Turks

Turks
Türkler

Total population
c. 150-200 million
Regions with significant populations
Turkey 80,694,485 Germany c. 4,000,000 Cyprus c. 500,000 Bulgaria 800,000
Languages
Turkish
Religion
Islam, atheism
Related ethnic groups
Turkic peoples, Greeks, Arabs

.....under re-construction and improvement

The Turks (Turkish: Türkler) or the Turkish people are a nation and a Turkic ethnic group from the modern-day Republic of Turkey, descended from the Oghuz branch. 

Throughout their history, the Turks are famous for the historical Ottoman Empire, a superpower that spanned from Turkey itself, as well as Southeastern and Central Europe, the Mdidle East and North Africa. The Ottomans established a distinct form of politics, military principles, fixed economies and a caste system, that while being Turkic in origin, followed a Persianized and Arabized culture. They also heralded a golden age of arts in Islamic history, becoming major role players in the development of Islamic culture.

After the First World War, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk led the Turkish War of Independence, overthrowing the Ottoman Empire and fighting the victorious Allies, and in this stage of Turkish history, the Turks underwent a new age of progress, marked by Western philosophy and doctrine, as well as secularization of Turkish society.

Because of the vast territory that the Ottomans had conquered, large communities of Turks and those of Turkish-speaking ancestry can also be found in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire.

Etymology

Throughout its history, the term "Turk" has been used for a wide range of different peoples. One local definition concludes a Turk as anybody who is a native speaker of of the Turkish language, or contains any type of descent or cultural connection to Turkey or the former Ottoman Empire. According to Turkish nationalists, a Turk are those descended from the Turkic peoples that invaded and conquered Anatolia, after the Battle of Manzikert. However, throughout history the term has also come refer to any speaker of a Turkic language (which isn't limited to only Turkish), or the "Turkic peoples" and this group covers beyond Turkey, encompassing ethnic groups from Central Asia, southern Russia and western China. Central Asia is often known as "Turkestan" which means "land of the Turks". The origins of the term "Turk" were found from the Old Turkic languages which used the term Turuk. This literally translates into words such as "strong". This referred to a nomadic group of people known as the Göktürks. The Orkhon inscriptions is an ancient monument located in Mongolia, which does mention the terms Turk and Turuk.

History

Early History & Ancestry

It is agreed upon that "Turks" refer to the native people of Turkey, different from the linguistically related "Turkic people" that also inhabit Central Asia, Russia, Mongolia and China. The people of Turkey almost share a unique blend of ancestries, that makes them heavily distinct from their Central Asian counterparts, although the rulers that began the basis for the Turkish nation, were themselves of Central Asian origin. The Turks who inhabit the modern-day nation of Turkey and former Ottoman territory are of a mix of Caucasian descent, mostly native Anatolian and later Central Asian (Oghuz), Arab and Greek ancestry. In the 1200s, a group of Western Turkic speakers known as the Oghuz settled in the region, intermingling with the Caucasians, Greeks and Arabs that had already settled in the area. 

Invasion of Anatolia - Turkic Islamic States in Anatolia

In the early second century A.D., the Seljuks, a Persianized Turkic dynasty, began to invade Anatolia, clashing with tbe Byzantine Empire. In 1071, led by Alp Arsalan, defeated the Byzantines in the Battle of Manzikert, in what is today the Turkish city of Malazgirt, thus beginning what many consider to be the start of the Turkish state as Seljuk and Turko-Persian states would become established in the former Anatolia. The Turko-Persian states would engage in a number of Byzantine-Seljuk Wars, that saw the Islamization of Anatolia, and the decline of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the region.

Sultanate of Rum 1077-1038

The Sultanate of Rum was the first major sultanate and Islamic monarchy established by Turks in Anatolia, modern-day Turkey. Under the leadership of Suleiman ibn Qutulmish, who attempted to become ruler of the Seljuk, the Sultanate of Rum was established after Suleiman captured more Byzantine cities in 1075, and coranating himself as the sultan.

