohrid
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Ohrid is a city in the Republic of Macedonia and the seat of Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the eighth-largest city in the country, Ohrid is notable for once having had 365 churches, one for each day of the year, and has been referred to as a Jerusalem. The city is rich in picturesque houses and monuments, and tourism is predominant and it is located southwest of Skopje, west of Resen and Bitola. In 1979 and in 1980 respectively, Ohrid and Lake Ohrid were accepted as Cultural and Natural World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, Ohrid is one of only 28 sites that are part of UNESCOs World Heritage that are Cultural as well as Natural sites. In Macedonian and the other South Slavic languages, the name of the city is Ohrid, in Albanian, the city is known as Ohër or Ohri and in modern Greek Ochrida and Achrida. The earliest inhabitants of the widest Lake Ohrid region were the Dassaretae, an ancient Greek tribe and the Enchelei, according to recent excavations by Macedonian archaeologists it was a town way back at the time of king Phillip II of Macedon. They conclude that Samuils Fortress was built on the place of an earlier fortification, during the Roman conquests, towards the end of 3rd and the beginning of 2nd century BC, the Dassaretae and the region Dassaretia were mentioned, as well as the ancient Greek city of Lychnidos. It was located along the Via Egnatia, which connected the Adriatic port Dyrrachion with Byzantium, archaeological excavations prove early adoption of Christianity in the area. Bishops from Lychnidos participated in ecumenical councils. The South Slavs began to arrive in the area during the 6th century AD, by the early 7th century it was colonized by a Slavic tribe known as the Berziti. The Bulgars conquered the city in 867, the name Ohrid first appeared in 879. The Ohrid Literary School established in 886 by Clement of Ohrid became one of the two cultural centres of the First Bulgarian Empire. Between 990 and 1015, Ohrid was the capital and stronghold of the Bulgarian Empire, from 990 to 1018 Ohrid was also the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. The higher clergy after 1018 was almost invariably Greek, including during the period of Ottoman domination, as an episcopal city, Ohrid was a cultural center of great importance for the Balkans. Almost all surviving churches were built by the Byzantines and by the Bulgarians, bohemond leading a Norman army took the city in 1083. In the 13th and 14th century the city changed hands between the Despotate of Epirus, the Bulgarian, the Byzantine and the Serbian Empire and local Albanian rulers. In the middle of the 13th century Ohrid was one of the cities ruled by Paul Gropa, in 1334 the city was captured by Stefan Uroš IV Dušan and incorporated in the Serbian Empire. After Dusans death the city came under the control of Andrea Gropa, in the early 1370s Marko lost Ohrid to Paul II Gropa, another member of the Gropa family and unsuccessfully tried to recapture it in 1375 with Ottoman assistance
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Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
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The sultans of the Ottoman Empire, made up solely of the members of the Ottoman dynasty, ruled over the transcontinental empire from its inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its height, the Ottoman Empire spanned from Hungary in the north to Yemen in the south, the Ottoman Empires early years have been the subject of varying narratives due to the difficulty of discerning fact from legend. The empire came into existence at the end of the thirteenth century, according to later, often unreliable Ottoman tradition, Osman was a descendant of the Kayı tribe of the Oghuz Turks. The eponymous Ottoman dynasty he founded endured for six centuries through the reigns of 36 sultans, the Ottoman Empire disappeared as a result of the defeat of the Central Powers with whom it had allied itself during World War I. The Ottoman Empire was an absolute monarchy during much of its existence and he was theoretically responsible only to God and Gods law, of which he was the chief executor. His heavenly mandate was reflected in Islamic titles such as shadow of God on Earth, all offices were filled by his authority, and every law was issued by him in the form of a decree called firman. He was the military commander and had the official title to all land. Osman son of Ertuğrul was the first ruler of the Ottoman state, newly enthroned Ottoman rulers were girded with the Sword of Osman, an important ceremony that served as the equivalent of European monarchs coronation. A non-girded sultan was not eligible to have his children included in the line of succession, although absolute in theory and in principle, the sultans powers were limited in practice. Political decisions had to take account the opinions and attitudes of important members of the dynasty. Constitutionalism was only established during the reign Abdul Hamid II, who became the empires last absolute ruler. Although Abdul Hamid II abolished the parliament and the constitution to return to rule in 1878. Since 2009, the head of the House of Osman and pretender to the defunct Ottoman throne has been Bayezid Osman, the table below lists Ottoman sultans, as well as the last Ottoman caliph, in chronological order. The tughras were the seals or signatures used by Ottoman sultans. They were displayed on all official documents as well as on coins, the Notes column contains information on each sultans parentage and fate. For earlier rulers, there is usually a gap between the moment a sultans reign ended and the moment his successor was enthroned. Because of the infighting and numerous fratricides that occurred, a death date therefore did not always coincide with the accession date of his successor. In 1617, the law of succession changed from survival of the fittest to a system based on agnatic seniority and this in turn explains why from the 17th century onwards a deceased sultan was rarely succeeded by his own son, but usually by an uncle or brother
