Anatolia
(1997 est. pop. 54 million). Anatolia, also called Anadolu or Asia Minor, is Turkey's Asiatic region, a mountainous peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea on the north and the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas on the south and west. To the northwest are the Bosporus Strait, Sea of Marmara, and Dardanelles. Anatolia encompasses 743, 634 square kilometers—about three-fifths of the area of Turkey.
The Pontic and Taurus (Toros) Mountains border the flat, central Anatolian plateau on the north and south. Mount Ararat is Anatolia's highest peak (5,172 meters). The region is prone to earthquakes. Major rivers are the Euphrates and Tigris. Of the three hundred lakes that enrich the land, Lake Van in the east is the largest. Anatolia's climate ranges from cold winters in the central plateau to sweltering heat in the Mediterranean region. Its crops include grain, tobacco, olives, figs, and cotton; animal life includes the Angora goat.
Anatolia, considered the cradle of many cultures and civilizations, was inhabited at least as early as the eighth millennium BCE and served as a bridge between Europe and Asia; it is rich in architectural and archaeological remains, rock reliefs, burials, pottery, and stone implements. Ancient inhabitants included the Hatti, Hittites, Trojans, Urartians (kingdom of Urartu, later, Armenia), Phrygians (led by King Midas), Lycians, and Lydians.
The Persians invaded Anatolia in 546 BCE, Alexander of Macedon in 334 BCE. By the end of the second century BCE, Anatolia was under Roman rule. Following a civil war in the early fourth century, the victor, Constantine, established the capital at Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople. After his death, the new empire was divided. The eastern half, centered in Constantinople, came to be known as the Byzantine empire. By 711, all Anatolia was under Byzantine rule.
Early in the eleventh century, the Seljuk victory at the battle of Manzikert (1071; modern Malazgirt) opened Anatolia to further Turkish invasions. The territory gradually became Turkicized after the rise of the Ottoman Turks around the thirteenth century. Anatolia came under Muslim Ottoman rule when Mehmet II (reigned 1432–1481) captured Constantinople in 1453. In 1923, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881–1938), a nationalist general, established the new Turkish Republic.
Anatolia has seventy-four provinces, grouped into seven regions: Black Sea coast; Marmara and Aegean coasts; Mediterranean coast; western Anatolia; central Anatolia; southeastern Anatolia; eastern Anatolia. Ninety percent of Anatolia's population is Turkish, and 99 percent is Muslim. Non-Turkish elements are mostly Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Kurds, and Arabs.
Further Reading
Izbırak, Resat. (1976) Geography of Turkey. Ankara, Turkey: Directorate of Press and Information.
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