The sultanate clashed with the Crusaders under the leadership of Kilij Arslan, Alp's son. By 1156, all of central Anatolia was controlled by the Sultanate of Rum, and in 1176, the sultanate again, defeated the Byzantines near Lake Beyşehir. The sultanate also absorbed other Turkic states in Anatolia.

Sultan Süleymanshah II engaged in battle against the Georgians, although in a losing and costly effort. The succeeding ruler, Kaykhusraw successfully captured the harbor of Antalya. His son, Kaykaus was able to subjugate the Christian Byzantine state Trebizond his vassal in 1214 after capturing Sinop in northern-central Turkey.

In the 1220s, the Seluks defeated the Mengüjekids, another Turkic state and also led an expedition into Crimea.

The Sultanate of Rum was decimated by the Mongol invasion in the 1240s, where Kayqubad I promised to become a vassal state to the Mongols. However, the Mongols continued to attack and invade Seljuk territory after the latter showed disobedience. After the Mongols successfully defeated the Seljuks at the cities of Erzurum, and the Battle of Köse Dağ.

In 1243, the Seljuks surrendered. 

In addition, both the Seljuks and Mongols utilized alliances with the nations around them to do battle. The fall of the Seljuks would fall upon the hands of the Mongol Golden Horde, and aftwards, Anatolia would experience an era, where small Turkic Islamic principalities, known as beyliks ruled.

Age of Beyliks 1081-1299

After the Seljuk Empire disintegrated, Turkey was ruled by Turkish Islamic principalities, or beyliks. Unlike the Seljuk Empire, Persian was not the language, and the beyliks implemented Turkish as their languages, and Sunni Islam as their religion.

It is during this era that the Turkish language enjoyed a rise in its use, including a flourishing of arts and culture - setting the precedent for the latter Ottoman Empire. 

The beylik era also saw new distinct type of mosque architecture, although also inherting many Seljuk-style architectural features. 

The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was found by Osman I, a Turkic tribal leader from Bithynia. The term Ottoman is derived from Osman I himself, who ruled his domain in an era after the collapse of the Seljuk Sultanate in the 1300s, where Anatolia was ruled by several independent Turkic principalities. Osman I led several conquest of the neighboring regions and principalities, defeating what remained of Byzantine control, especially along the Sakarya River, however the rise of Osman I's control and the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire is a disputed topic among historians. 

Osman I's son, Orhan captured Bursia in 1326, and made it the new Ottoman capital after expelling Byzantine control of the city, following by a conquest of Thessaloniki from the Italians in 1387. Ottoman conquests reached the Balkans after a victory over the Serbian Empire in Kosovo in 1389.  In 1396, the Ottomans crushed a large Crusader force in Nicopolis. At this point, the Ottomans were close to conquering Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), but the Ottomans knew that Constantinople was heavily defended.

The Byzantines were afforded some time, when the Timurids, another Turkic state led by Timur (whom the empire is named after), attacked the Ottomans. Mehmed I took power in 1413, ending a bitter civil war in the empire that resulted from the defeat against the Timurids and the fight over succession of the throne, successfully bringing both Anatolia and the Balkans under his control. Under the rule of Sultan Murad II, the Ottomans re-gained the territories they lost after the war against the Timurids.

In 1421, Murad II attempted to siege Constantinople, but again failed when the Byzantines succeeded in convincing his brother Küçük Mustafa to rebel against him, forcing him to withdraw his forces from the invasion of Constantinople and to deal with his brother, succeeding in doing so. The Anatolian Turks who aided the Byzantines were then annexed into the Ottoman Empire.

He abdicated the throne in 1444, but was forced to reclaim the throne to put down a revolt by the elite Ottoman military factions (known as the Janissary). 

In 1448, Murad II defeated the Christian coalition in Kosovo again, and in 1450, conquered Albania.