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Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire
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Ibrahim was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1640 until 1648. He was born in Constantinople the son of Ahmed I by Valide Kösem Sultan and he was later called Ibrahim the Mad by twentieth century historians due to his reputed mental condition. Ibrahim was born on 5 November 1615, the son of Sultan Ahmed I, when Ibrahim was 2, his father suddenly died, and Ibrahims uncle Mustafa I became the new sultan. By that time, Kosem Sultan and her children, including young Ibrahim had been sent to the Old Palace, after the succession of his brother Murad IV, Ibrahim was confined in the Kafes, which affected his health. However, after his brothers death, Ibrahim became the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, one of the most notorious Ottoman Sultans, Ibrahim spent all of his early life in the close confinement of the Kafes before succeeding his brother Murad IV in 1640. Four of his brothers had been executed by Murad, and Ibrahim lived in terror of being the next to die and his life was only saved by the intercession of Kösem Sultan, mother of Ibrahim and Murad. After Murads death, Ibrahim was left the sole surviving prince of the dynasty, upon being asked by Grand Vizier Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha to assume the Sultanate, Ibrahim suspected Murad was still alive and plotting to trap him. It took the combined persuasion of Kösem and the Grand Vizier, Ḳara Muṣṭafā Pasha remained as Grand Vizier during the first four years of Ibrahim’s reign, keeping the Empire stable. With the treaty of Szön he renewed peace with Austria and during the same year recovered Azov from the Cossacks, during these years, Ibrahim showed concern with properly ruling the empire, as shown in his handwritten communications with the Grand Vizier. Ḳara Muṣṭafā in turn wrote a memo on public affairs to coach his inexperienced master, Ibrahim’s replies to Ḳara Muṣṭafās reports show he had actually received a good education. Ibrahim often traveled in disguise, inspecting the markets of Istanbul, Ibrahim was often distracted by recurring headaches and attacks of physical weakness, perhaps caused by the trauma of his early years. The distractions of the harem allowed Kösem Sultan to gain power and rule in his name, yet even she fell victim to the Sultans disfavor, cinci Hoca became Kadiasker of Anatolia, Yusuf Agha was made Kapudan Pasha and Sultanzade Mehmed became Grand Vizier. In 1644, Maltese corsairs seized a ship carrying high-status pilgrims to Mecca, since the pirates had docked in Crete, Kapudan Yusuf Pasha encouraged Ibrahim to invade the island. This began a war with Venice that lasted 24 years—Crete would not completely fall under Ottoman domination until 1669. In spite of the decline of La Serenissima, Venetian ships won victories throughout the Aegean, capturing Tenedos, Kapudan Yusuf enjoyed temporary success in conquering Canea, starting a jealous rivalry with the Grand Vizier that led to his execution and the Grand Viziers deposition. With his cronies in power, Ibrahims extravagant tendencies went unchecked and he raised eight concubines to the favored position of haseki, granting each riches and land. After legally marrying the concubine Telli Haseki, he ordered the palace of Ibrahim Pasha to be carpeted in sable furs and given to her. Mass discontent was caused by the Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles—which created scarcities in the capital—and the imposition of heavy taxes during a war economy to pay for Ibrahims whims
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Safranbolulu Izzet Mehmet Pasha
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Safranbolulu Izzet Mehmet Pasha was a grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire and served from 1794 to 1798. Izzet Mehmet Pasha was born in Safranbolu and his uncle was Kapudan Pasha Hacı Benli Mustafa Pasha. Izzet Mehmed Pasha came to Istanbul in 1759/60 to work with him, in 1778, he married Halil Hamid Pashas daughter, becoming his son-in-law. He then served as the Ottoman governor of Jeddah, Morea, on 19 October 1794, he was appointed grand vizier by sultan Selim III. He was dismissed on 30 August 1798 and exiled to Chios and he died in Manisa on 19 September 1812. Izzet Mehmet commissioned a watchtower in 1797 and a mosque in 1798 in his hometown of Safranbolu, List of Ottoman Grand Viziers List of Ottoman governors of Egypt
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Grand vizier
