About Turkey

The ancients called it Asia Minor - that land mass procuring from the depths of Asia into the eastern Mediterranean, defined by the Black Sea to the North, the Aegean to the West and The deserts of Arabia to the South.

Since the dawn of time, this land mountain ranges, high plateaus and fertile river valleys that has been dividing line between the Orient and Occident. The Persian King of Kings, Xerxes, crossed westwards with his Asian hoards on their way to victory at Thermopylae and defeat at Salamis; Alexander the Great reversed that movement when he led his Macedonians eastward across Anatolia as far as India in pursuit of his world empire, giving the land its Hellenic stamp. The Romans too, saw in Anatolia a granary and bulwark against their traditional enemies to the East; It was at Zela, east of Ankara, that Caesar uttered his famous words: "Veni, Vidi, Vici,".

Anatolia was also the nucleus of the 1000 year Byzantine Empire, with its capital established at Constantinople, and it was here, too, that early Christianity first took root, only to be replaced with the advent of Islam, first under the Arabs, and then under the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks, who pushed the frontiers of their empire from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic and from the Indian Ocean to Vienna.

Slowly but surely, however, territorial gains were whittled away, until nothing remained but the spirits of the Turks under leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to reestablish modern Turkey in the ancient landscape of Anatolia.

Modern-day Turkey is a marriage of the character of ancient Anatolian civilizations and the progressive secular democracy and reforms launched by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of the Turks. The country is a fusion of vibrant Mediterranean cultures and the enchantment of the East, a combination of the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the international cities and the beautiful simplicity of village life. Turkey is a country that will begin the new century with a remarkable record of self-transformation behind it and almost limitless opportunities ahead. It has made startling political, economical and social progress in the last 75 years since Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, embarked on a conscious quest to catch up with the most advanced countries of the world. Its market economy is successful and expanding at a rapid rate, creating a model for the emerging economies of the neighboring countries.

Given the New World order, the geopolitical position of Turkey makes it as important a cultural crossroads today as it was in Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman times. It’s vital position as a link between East and West gives the city great symbolic power as host site for International Congresses.