TURKEY MAP
Turkey's location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia makes it a country of significant geostrategic importance. Given it's strategic location, large economy and military strength, Turkey is a major regional power. Turkey has different ecosystems doing to their climate, topography and soil characteristics so it has four different climate types. The coastal areas of Turkey bordering the Sea of Marmara (inclunding Istanbul), which connects the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea, have a transitional climate between atemperate Mediterranean climate and a temperate Oceanic climate with warm to hot, moderately dry summers and cool to cold, wet winters. Winters on the plateau are especially severe. Temperatures of -30 to -40 Celsius can occur in eastern Anatolia, and snow may lie on the ground at liest 120 days of the year. In the west, winter temperatures avarage below 1 Celsius. Summers are hot and dry, with temperatures generally above 30 Celsius in the day. Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The country's official language is Turkish. Turkey is parliamentary representative democtacy. Since it's foundation asa republic in 1923, Turkey has developed a strong tradition of secularism.Turkey is a secular state with no official state religion; the Turkish Constitution provides for freedom of religion and conscience. Islam is the dominant religion of Turkey, it exceeds 99% if secular people of Muslim background are included. There about 120.000 people of different Christian denominations, inclunding an estimated 80.000 Oriental Orthodox, 35.000 Roman Catholics, 5.000 Orthodox and smaller numbers Protestans. Today there are 236 churches open for workship in Turkey.