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In the Ottoman Empire, the Grand Vizier was the prime minister of the Ottoman sultan, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissible only by the sultan himself. His offices were located at the Sublime Porte, the term “vizier” was originally a denomination used by the Abbasid Dynasty in the 8th century AD. This position then came to the Ottomans in the early 14th century by way of the Seljuks of Anatolia, during the nascent phases of the Ottoman state, vizier was the only title used. The first of these Ottoman viziers who was titled Grand Vizier was Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Elder, the purpose in instituting the title Grand Vizier was to distinguish the holder of the Sultans seal from other viziers. The initially more frequently used title of vezir-i âzam was gradually replaced by sadrazam, throughout Ottoman history, the grand viziers have also been termed sadr-ı âlî, vekil-i mutlak, sâhib-i devlet, serdar-ı ekrem, serdar-ı azam and zât-ı âsafî. Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Elder reformed the role of the vizier in several ways, several before him held an equivalent but differently named office, he was the first who held the position of “Grand Vizier”, during the reign of Sultan Murad I. He was the first advisor with a military background – his forerunners had come from a more class of men. It is also significant that he was the first of a family that, at the time. Several of Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Elder’s kin went on to hold the office of Grand Vizier in the following his death. Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger, the grandson of Pasha the Elder, was highly influential in shaping the role of the Grand Vizier. During the reign of Mehmed II, the Younger opposed the siege of Constantinople, two days after the siege was won by Mehmed II, the Younger was executed for his opposition. After his death, the position of Grand Vizier was chosen nearly exclusively from the kul system, often and this was usually a political move, designed to appease powerful European factions to Ottoman supremacy. Grand Viziers gained immense political supremacy in the days of the Ottoman Empire. Power was centralized in the position of the Grand Vizier during the Köprülü era, Köprülü Mehmed Pasha was a powerful political figure during the reign of Mehmed IV, and was appointed to the office of Grand Vizier in 1656. He consolidated power within the position and sent the Sultan away from the city on hunting trips, next, he forcibly removed any officers suspected of corruption, those who did not leave were executed. He also conducted campaigns against Venice and the Hapsburgs, as well as quelling rebellions in Anatolia, on his deathbed five years later, he convinced Mehmed to appoint his son as the next Grand Vizier, thus securing his dynasty a position of supreme power in the Empire. It was during the Köprülü era that the Ottoman Empire reached its largest geographic expansion across Europe, Asia Minor, in Ottoman legal theory, the Sultan was supposed to conduct affairs of state exclusively via the Grand Vizier, but in reality this arrangement was often circumvented. He might, too, be inclined to take the advice of his mother
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Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
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Amasya
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Amasya is a city in northern Turkey and is the capital of Amasya Province, in the Black Sea Region. Amasya it is located inside the Black Sea Region, Tokat from east, Tokat and Yozgat from south, Çorum from west, Samsun from north. It was the home of the geographer Strabo and the birthplace of the 15th century scholar, located in a narrow cleft of the Yesilirmak river, it has a history of 7,500 years which has left many traces still evident today. In antiquity, Amaseia was a city high on the cliffs above the river. With its Ottoman-period wooden houses and the tombs of the Pontus kings carved into the cliffs overhead, in recent years there has been a lot of investment in tourism and more foreign and Turkish tourists visit the city. During the early Ottoman rule, it was customary for young Ottoman princes to be sent to Amasya to govern, Amasya was also the birthplace of the Ottoman sultans Murad I and Selim I. It is thus of importance in terms of Ottoman history. Traditional Ottoman houses near the Yeşilirmak and the main historical buildings have been restored. Behind the Ottoman wooden houses one can see the Rock Tombs of the Pontic kings, according to Strabo the Greek name Ἀμάσεια comes from Amasis, the queen of the Amazons, who were said to have lived here. The name has changed throughout history, Ἀμάσεια, Amaseia, Amassia and Amasia are all found on ancient Greek and Roman coinage. Armenian, Ամասիա, Ottoman Turkish أماصيا, and modern Turkish Amasya all represent the same pronunciation, in 2012, the permanent population of the city was 91,874. The birth rate of Amasya is low, so its population has been increasing slowly, the population varies seasonally, most people are here during the summer tourist season. Despite the mountainous location, it is not far above sea level and this makes its climate more temperate. Five bridges cross the river, and most of the lies on the southern bank. The climb up to the ground is very steep, making the valley walls virtually uninhabitable. The town is shaped like the letter v as it follows a sharp bend in the river, an independent Pontic kingdom with its capital at Amaseia was established at the end of the 4th century BC in the wake of Alexanders conquests. Superficially Hellenized, the kingdom retained its Persian social structure, with temple priests, in the 1st century BC, it briefly contested Romes hegemony in Anatolia. By 183 BC, the city was settled by Hellenistic people, today, there are prominent ruins including the royal tombs of Pontus in the rocks above the riverbank in the centre of the city
Turkey
Safranbolu travel guide from Wikivoyage