The son of Murad II, Mehmed II, or Mehmed the Conquerer led the way for the growth of the Ottoman Empire. Mehmed II began to re-organize the Ottoman military for what would be the eventual and successful siege of Constantinople. Mehmed II's invasion of Constantinople began in 1453, and after a methodical battle, the Ottomans finally managed to conquer what had been the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Mehmed II was crowned as the Ceasar of the Roman Empire, and adopted some Roman and Byzantine styles of nobility, and even collaborated with Eastern Orthodox leaders critical against the West, such as that of Gennadius Scholarus, who became the Ecumenical Patriach of Constantinople. Scholarus accepted Mehmed II as the new Ceasar of the Roman Empire.

After the conquest of Constantinople, the Ottomans continued to conquer the last vestiges of Byzantine territories, namely Morea and Trebizond. The children of Constantine XI's deceased brother were taken into the service of the Ottomans, and became personal favorites of Mehmed II, even installing them as rulers within the empire. 

Between 1454 to 1459, Mehmed II conquered the Serbian Depostate, after it refused to pay tributes. 

Sultan Selim I led the Ottoman conquests of the Middle East, motivated by a will to stop the spread of Shia Islam within the Persian Safavid Empire, as well as tensions with the Shah, conquering the wholes of Iran and Azerbaijan by 1510, thanks in part to the Ottomans possessing modern weaponry as opposed to the outdated arsenals of the Safavids. 

Between 1516-1517, Selim I conquered the Levant (including Syria and Palestine), the Arabian Peninsula and eventually Egypt, vanquishing the Mamluk Sultanate. Thanks to his conquests of the Arabian Peninsula, Selim I now had the two Islamic holy cities, Mecca and Medina, under Ottoman control.

However, Sultan Selim I was known to be a hot-headed ruler known for his fiery temper, and execution of those below him that did not live up to expectations. It often known to be a curse working as a vizier for the sultan during the time of Selim I's reign.

Suleiman succeeded Selim as the sultan of the Ottoman Empire in in 1520, and suppressed a revolt led by Ottoman elites in Damascus. In 1521, he conquered a poorly-defended Belgrade. The capture of Belgrade deepened fears within Christian Europe of the Ottoman threat. Suleiman attacked the island of Rhodes, home to a Catholic paramilitary group known as the Knights Hospitaller. 

Although the Knights Hospitaller fought to the death and inflicted large-scale caualities on the Ottomans, the Ottomans still prevailed, and causing the Knights Hospitaller to withdraw from the island. In 1526, Suleiman defeated the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohács, which caused further Hungarian resistance to collapse and the Ottoman Empire to become the major power of Central Europe. 

A mutual opposition against the Habsburgs led France to ally with the Ottoman Empire, with the French and Ottoman militaries supporting one another. In 1547, Ferdinand conceded to the Ottoman Empire.

At this point in time, the Ottoman Empire nearly grew to become a superpower, spanning more than three continents and becoming very-much involved in world politics. It sent forces to combat the Spanish and European Christianization attempts in the Asia-Pacific, aiding the Sultanate of Aceh in modern-day Indonesia.

In the late 1500s, the Ottoman Empire began to suffer some blowbacks. In 1571, the Crimean Khanate, an Ottoman vassal state, attacked Russian Tsardom, then under the rule of Ivan IV. The Ottomans were dealt a blow against the Spanish forces in the Battle of Lapento in 1571, 

Between 1603 to 1618, the Ottomans lost territories in battles against their long-time Safavid enemies, losing western Iran and the Caucusus to the Safavid Empire. 

In 1623, begins an era in Ottoman history known as the Sultanate of women, where mothers of young sultans ruled the empire in their behalf. In 1656, rule of the Ottoman Empire was divided among grand viziers belonging to the Köprülü family. Under this rule, the Ottomans restored their rule in Transylvania, Crete and southern Ukraine,

In 1683, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha attempted another siege of Vienna, a city that the Ottomans repeatedly had failed to conquer, and despite sacrificing many troops, the war ended up  disastrous pitted against a powerful coalition of Christian nation, including that of the Holy Roman Empire, Habsburgs, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and was joined by the Tsardom of Russia, as well as other European Christian city-states.

