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I'd like to discuss and tell you about culture of Turkey. Actually, I choose Turkey is because Turkey has so many attractiveness, in my opinion. So that's why I really love the culture.
The culture of Turkey combines a diverse and heterogeneous set of elements that have been derived from the various cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean (West Asian) region and to a lesser degree, Southeastern European, Caucasian, and Central Asian traditions. Many of these traditions were initially brought together by Ottoman Empire, a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state.
Turkish culture has undergone profound changes over the last century. Today, Turkey may be the only country that contains every extreme of Eastern and Western culture. The Ottoman system was a multi-ethnic state that enabled people within it not to mix with each other and thereby retain separate ethnic and religious identities within the empire. Upon the fall of the empire after World War I the Turkish republic adapted a unitary approach, which forced all the different cultures within its borders to mix each other with the aim of producing national and cultural identity. This mixing, instead of producing cultural homogenization, instead resulted in many shades of grey as the traditional Muslim cultures of Anatolia collided with the cosmopolitan modernity of Istanbul and the wider West.
Turkey's Language
The official language, Turkish, is the first language spoken by 90% of the 63 million population. Minority languages include Kurdish, spoken by 6% of the population. Arabic is spoken by 1.2% of the Turkish population, most of those speakers are bilingual Arabic and Turkish speakers. Other minority languages include Circassian, spoken by more than 0.09% throughout the country, Greek, Armenian and Judezmo, a Romance language spoken by Jews.
Turkish Most Religion Beliefs
Islam is the religion of the majority of Turks although the state is fiercely secular. Islam emanated from what is today Saudi Arabia. The Prophet Muhammad is seen as the last of God's emissaries (following in the footsteps of Jesus, Moses, Abraham, etc.) to bring revelation of mankind. He was distinguished with bringing a message of the whole of mankind, rather than just to a certain people. As Moses brought the Torah and Jesus brought the Bible, Muhammad brought the last book, the Qur'an. The Qur'an and the actions of the Prophet (the Sunnah) are used as the basis of all guidance in the religion.
Among certain obligations for Muslims are to pray five times a day - at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening. The exact time is listed in the local newspaper or website or mobile app each day. Friday is the Muslim's holy day although this is not practiced in Turkey. However, most males will attend the congregational afternoon prayer or we usually called Friday pray. During the holy month of Ramadhan, all Muslims must fast or shaum in arabic from dawn to dusk. Fasting includes not eating, drinking, cigarette smoking, or gew chewing and everything that God forbids.
Marriage, Family, and Kinship
Marriage
Turkish expect adults to marry and have children, and the vast majority do. Because men should not lower their wives' standard living, they are not supposed to marry women of a higher economic class. People generally marry within their own religious sect and ethnic group, although inter-ethnic marriages among Sunni Muslims are not uncommon. In traditional Turkish society, the selection of spouses and the marriage ceremony were controlled by kin groups. During the premarital process, the individuals to be married played minor roles. The rituals, especially the imam marriage ceremony, were essential for a morally and socially acceptable marriage.
In 1926, the revolutionary Turkish government abolished Islamic family law and adopted a slightly modified version of the family law in the Swiss civil code. The new Family Law requires and recognizes civil marriage ceremonies only. It requires the consent of mature individuals for a binding marriage contract and prescribes monogamy only. Even though the law prohibits parents from entering into engagement or marital agreements on behalf of their children, arranged marriages without the consent of the brides have been somewhat common. Today, the vast majority of marriages occur with the couple's consent, but families still play a role recommending and screening potential spouses, especially for their daughters.
Even though divorce is not considered an Islamic sin, it occurs infrequently. Divorcees, especially men with children, quickly remarry, usually to divorced women. The new code eliminated a husband's Islamic prerogative of verbal and unilateral divorce and prescribed a court proceeding. The law recognizes only six grounds for divorce, there are adultery, plot against life, grave assaults and insult, crime or a dishonorable life, desertion, mental infirmity, and incompatibility. The evidentiary requirements are so substantial that establishing one of these grounds has proved difficult. A couple cannot divorce by mutual consent.
Domestic Unit, Inheritance, and Kin Groups
Traditionally, most Turkish traced their descent and passed on property, especially homes and land, through the male line. Even though most households have always contained only one nuclear family, the ideal household, especially among the rural and urban wealthy was patrilocal extended, in which a son and his bride lived in his parents' home after marriage. The basic kinship units are the family (aile) and the household (hane). Household members normally eat together and share income and expenses. The next larger unit is the patrilineage (sulale), consisting of relatives connected inter-generationally by a common male ancestor. While patrilineage is important to old, noble Ottoman families and tribal peoples, it is of little significance to most Turkish.
The traditional Turkish household is characterized by male is the head, an authority figure who demands respect and obedience. The mother is also respected, but her relationship with her children is warm and informal.
Interesting Buildings
SULTAN AHMED MOSQUE
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HAGIA SOPHIA
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Menemen
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Menemen is a traditional turkish dish which includes eggs, tomato, green peppers, and spices such as ground black pepper, ground red pepper, salt and oregano, onion, garlic. It is cooked with olive oil or sunflower oil.
Kofta
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Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes found in South Asian, Middle Eastern, Balkan, and Central Asian cuisine. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced or ground meat mixed with spices and/or onions. In South Asia and the Middle East, koftas are usually made from lamb, beef, mutton or chicken, whereas Greek, Cypriot, and Balkan versions may use pork, beef, lamb, or mixture of three. In India, vegetarian varieties include koftas made from potato, calabash, paneer, or banana. In Europe, kofta is served as fast food as a type of kebab.
Baklava
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Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of filo filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup or honey. It is also found in Central and West Asia.
Manti
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Manti or Mantu are dumplings popular in most Turkish cuisines, as well as in the Caucasian, Central Asian, Chinese Islamic, and Hejaz cuisines. Nowadays, manti are also consumed throughout Russia and other post-Soviet countries, where the dish spread from the Central Asian republics. The dumplings typically consist of a spiced meat mixture, usually lamb or ground beef in a dough wrapper and either boiled or steamed.
Shish Kebab
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Shish kebab is a Turkish dish of skewered and grilled cubes of meat. The term shish kebab has a history of over one hundred years in English. In American English, the word kebab refers to shish kebab, while in British English, kebab may also mean doner kebab or shawarma. In Middle Eastern cuisine however, kebab denotes a wide variety of different grilled meat dishes.
Turkish Coffee
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Turkish coffee is a method of preparing unfiltered coffee. Roasted and then finely ground coffee beans are simmered (not boiled) in a pot (cezve), optionally with sugar, and served in a cup where the grounds are allowed to settle. At present, it is found in Indonesia, Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Middle East. Turkish coffee is an intangible cultural heritage of turkey confirmed by UNESCO.
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