Culture & Society of Turkey

The culture of Turkey is derived from various elements of the Ottoman Empire, European, and the Islamic traditions. The nation was modernized primarily by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as he successfully transformed a religion-driven former Ottoman Empire into a modern nation-state with a very strong separation of state and religion.

People
Turkish parade in BerlinThe question "Who are these Turks?" does not have an easy answer. During the Turn of the century Ottomans were a multination state extended to three continents. This page limits this problem to the borders of the Republic of Turkey. The location of the pictures are given with the name of the city or as a region, in the case the source do not mention.

The change in culture of Turkish people within the last century is very surprising. Today, Turkey might be the only country that contains every extreme depiction of east and west culture and many in between grey tones. Ottoman system was a multi-federation state that enabled the people not to mix with each other. From the cultural view point, balkanization was the end of Ottoman Empire. Turkish Republic adapted a unitary approach, which was forcing all the different cultures within its boarders to mix with each other under the name of Turkish. The mixing, instead of assimilation is the end result of many grey tones. 80 years of transformation undeniably produced many grey colors of east-west duality. These pictures should be taken as a proof achievement of Turkish democracy as a cauldron of ideas and representations.

Music
Turkey is a country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and is a crossroads of cultures from across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus and South and Central Asia. The music of Turkey includes elements of Central Asian folk music, Arab, Persian classical music, ancient Greco-Roman music and modern European and American popular music. Turkey, rich in musical heritage, has developed this art in two areas, Turkish classical music (similar to Greco- Roman) and Turkish folk music (Similar to Central Asian). The biggest Turkish pop star of the 20th century was probably Sezen Aksu, known for overseeing the Turkish contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest and was known for her light pop music.

European classical composers in the 18th century were fascinated by Turkish music, particularly the strong role given to the brass and percussion instruments in Ottoman Janissary bands who were the fist marching military band in History. Joseph Haydn wrote his Military Symphony to include Turkish instruments, as well as some of his operas. Turkish instruments were also included in Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony Number 9. Mozart wrote the "Ronda alla turca" in his Sonata in A major and also used Turkish themes in his operas. Although this Turkish influence was a fad, it introduced the cymbals, bass drum, and bells into the symphony orchestra, where they remain.

Jazz musician Dave Brubeck wrote his "Blue Rondo á la Turk" as a tribute to Mozart and Turkish music.

The music of Turkey includes elements of Central Asian folk music, Arab, Persian classical music, ancient Greco-Roman music and modern European and American popular music. Turkey, rich in musical heritage, has developed this art in two areas, Turkish classical and Turkish folk music. When describing Turkish music today it is generally said that Ottoman composers availed themselves of the rich musical heritage found in the cultural centers of the Abbasid and the Timurogullari, where Turkish, Araband Iranian musicians performed and created music known as Ottoman court music. This music was based on mode and human voices.

Furthermore, Turkey has produced a number of popular musicians from a wide range of styles, Sezen Aksu, Sertab Erener, Tarkan and Mustafa Sandal. There is also a wide range of imported popular styles, including rock and roll, hip hop, heavy metal, tango and reggae.

The biggest male pop star in Turkey is probably Tarkan. Tarkan conquered not only Europe but also the entire world with his single Simarik (Spoilt) which has been covered by numerous artists just like the British Holly Valance in her "Kiss kiss" song or the Russian Philipp Kirkorov in "Potzeluy" (Kiss). And a little while ago, Mustafa Sandal has topped with his song Isyankar (Rebellious) the charts in Europe like Germany, Austria and Switzerland. So, he also becomes internationally famous and in the course of time being just the one performer, who is presenting Turkish pop to the world. Recently, in 2003, another Turkish female singer, Sertab Erener won the Eurovision Song Contest with her song "Everyway That I Can".

Literature
The history of Turkish literature is traced back to Orkhon inscriptions. Most of the Turkish literature before the adaptation of Islam was verbal literature. With the adaptation of Islam, Turks were influenced with Persian culture and they developed literature using the Persian structures, such as mesnevi, gazel etc. With the 19th century and tanzimat period, artists began to use western structures. The republican period is dominated with western forms of literature.

Prose
The backgrounds of current novelists can be traced back to "Young Pens" (Genç Kalemler) journal in Ottoman period. Young Pens was published in Selanik under the Ömer Seyfettin, Ziya Gökalp ve Ali Canip Yontem. They covered the social and political concepts of their time with the nationalistic perspective. They became the core of a movement which will be called national literature.