The people of the Balkans, especially of Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians also joined in this alliance. The war lead to the independance of Montenegro. This episode is often known as the Great Turkish War or the War of the Holy League, and ended with the Ottoman Empire losing swaths of Hungary back to the Habsburgs.

But the Ottoman plight would not end here, for the Ottomans would soon engage in of the longest-wars in modern history, the Russo-Turkish wars against the Russian Empire.

Russo-Turkish wars & decline 

The Russo-Turkish wars were a long series of wars fought between the Ottoman and Russian Empires for territorial dominations of Eurasia's warm regions. In addition, many Orthodox nations in the Balkans looked to Russia as the liberator for the Eastern Orthodox peoples, since the Russian Empire at this point, was beginning to experience its rapid growth and splendor, becoming considered by many Orthodox as the "New Rome" and the successor to the Byzantine Empire as the abode of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

In 1687, the Russians and Ukrainian Cossacks launched the Crimea Campaign, and despite the Ottomans emerging victorious, the war had initially forced the Ottomans to change plans for an easy invasion over its other long-time adversaries in Poland and Hungary.

In 1695 however, the Russian Empire was solidified as a global power under the rule of Peter the Great, and the Ottoman Empire under the rule of Mustafa II. Thanks to Russian naval advancements, the Ottomans were defeated in the Azov war, it is then that Russia joined an anti-Turkish coalition. 

In 1732 and 1735, despite going to war with Persia earlier and taking advantage of the Safavids' decline, 

At the end of 1735, the Ottoman Empire's Crimean Tatar vassals attacked the Russian Empire's Ukrainian hetman veassals, prompting the Russian Empire into another war against the Ottomans, with no clear winner, although Russia was internationally granted Azov.

The Ottoman and Polish Empires now shared a mutual grievance against Russia, and had formed an alliance. In Sultan Mustafa III declare war against the Russian Empire for an alleged Russian incursion into Balta in 1768, considered Polish territory. The Ottomans lost control and influence of Crimea, Moldavia, and the Bug and Dneiper regions to Russia, and the Imperial Russian Navy was able to penetrate as far as into Beirut in modern-day Lebanon.

In 1822, the Ottoman Empire lost Greece to independance, leading to the formation of the First Hellenic Republic.

In 1876, a group know as the Young Ottomans wrote the Ottoman constitution, and created the Ottoman Parliament. The Young Ottomans were reformists, dissatisfied with the earlier reforms of tanzimat, 

The Russo-Turkish wars continued well throughout the late 1800s, all the way until the conclusion of World War I. The most significant of these, was the Russo-Turkish War of 1878. 

Dissatisfied with the situation of Orthodox Christians living in the Ottoman Empire, as well as the on-going revolts against the Ottoman Empire, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1877. Lasting a full year, the Ottoman Empire lost Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Montenegro.

In 1908, the Young Turk Revolution was waged, in an attempt restore the Ottoman constitution of 1876, allowing for multi-party politics and an Ottoman parliament, and a pivot away from Shariah Law and conservative Islamist system of government.

The Ottomans lost another major war against the Balkan League, consisting of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro, resulting in the loss of more territories. 

The last major war fought by the Ottoman Empire would be the First World War I. The reasons for the Ottoman Empire's entry in World War I is disputed, with its outdated arsenal, could not withstand the modernized militaries of the Great Powers. 

Modern Republic of Turkey (1924-present)

In 1919, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a revolutionary, statesman and former military leader within the Ottoman Empire, initiated the Turkish War of Independence. 

Atatürk looked to abolish the aging Ottoman Empire, which he felt was a failure for the most part, but also opposed the Allied partition of Turkey. He would eventually become one of the most important historical figures of modern Turkey, as he is considered the founder of modern Turkey herself, as he paved the way for the secularization and democratization of Turkey.

