Turkey People & Culture

The people of Turkey are generally friendly and welcome visitors.  This is partly because the country recognises that tourism is a key income earner.  The government has institutionalised this by creating a tourism police force to protect tourists.  Visitors to Istanbul will see their obvious presence in tourist areas such as Sultanahmet.  People who harass visitors will likely be subject to just punishment.

However, like most countries, there are bad apples especially in the retail trade and restaurants business, when touts may act rather aggressively.  This can happen in big cities and even in small towns like Kusadasi where a shop selling Turkish Tea tried to charge a highly inflated price and refused to be rebuffed.  This was a bad case, but could have been reported to the tourism police for action.

As for the origin of the Turkish people, in Turkey, a Turk is "any individual within the Republic of Turkey, whatever his faith who speaks Turkish, grows up with Turkish culture and adopts the Turkish ideal is a Turk."  This is somewhat different from saying that the person belongs to the Turk ethnic group.

While it is said that over 80% of the people in Turkey claim themselves to be ethnic Turks, there is some debate about this based on the findings of various studies about the genetic origins of present-day Turks.

Ethnic Turks migrated into Turkey mainly after the invasion of the Seljuk Turks from Persia and their defeat of the Byzantines in 1071.  Therefore, the Turkish language obviously originated from this source.  However, the genetic make-up of the population is blurred by the events of history as the Turks came later than most other invaders and migrants.  Turkey had its indigenous inhabitants such as Hittites from ancient times, and people of many races also moved into the region from time immemorial and stayed there in long stretches: Persians, Greeks, Celts, Romans, Arabs, Mongols, Kurds, Armenians and others.  

It is interesting that the Ottomans saw themselves less as Turks than the embodiment of a much larger enterprise, treating all races rather equally and in fact had a preference for Caucasian women in the harems.  Even some foreigners saw the Ottoman empire as European, like Peter the Great's assertion of the Ottomans being the sick man of Europe.  It has been claimed by some that many Turkish people have some dose of non-Turkish blood; of course this is a matter for geneticists to work on.

It was after 1923 that the racial mix of the population became less blur with the mass exchange of population when over one million Greeks left and about half a million Turks came into the new Republic of Turkey.

Other ethnic groups in the country include the Kurds, who have inhabited eastern Turkey, Syria and Iran for several thousand years ago; the Jews, who came to Turkey following persecution by the Christian church in Spain in the 16th century, as well as a small number of Armenians and Greeks.

Modern Turkey abolished the institution of state religion and the Caliphate since its founding in 1923 to become a secular republic.  Nevertheless, more than 99% of the population is officially Muslim, with most of them being Sunnis.  In Istanbul alone, one can see big mosques everywhere, often within walking distance of each other.  There are thousands more throughout the country, many of which were built during the Seljuk and Ottoman periods and are still active today. 

Several religious festivals are celebrated: 

-  the holy month of Ramadan, including the last three days' celebration

-  the Feast of the Sacrifice (of Isaac)

-  Mirac Kandili to celebrate Prophet Mohammed's nocturnal journey to Jerusalem and ascension to heaven.

Other religions represented in Turkey are Orthodox and Armenian Christians, Catholics and Protestants, as well as Judaism, but the percentage of the population practising them has been in decline in recent years.

Shish kebab (meat charcoal-grilled on a skewer) is offered in many food outlets, often served with Turkish bread.  Most meals serving meat or seafoods come with a healthy portion of vegetables.  A common offering during meals is stews, made from tomatoes, egg plants, chili and potatoes mixed with meat.

While in the country, one could try Ottoman cuisines, which  were invented and prepared by chefs to serve the imperial households.  They were said to have to undergo years of training and practice often in cooking school established by the sultans.  Nowadays, Ottoman cuisines can be found in some hotels and restaurants which promote them as their speciality.  These cuisines, as expected, are prepared and presented in a way that match those of gourmet dishes served elsewhere.  An example of a Ottaman dish is a honey dew stuffed in the centre with minced lamb tastily marinated and garnished with herbs.

Turkey is one of the few countries in the world which is self-sufficient in food.  On the coastal plains and on the highlands in central Anatolia, one can see farms growing a wide variety of crops, fruits and vegetables, many with large plots of land and irrigation systems to promote plant life during dry seasons. 

Many types of fruits and vegetables are grown.  For example, in the middle of the year, one can see water melons for sale everywhere in Istanbul and in the countryside in the Aegean coast.  Peaches, oranges, plums, graphs, strawberries, cherries, onions, tomatoes,  are in abundance.  Different regions have different fruits,  citrus fruits are more common in the Antalya region while bananas and avacadoes are grown in Alanya.

Turkey is the world's largest producer of hazelnuts.  As Turkey is surrounded on three sides by the sea, seafoods are easily available around coastal regions.