A country as old as history, a paradise of sun, sea, mountains and lakes... Turkey has a magnificent past, and is a land full of historic treasures.
OFFICIAL NAME
Republic of Turkey (Turkiye Cumhuriyeti).
GEOGREPHIC LOCATION
South-western Asia (that part west of the Bosporus is sometimes included with Europe), bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria.
Geographic coordinates: 39 00 N, 35 00 E
AREA
Total area: 780,580 sq km
Land area: 770,760 sq km
Water area: 9,820 sq km
LAND BOUNDARIES
Total: 2,648 km
Border Countries: Armenia 268 km, Azerbaijan 9 km, Bulgaria 240 km, Georgia 252 km, Greece 206 km, Iran 499 km, Iraq 352 km, Syria 822 km.
Coastline: 7,200 km
POPULATION
The population of Turkey is nearly 70 million.
Istanbul: 12,697,164 as of Jan 2009 (10,033,478 in 2000), 17.8 % of the total population,
Ankara: 4,548,939 as of Jan 2009 (4,007,860 in 2000), 6.4 % of the total population
Izmir:  3.795.978 as of Jan 2009 (3,387,908 in 2000), 5.3 % of the total population
Bayburt:  has the lowest population in Turkey: 75,675 (January 2009)
RELIGION
Although 99% of the whole population of Turkey is Moslems, the secular form of the state guarantees complete freedom of worship to non-Moslems.
BUDGET
Revenues: $93.58 billion
Expenditures: $115.3 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2005 est.)
Public Debt: 67.5% of GDP (2005 est.)
Industries: textiles, food processing, autos, mining (coal, chromate, copper, boron), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper.
Industrial production growth rate: 8.5% (2004 est.)
AGRICULTURE
Main products: tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets, pulses, citrus, livestock
Illicit drugs: major transit route for Southwest Asian heroin and hashish to Western Europe and the US via air, land, and sea routes; government maintains strict controls over areas of legal opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate.
Agricultural land: 53.6% of land area (2005)
Forest area: 101.800 sq km (2005)
DID YOU KNOW THESE?
*Byzantine Emperor Constantine summoned the first Ecumenical Council in Nicaea (modern Iznik city in Turkey) in 325 AD.
*Troy which is famous with the Trojan Wooden Horse is by the Dardanelles near Canakkale.
*Aristotle the tutor of Alexander the Great was born in Assos near Troy in Marmara region of Turkey.
*Homer composed the Iliad and Odyssey on the shores of Asia Minor (modern Turkey).
*The House of the Virgin Mary is nearby Ephesus near Izmir.
*Seven Churches of Revelation is in the West of Turkey and they are known as the Church of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
*All seven of the Great Ecumenical Councils that defined Christian theology took place within the boundaries of Turkey.
*Herodotus the ancient writer known to be the father of the history lived in Smyrna (ancient name of modern Izmir) and in Halicarnassus-Bodrum in the fifth century B.C.
*Two of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, known as The Temple of Artemis is near Ephesus and The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus is in Bodrum.
*St. Nicholas known as Santa Claus lived in Myra, Turkey.
*King Midas famous with Midas touch was the king of Phrygia with their capital Gordion in Central Anatolia- Turkey.
*The Great Hittite Kingdom which settled along the River Halys (Kizilrımak in Turkey) discovered the mineral iron in the history.
*The first written peace treaty was signed by the Hittite king Muwattallis II and Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses the 3rd after the battle of Kadesh in 1295 B.C south of Turkey
*Are you familiar with the riddle of the Gordion knot that Alexander cut it with his sword? Gordion is to the West of Ankara.  
*Tarsus the birth place of Paul or known as Tarsus of Paul is in Southern Turkey.
*Antioch (modern Hatay) where the followers of Jesus Christ named themselves as Christian is in Southern Turkey. One of the very first Christian church known as the church of St Peter is in Antioch (Hatay).
*Edessa (Sanliurfa) where Prophet Abraham was born, the well where Job has fallen is in southeast Turkey.
*The famous rivers Euphrates and Tigris which irrigated the fertile land of Mesopotamia are Eastern Turkey.
*Mount Ararat, the legendary resting place of Prophet Noah’s Ark is in Eastern Turkey.
*Kayseri which is mentioned as Caesarea in the Bible is in Cappadocia, Central Turkey.
*The straits connecting the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean are in Turkey. 
*It was the Cappadocian Fathers who introduced the Trinity, Creed and incarnation to the Christianity in the fourth century B.C.
*Parchment was invented by Pergamum in Pergamum north of Izmir.