While a Muslim, Atatürk despised the sultanate system, and not want Islam as a state religion, favoring a secular republic. He also embraced progressive policies, such as human rights and equality. As a result, the Turkish language was Latinized, and replaced Ottoman Turkish, to which 80% had followed Arabic and Persian grammer, due to the influence of Islam.

He would establish the Turkish National Movement, the name for the paramilitary organization for the revolutionaries. and was supported by Soviet Russia under Vladimir Lenin, as well as Italy. The Turkish Nationalists sought to liberate Turkey from Allied rule, waging a series of wars against Serbia, Greece and Armenia to retake what they felt truly belonged to Turkey, though unlike the Ottoman predecassors, did not have the intention of fully conquering the mentioned countries, and only territories that Turkish nationalists felt was stolen from the Turks.

During the Second World War, while Turkey had friendly relations with the Axis powers, it did not partake in the war. Consequently, Turkey did not see or experience the horros of the Second World War.

During the Cold War, Turkey joined NATO, the Western-led military alliance against the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact, joining traditional historical foes such as Greece.  In the twenty-first century however, Turkey has taken a path of Islamization and with the rise of the Justice and Development Party, Islam was once again had a resurgence in Turkish politics. Many worldwide observers saw the party, known by its Turkish acronym as the AKP, of promoting neo-Ottoman and neo-Islamist ideals, with one of its members and the current Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stating a goal of having hegemony over Muslims in the Balkans. During Ngorno-Karabakh Conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Turkey supporting Azerbaijan, in which both Turkish nationalism, pan-Turanism and Islamism had played huge roles.

During Syrian Civil War, Turkey saw a major resurgence into the global stage, actively supporting the opposition against Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russia. 

In 2016, a coup attempt, led by Turkish military personnel against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan failed, leading to even stricter reforms that enables tighter government control, said to have been funded by Western nations, embittering the once close and positive relations between Turkey and the West.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's various policies have seen a shift of Turkish foreign policy moving closer to eastern powers such as Russia and China, with the former having been a long-time historical foe and adversary.

Republic of Northern Cyprus 1983-present

The island-nation of Cyprus, located south of Turkey is roughly split between Greeks and Turks. Turks have inhabited northern Cyprus ever since the Ottoman era. In the 1960s, both Turkish and Greek Cypriots cooperated in liberated Cyprus from British rule.

However, tensions began to grow between the two post-independence. In 1963, Cypriot presidenr Makarios (also a Greek Orthodox archbishop) passed thirteen amendments, amendments that the Turkish Cypriot community deemed as being anti-Turkish and intentionally detrimental to the Turkish Cypriot community.

The Supreme Constitutional Court of Cyprus found these illegal, but Makarios openly ignored and rejected the findings of the former, Makarios began to lead a autocratic rule over Cyprus, and the situation between Greeks and Turks in Cyprus simply worsened. 

In 1974, Greek Cypriot military and paramiltary forces waged a coup against the government, which saw Makarios replaced by Nikos Sampson as president. President Sampson was a supporter of enosis, the process of uniting Greek communities outside of Greece, into a single Greece state.

Turkey claimed this, under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee (which forebade Cyprus from joining any international political union) as a basis of invading Cyprus. The Turkish invasion was initially successful, in which Turkish forces were able to capture about 40% of the island, and Greece was unable to stop it due to undergoing collapse of the military in Greece.

This caused a swap of Greek Cypriots from the north, and Turkish Cypriots from the south, leading to the formation of an autonomous Turkish-speaking region in northern Cyprus. 

After years of failures of peace agreements, Rauf Denktaş, a leader of the Turkish Resistance Organization declared independence for northern Cyprus, declaring the partially-recognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Turkish: Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti).