With the declaration of republic, Turkish literature becomes interested in folkloric styles. This was also the first time the literature was escaping from the western influence and begin to mix western forms with other forms. During the 1930's Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu ve Vedat Nedim Tor begin to publish KADRO. KADRO was revolutionary in its look at the life.

Orhan Pamuk is a leading Turkish novelist of post-modern literature. He is hugely popular in his homeland, but also with a growing readership around the globe. As one of Europe's most prominent novelists, his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He is the recipient of major Turkish and international literary awards. The most recent of his novels is "Snow." Pamuk was also widely tipped to be the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, though he eventually lost to the British Harold Pinter in what many people considered a surprise choice.

Religion
Nominally, 99% of the population is Muslim. Most belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. About 15-20% of the population are Alevi Muslims. There is also a small but significant Twelver Shi'a minority, mainly of Azeri descent. The remaining 1% of the population are of other religions, mostly Christian (Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic (Gregorian), Syriac Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Protestants), Jewish, Bahá'ís, Yezidis.

Unlike other Muslim-majority countries, there is a strong tradition of separation of church and state in Turkey. Even though the state does not have any/or promote any religion, it actively monitors the area between the religions. The constitutional rule that prohibits discrimination on religious grounds is taken very seriously. The Turkish constitution recognises freedom of religion for individuals, and the religious communities are placed under the protection of state, but the constitution explicitly states that they cannot become involved in the political process, by forming a religious party for example. No party can claim that it represents a form of religious belief. However, the religious sensibilities are generally represented through conservative parties.

The mainstream Hanafite school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı (Department of Religious Affairs). The Diyanet is the main Islamic framework established after abolition of the Ulama and Seyh-ul-Islam of the old régime. As a consequence, they control all mosques and Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam Hatip schools and at theology departments at universities. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues. The department is criticized by some Alevi Muslims for not supporting their beliefs.

The Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya)The Orthodox Patriarch (Patrik) governs the Greek-Orthodox Church in Turkey and acts as the spiritual leader of all Orthodox churches throughout the world, the Armenian Patrik the Armenian Church, while the Jewish community is lead by the Hahambasi, Turkey's Chief Rabbi, all based in Istanbul. The Jewish population in Turkey is one of the largest and most prominent outside of Israel. (See Jews of Turkey for more)

Demographics
The legal use of term "Turkish" (a citizen of Turkey) is different than the ethnic definition (an ethnic Turk). However, the majority of the Turkish population are of Turkish ethnicity. The ethnic minorities include, besides the legally defined minorities, Abkhazians, Albanians, Arabs, Bosniaks, Chechens, Circassians, Georgians, Ingushetians, Kabardins, Kurds, Laz, Molokans and Zazas.

The term "minority" itself remains a sensitive issue in Turkey, since the Turkish State only considers the communities mentioned in the text of Treaty of Lausanne. Minorities include Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Hamshenis, Jews, Levantines, Ossetians, Pomaks and Roma (Roma is a name for Gypsies).

The largest group of non-Turkic ethnicity are the Kurds, a distinct ethnic group concentrated in the southeast. The 1965 census determined that 7.1% of the population used Kurdish as their primary language and the knowledge of the language was stated by the 12.7% of the population in total, but there are many Turkish-speaking Kurds. According to the CIA fact book [1], 20% of the population are estimated to be ethnic Kurds. However, there are no hard figures for the Kurdish population available.

Due to a demand for an increased labour force in Western Europe between 1960 and 1980 many Turkish citizens, emigrated to West Germany, the Netherlands, France and other Western European countries, forming a significant overseas population.

Education
Education is compulsory and free from ages 7 to 15. There are around 820 higher education institutes including universities, with a total student enrollment of over 1 million. The 15 main universities are in Istanbul and Ankara. Tertiary education is the responsibility of the Higher Education Council, and funding is provided by the state. From 1998 the universities were given greater autonomy, and were encouraged to raise funds from partnerships with industry.

There are approximately 85 universities in Turkey. There are two types of universities, state and (private) foundational. State universities charge very low fees and foundationals are highly expensive with fees up to $15 000 or sometimes even more. The capacity in total of Turkish universities is approximately 300.000. Some universities can compete with the best world universities whereas some are unable to provide the necessary educational standards due to financial problems and underfunding. However, university students are a lucky minority in Turkey. Universities provide either two or four years of education for undergraduate studies. For graduate studies, two further years is necessary, as is typical throughout the world.

The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey coordinates basic and applied research and development. There are 64 research institutes and organisations. R&D strengths include agriculture, forestry, health, biotechnology, nuclear technologies, minerals, materials, IT, and defence