East Thrace, the part of Turkey in Europe, is separated from Anatolia by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles .Istanbul, which straddles Europe and Asia, is the largest city in the country, while Ankara is the capital.
At various points in its history, the region has been inhabited by diverse civilisations including the Anatolian peoples, Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians, and Armenians. Beginning in the late 13th century, the Ottomans started uniting the beyliks and conquering the Balkans.
During World War I, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek subjects. The Turkish War of Independence, initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatrk and his comrades against the occupying Allied Powers, resulted in the abolition of the sultanate on 1 November 1922, the replacement of the Treaty of Svres with the Treaty of Lausanne , and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923, with Atatrk as its first president.
Turkey is a charter member of the UN, an early member of NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank, and a founding member of the OECD, OSCE, BSEC, OIC, and G20. Turkey’s current administration, headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoan of the AKP, has enacted measures to increase the influence of Islam and undermine Kemalist policies and freedom of the press.