Today, Cypriot Turks still continue in ethnic clashes with their Greek counterparts, and despite Cyprus being accepted into the European Union as an ethnically divided state, North Cyprus has been blocked from the benefits of being a European Union member state, causing more failed peace agreements and thus - more frustration among Turkish Cypriots.

Language

Modern Turkish

The Turkish language belongs to the Turkic branch of the Altaic family of languages. Turkish contains the most speakers of the Turkic languages, numbering around 63,000,000. This particular dialect of Turkish is a descendant of the Oghuz dialect. It was the official language of the Ottoman Empire, and its territories.

Modern Turkish as it is spoken stems from the Turkish War of Independence, in which Mustafa Kemal Atatürk wished to eliminate all foreign influence from the Turkish language, whereas Ottoman Turkish (see below) was 80% Arabic and Persian loanwards and grammar. 

Turkish today is the national language of Turkey, and an official language in Cyprus, co-official with Greek. It also has communities of speakers in Bulgaria, Germany, Iraq, Romania, Macedonia and Kosovo. 

Ottoman Turkish

The spoken Turkish in the Ottoman Empire contains large differences from modern-day Turkish, to where the two are mutually unintelligable. Known today by linguistic historians as "Ottoman Turkish" (Ottoman Turkish: لسان عثمانى‎, Lisân-ı Osmânî) contained heavy influence and loanwords from Arabic and Persian, over 80% even following Arabic and Persian grammatical rules, outnumbering native Turkish words. Ottoman Turkish was also spoken by the upper class. The lower class spoke what was referred to as "raw Turkish" (Turkish: kaba Türkçe), which contains native words and less Arabic and Persian loanwords. The latter forms the ancestor of Modern Turkish.

Writing system

Turkish today is written in the Latin script. However for the majority of its history up until 1922, Turkish was written in an Arabic-based alphabet, known by linguists today as Ottoman Turkish Alphabet (Ottoman Turkish: الفبا, elifbâ). This type of alphabet is no longer used in modern-day Turkey, and only by Islamic historians and scholars as well as its use in religious poems. 

Religion

Most of the Turks are adherents to Islam, which was was a result of the presence of Arab and Persian missionaries. The Turks became the third largest group to adopt Islam, and became a catalyst in its influence, the history of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the preceding Turkic states before that that conquered Anatolia have paved the way for Islam to be essential in the history of the Turkish people. Although, ever since the Turkish War of Independence, secularism, atheism and irreligion has also largely influenced modern Turkish society. In the twenty-first century however, saw the resurgance of Islam, and Islamism in Turkish political society, which critics claim has back-tracked social progress in Turkey.

Architecture

Turkish architecture is influenced by Byzantine Greek, Seljuk Persian and Arab. The arrival of Christianity in Turkey by Greek missionaries introduced the use of domes and arches. When Islam arrived and became Turkey's predominant religion, the use of half-circle domes and arches continued to build Islamic mosques. 

Many former Byzantine and Roman churches, which were Greek churches, were converted to mosques and features known as minarets were installed, which were towers that are used to call people to prayer. Mosques include a main open space that is the prayer hall, a minbar which is the pulpit of where the preacher speaks and a

Hagia Sophia

mihrab which is a niche in the wall used to guide Muslims to pray towards Mecca. Mosques and other Islamic buildings in Turkey are also well-known for containing blue half-circle domes and circo-triangular-topped minarets in a distinct type of Islamic architecture, such as the Hagia Sophia (Turkish: Ayasofya, Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, Latin: Sancta Sophia) which was a once a Greek Orthodox Church, which was converted to a mosque by the Ottomans and later into a museum by the Turkish government. A functioning mosque would be the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultan Ahmet Camii) right across from the Hagia Sophia which

Topkapı Palace

contains six minarets and eight small domes that served as an example of the perfected blend of Ottoman and Byzantine architecture. 

