Population: approximately 65.5 million

Capital: Ankara

Language: Turkish (official), Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian, Greek

Currency: New Turkish Lira (YTL)

Timezone: GMT+2

Weights and measures: metric

Electricity: 220 volts

The Republic of Turkey is a secular, predominantly moderate Muslim nation located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia where the Bosphorous Straits connect the Black Sea to the Golden Horn. Turkey, with a proud ancestral heritage that goes back centuries, has now developed into a modern, forward-looking democratic nation.

Turkey shares its borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Azerbidjan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Armenia and Georgia. The Black Sea, The Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea all touch Turkey's shores. Turkey is larger than many countries in western Europe. It is approximately four hundred miles long from north to south and nearly one thousand miles wide from east to west. The Turkish coastline is approximately eighty-five thousand kilometers in perimeter.

There are more than four hundred lakes within Turkey, the largest of which is Lake Van in eastern Anatolia, a notable flamingo breeding ground. The tallest mountain is Mount Ararat, at 5165 meters, believed by some to be where Noah's Ark landed after the Biblical flood.

Turkey is a secular republic, founded in 1920 by Mustafa Kemal ("Ataturk"), after his defeat of the previous Ottoman rulers. Ataturk implemented dramatic changes within Turkish society, including banning the wearing of the fez, discouraging the wearing of the veil by Turkish women, instituting mandatory education for all children, the adoption of a new Latin-based alphabet, and giving women the right to vote (1934).

Turkish society has evolved into a unique blend of East and West, with a strong sense of nationalism and unconditional reverence for the memory of Ataturk, the "Father of the Turks".