Turkish Culture i

Turkish Culture, being shaped for over 3000 years and moved from the Central Asia till Central Europe, is a very diverse one. Turkish Culture carries traces from both the European and Islamic cultures. Turkish language has many English, French, Persian and Arabic rooted words still used in today’s modern language. Until the migration of the Turks from Central Asia to Middle East, Turks’ religion was shamanism. After they contacted with the muslim world, they started choosing Islam as their religion and just after this they started contacting the Christians of the Byzantine Empire with which they were in close contact until today. Because of the “harem” tradition of the Ottoman Sultans, even the Sultans of the Empire were not purely Turkish. Many Turks, today, have roots from the Balkans, from the Middle East, from Caucasus or even from Egypt.

Parallel to diversity of the Turkish Culture, Turkish arts also carries strong influence form both West and East. Especially after the modernization of the nation by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk after the War of Independence at 1923, Turkish arts developed rapidly and started competing its Western rivals. A good example to this is Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist, winning the Oscar Literature award of 2006.

Turkish Language	Religion
Turkish Delight - Lokum	Nazar Boncugu - Evil Eye
Alcoholic Drinks and Raki	Turkish Coffee
Turkish Carpets	Hamam (Turkish Bath)

The change in the Turkish people in the last century is actually surprising. Being a Monarchy governed with Islamic rules, the country in 10 years became a fulluy secular republic governed with democracy. Today, you can see all colors in the Turkish streets, modern women with a western look or women with more religious outfits. But the most common mistake towards Turkish people is believing that men wear Fez (traditional Ottoman hat) and women wear black chadors.

The oldest written scripts of Turkish Literature are the Orhon inscriptions found in the Central Mongolia written about 1500 years ago. Turkish Literature can be divided into 3 periods, before Islam, after adoption of Islam and the modern Turkish Literature. The first of these had mostly verbal literature so not much can be found from this period. The period after the adoption of Islam has mostly influences from the Persian culture. During the Ottoman Empire period Arabic and Persian words invaded the Turkish language and it consequently became mixed with three different languages. During the Ottoman period which spanned six centuries, the natural development of Turkish was severely damaged.

Then there was the new language movement five years after the announcement of the Turkish Republic in 1928, the Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin one, which in turn speeded up the movement for getting rid of the foreign words. The Turkish Language Institute was established in 1932 to carry out linguistic research and contribute to the natural development of the language.

A long history of influences from both Europe and Asia is also reflected in the complexity and diversity of Turkish music. There is a lively tradition of folk music, with many regional styles and contributions from ethnic minorities. Being a cosmopolitan country, Turkey has also adopted classical and popular music from the West and developed genres that combine Western, Asian, and Arabic elements. One kind of unaccompanied folk singing is the long melody, consisting of heavily ornamented songs influenced by Islamic chant and sung in free rhythm. The shattered melody style is in strict rhythm and is more suited as an accompaniment dancing. There is also a tradition of balladry and epics accompanied by the "baglama" (also called a "saz") and performed by itinerant musicians.

Folk rhythms are usually irregular in a kind of limping pattern important to the coordination of the group dance. Turkish folk instruments include the "zurna", a double-reed oboe, the "kemence", a bowed violin and the "kaval", an end-blown flute. Many of these instruments are capable of producing drones, a musical aesthetic found both in western Asia and in much of the folk music of East Europe. Melody instruments include the "ney", an end-blown flute; the "kanun", a trapezoidal plucked zither; the "ud", a short-necked lute and the "tanbur", a long-necked lute. When played in ensemble these are often accompanied by a small drum, called the "def", and kettle drums, as well as vocal choruses. Music like this is often used by the Sufi Mevlevi of Konya region cult for sacred ceremonies, often accompanying their famous whirling dervishes. Centuries ago the music of the Ottoman Janissary bands called "Mehter", which is no longer played, greatly impressed Europeans, who incorporated several Turkish instruments, such as the cymbal and the kettle drum, into European music. Composers such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven also imitated the music in a style called ala Turca.

Turks produced some masterpieces of architecture during especially the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. The monumental buildings created by Turkish architects since the 11th century have a distinguished place in the heritage of world architecture. The Selimiye, Suleymaniye and Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosques built by Mimar (Architect) Sinan, who is the symbol of Ottoman architecture, are masterworks reflecting the degree of maturity which the Ottoman architecture had reached in the 16th and 17th centuries in dealing with space and mass compositions.