The Mosque of Muhammad Ali (Arabic: مسجد محمد علي, Turkish: Mehmet Ali Paşa Camii) in the Egyptian city of Cairo is also a standing landmark of Turkish architecture, which as built during the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, an exiled Ottoman dynasty that ruled Egypt and Sudan named after Muhammad Ali Pasha. The Topkapı Palace (Turkish: Topkapı Sarayı, Ottoman Turkish: طوپقپو سرايى) became home to the sultans of the Ottoman Empire for almost four centuries and is a famous world UNESCO site. The palace contained courtyards, mosques, and other features. It also contains exhibits of valuable artifacts and belongings from the Ottoman Empire, such as jewelry, procleins and historical weapons. 

Cuisine

Due to the size of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish cuisine has influenced the cuisines of many Slavic countries such as Serbia and Bulgaria, and Arab

countries as well.  Most of the Turkish

Tutmaç

 culinary traditions are passed on from the Ottomans. It is a Mediterranean cuisine that is generally popular in Europe and Asia. The staple meats in Turkish cooking include lamb, beef, chicken and fish. Vegetables and crops include egg plants, green peppers, onions, garlic, lentils, beans and tomatoes and grains include rice and wheat. Turkish cuisine is renowned worldwide for its use in nuts, as flavorings. Popular nuts include pistachios, chestnuts, almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts. Spices include parsley, cumin, black peppers, paprika, mint, red pepper, oregano, allspice and thyme. Before the meals, Turkish people eat soups. Common soups in Turkey include lahana which is cabbage soup, tavuk which is chicken soup, and pazi which is a fish soup. Tutmaç is a dish that contains noodles and lentils. Mercimek is an entirely lentil soup. İşkembe soup and paçaIskembe çorbası are both special delicate soups that are not typically eaten, but during the winter

Iskembe

months. Pilaf is a rice dish cooked in broth and butter, which is also eaten during special holidays, popular with Persian and Arab people as well. Turkish people also specialized in making an array of breads, confections and sweet pastries. Basmati, which is of South Asian influence, is also a butter-cooked rice served wit most meals. Baklava is a sweet pastry filled and layered with filo and chopped nuts. Lahmacun is a flat-bread pastry that is topped with minced meat and onions. The Turks are also known for their famous confection known the lokum, which originated from the Ottoman sultans, it is known in western nations as "Turkish delight".

