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| 0813 Turkey map |
Posted on 23.09.2013, 05.05.2017
Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, mostly on Anatolia (in Western Asia) and on East Thrace (in Southeastern Europe), and owning the single entrance in the Black Sea, Turkey had always and still has a significant geostrategic importance. The area has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, including various Ancient Anatolian civilizations (the Hittites, Lycians, Lydians etc.) and Thracian peoples (Odrysians).
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| 3036 Turkey flag |
Starting around 1200 BC, the coast of Anatolia was heavily settled by Aeolian and IonianGreeks, who founded numerous important cities, such as Miletus, Ephesus, Smyrna (modern İzmir) and Byzantium (later Constantinople and Istanbul). Armenia included parts of eastern Turkey beginning in the 6th century BC. Anatolia was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire during the 6th and 5th centuries BC, and in 334 BC fell to Alexander the Great, the area being Hellenized, and continuing with the Roman rule.
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