| Name |
Turkey is a republic. Republic of Turkey. '' Turkiye
Cumhuriyeti '' |
| Capital city |
Capital city is Ankara even though Istanbul is the biggest
city in Turkey |
| Language |
The major language is Turkish ( officially ) but there are
other languages spoken in the country such as Arabic, Greek, Armenian,
Kurdish and Hebrew. Turkish Literature in german |
| Flag |
The Turkish flag is in red color with
a white crescent moon on the left hand side and a star next to it. click to see and listen to National Anthem of Turkey
|
| Money |
The currency is in '' Turkish Lira ''. And
the inflation rate for this year is around of 30% . The daily currency
rates are written on all the newspapers and foreign currency can easily
be changed in change offices , post offices or at the
banks. |
| Work days |
The official working hours is between 8:30 am-12:00 and 13:00 pm-17:00.
Officers work between Monday and Friday. On Saturday and Sunday
offices are closed. Regular shops are open around the same hours but they
keep open till early evening hours. If some one arrives to a shop when he
is about to close down he will never be returned back with out a sale. And
most of them are open on saturday and some on sunday as well. And in
Turkey there is no siesta break and people also work on Fridays ,
even though it is the holy day for the muslim people. |
| National Holidays |
Our national holidays are like this ; New Year's Day ( Jan
01), Childrens' day (Apr 23), Youth And Sport Day (May 19), Victory
Day (Aug 30), Republic Day (Oct 29) |
| Religious Holidays |
There are two holidays ( more like a
feast ). Seker Bayrami comes after the 30 day fasting in the Ramadan
and it is for three days. The second one is the Kurban bayrami (
Sacrifice holiday ) that comes 70 days following Seker Bayrami for four days. Each year both of these
holidays start 10 days earlier, because of the difference between the lunar
(354 days ) and the solar ( 365 days ) years. |
| Land |
Total area is 814,578 sq km |
| Climate |
Turkey lives the four seasons in every part of it. In summer it
is hot and humid along the coast ( Agean and mediterranean
) , dry and hot in central Turkey. In winter it is mild and
rainy along the coastal regions , cold and snowy in central
Turkey. |
| Time zone |
Turkey is GMT+2 hours which means if it is 09 am
in London or central Europe the time is 11 am in Turkey. +8 to +10 from USA
, +2 from UK , -8 from Australia . |
| Postage
|
Mailing is done by offices called '' PTT ''. (
Postage-Telephone-Telgraph). You can see the post offices
every where in the country with big yellow letters of PTT
. The post offices are usually open through Monday-Saturday from
8:00 till 24:00 at midnight. But these hours may vary a lot
depending on if the post office is in a big town or in a small touristic
village.
Sometimes it is wiser to ask
the locals for local information. The cost to send a postcard and letters are fixed nationwide. Some
post offices may prefer to use the automatic machines rather than stamps.
Stamp in Turkish means '' PUL'' and sounds as the word '' pull '' in
English. |
| Visas |
A passport is required. You are advised to apply for a visa
before you come but you can also get it at the airport in Turkey. |
| Telephone |
You can find phone boxes
outside the post offices. In the past we used tokens to dial up but now we have
phone cards. These cards have 30, 60 or 100 credits in them. After you put
your card correctly in the way it shows on the machine you can dial
immediately, 00 -country code- area code-number. So a call to Sydney would
start with 00 61 2 **** **** or a call to New York would be 00 1 212
*** ****.
If you want to call to Turkey here is a code
number list of major cities:
National code for Turkey is
90
Istanbul
European Side: 212
Asian
Side :216
Ankara:
312
Antalya:
242
Izmir:
232 |