Notable Turks or People of Turkish Origin

Alp Arslan	Second Sultan of the Seljuk Empire, great grandson of Seljuk, the empire's namesake. He led great expansions of Seljuk territory, and after the infamous Battle of Manzikert, paved the way for the Turkic settlements in Anatolia, where the Turkish nation and all the historical empires and states within it are descended from. Although not his real name, "Alp Arslan" means "Heroic Lion" in Turkish.
Osman I	Also known as "Osman Bay", a war leader from Anatolia who conquered Turkey who was the founder and first Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, which became named after him (the term "Ottoman" is a transliteration of "Osman" or "Othman"). This empire would emerge as a world empire and power up until the sultanate's ending in 1922
Mehmed II	Also known as Mehmed the Conquerer, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire who led the conquests of Constantinople (Istanbul), and expanded the empire's territories to as far as Southeast Europe. He is considered a national hero in modern-day Turkey.
Suleiman	Also known as Suleiman the Magnificent, the tenth sultan of the Ottoman Empire, he personally led Ottoman armies in conquering the strongholds of Belgrade, Rhodes, as well as most of Hungary. He instituted major legislative changes relating to society, education, taxation, and criminal law. His canonical law (or the Kanuns) fixed the form of the empire for centuries after his death. He was a distinguished poet and goldsmith and became a great patron of culture, overseeing the "Golden" age of the Ottoman Empire in its artistic, literary and architectural development.
Selim III	Ottoman sultan who was well-known for his beliefs in political reform, he profited by the respite to abolish the military tenure of fiefs; he introduced salutary reforms into the administration, especially in the fiscal department, sought by well-considered plans to extend the spread of education, and engaged foreign officers as instructors, by whom a small corps of new troops called nizam-i-jedid were collected and drilled.
Safiye Ali	A Turkish doctor who treated soldiers during the Turkish War of Independance, the Balkans War and World War I. She is the first Turkish women to become a medical doctor, and opened her office in Istanbul in 1922 after studying in Germany in 1916.
Namik Kemal	Ottoman Turkish, journalist. writer, intellectual, reformer, journalist, playwright, and political activist who was influential in the formation of the Young Ottomans and their struggle for governmental reform in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century, which would lead to the First Constitutional Era in the Empire in 1876.
Qasim Amin	An Egyptian jurist and Islamic Modernist who was one of the founders of Cairo University, he is viewed as one of the Arab World's first "femanists" and advocating fiercely for women's rights, criticizing the veiling and exclusion of women from the workplace, politicans and etc. and was influenced by Darwin. He is of Turkish descent from his father and Arab descent through his mother.
Halide Edip Adivar	A Turkish politician and feminist who fought for the rights of Turkish women. She was best known for her novels criticizing the low social status of Turkish women and what she saw as the lack of interest of most women in changing their situation During the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) she was granted the ranks of first corporal and then sergeant in the nationalist army. She traveled to the fronts, worked in the headquarters of İsmet Pasha, Commander of the Western Front. After being accused of treason in 1926, she escaped to Europe and the United States.
Mimar Kemaleddin	A renowned Turkish architect of the very late period of the Ottoman architecture and the early years of the newly established Republic. "Mimar" is the Turkish word for architect. He was among the pioneers of the First Turkish National Architectural Movement.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk	An Ottoman military and leader, Turkish army officer, nationalist, reformist statesman, and the first President of Turkey, after World War I, he waged the Turkish War of Independance - which effectively overthrew the Ottoman Empire, fought the Allies and found the formation of the Republic of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey, ridding Turkey of the sultanate system and implementing elements of Western doctrine and secularism. His surname, Atatürk (meaning "Father of the Turks"), was granted to him in 1934 and forbidden to any other person by the Turkish parliament.
Rauf Denktaş	A Turkish Cypriot politician and barrister who found and served as the first president of the Republic of Northern Cyprus, as well as the Federated State of Cyprus and Autonomous Turkish Cypriot Administration, serving as the vice president of Cyprus in 1973. He also founded the Turkish Resistance Organization, and remains a national hero among many Turkish Cypriots.
Elif Şafak	A Turkish author, columnist, speaker and academic. She has been described as a cosmopolitanism, feminist, and novelist. Her books have been published in more than 40 countries, and she was awarded the honorary distinction of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2010. Her writing draws on diverse cultures and literary traditions, reflecting a deep interest in history, philosophy, Sufism, oral culture, and cultural politics.
Orhan Pamuk	A Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic and recepient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize in Literature, the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étrange, the Premio Grinzane Cavour, and the International Dublin Literary Award. He has sold over thirteen millions copies of works, and is also a Nobel laureate, the first from Turkey, he is also of partial Circassian descent.
Tarkan	A Turkish singer and songwriter, who is the icon of pop culture in Turkey, and is popular in both Turkey and Europe, he is also one of the few pop singers to have reached success in Europe without singing in English, he has been the winner of four Turkey Music Awards, six Golden Butterfly Awards and one World Music Award.
Ömer Aşık	A Turkish professional basketball player who plays for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (American NBA). He gained recognition playing for the Turkish national team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, and as the starting center, he helped Turkey win the silver medal.
Cenk Uygur	A Turkish-American columnist, political commentator and activist. Uygur is the main host and co-founder of the American liberal/progressive political and social internet commentary program, The Young Turks (TYT) and the co-founder of the associated TYT Network. He appeared on MSNBC as a political commentator in 2010, later hosting a weeknight commentary show on the channel for nearly six months until being replaced by Al Sharpton. Though despite being a liberal, he had conservative views as a young man.