The Rough Guide to Turkish (A Dictionary Phrasebook) by Lexus  (4)

Turkey (Lonely Planet Country Guide) by Verity Campbell  (5)  £9.59

Turkey (Eyewitness Travel Guide) by Suzanne Swan  (1)  £12.99

The Lycian Way by Kate Clow  (5)  £13.99

Southern Turkey: Mediterranean Coast and Cappadocia (This Way) by Jack Altman £3.79

› Explore similar items : Books (7)

Book Description
INTRODUCTION
Turkey is a country with a multiple identity, poised uneasily between East and West – though, despite the tourist brochure cliché, it is less a bridge between the two than a battleground, a buffer zone whose various parts have been invaded and settled from every direction since the beginning of recorded history. The country is now keen to be accepted on equal terms by the West: long the only NATO member in the Middle East region and a major recipient of US military aid, it is now also vigorously pursuing EU membership as a means of assuring future prosperity and democracy. But despite Turkish involvement with Europe dating back to the twelfth century, it is by no stretch of the imagination a thoroughly Western nation, and the contradictions – and fascinations – persist.

Turkey is a vast country – France would fit within its boundaries with plenty of room to spare – incorporating characteristics of Middle Eastern and Aegean, as well as Balkan and trans-Caucasian, countries. Mosques coexist with Orthodox churches; Roman theatres and temples crumble alongside ancient Hittite cities; and dervish ceremonies or gypsy festivals are as much a part of the social landscape as classical music concerts or delirious sports fans. The one constant in all this – and one of the things that makes Turkey such a rewarding place to travel – is the Turkish people, whose reputation for friendliness and hospitality is richly deserved; indeed you risk causing offence by refusing to partake of it, and any transaction can be the springboard for further acquaintance. Close to the bigger resorts or tourist attractions, much of this is undoubtedly mercenary, but in most of the country the warmth and generosity is genuine – all the more amazing when recent Turkish history has demonstrated that outsiders usually only bring trouble in their wake.

Politically, modern Turkey was a bold experiment, founded on the remaining Anatolian kernel of the Ottoman Empire, once among the world’s largest, and longest-lasting, imperial states. The country arose from defeat after World War I, almost entirely the creation of a single man of demonic energy and vision – Kemal Atatürk. The Turkish War of Independence, fought against those victorious Allies intending to pursue imperialistic designs on Ottoman territory, has (with slightly stretched analogy – Turkey was never a colony) often been seen as the prototype for all Third World "wars of liberation". It led to an explicitly secular Republic, though one in which almost all of the inhabitants are at least nominally Muslim (predominantly Sunni).

Turkey’s heritage as home to the caliphate and numerous dervish orders, plus contemporary Islamist movements, still often deflects its moral compass south and east rather than northwest. Turks, except for a small minority in the southeast, are not Arabs, and loathe being mistaken for them; despite a heavy lacing of Persian and Arabic words, the Turkish language alone, unrelated to any neighbouring one except Azeri, is sufficient to set its speakers apart. The population is, however, in spite of official efforts to enforce uniformity, remarkably heterogeneous ethnically. When the Ottoman Empire imploded early in the twentieth century, large numbers of Muslim Slavs, Kurds, Greeks, Albanians, Crimean Tatars, Azeris, Daghestanlis, Abkhazians and Circassians – to name only the most numerous non-Turkic groups – streamed into Anatolia, the safest refuge in an age of anti-Ottoman Nationalism. This process has continued in recent years from formerly Soviet or Eastern Bloc territories!
(including even a few Christian Turks or Gaugaz from Moldavia), so that the diversity of the people endures, constituting one of the surprises of travel in Turkey.

There are equally large disparities in levels of development and income. Istanbul boasts clubs as expensive and exclusive as any in New York or London, while town-centre shops are full of imported luxury goods, yet in the chronically backward eastern interior you’ll encounter standards and modes of living scarcely changed from a century ago. Following a severe crash in early 2001, the Turkish economy languishes on the ropes and the country is heavily in debt, threatening the modernization process begun during the late nineteenth century. It’s make-or-break time for a country aspiring to full EU membership: has Westernization struck deep roots in the culture, or does it extend no further than a mobile-phone- and credit-card-equipped urban élite?

Turkey has been continuously inhabited and fought over for close on ten millennia, as the layer-cake arrangement of many archeological sites and the numerous fortified heights testify. The juxtaposed ancient monuments mirror the bewildering succession of states – Hittite, Urartian, Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Armeno-Georgian – that held sway here before the twelfth century. There is also, of course, an overwhelming number of graceful Islamic monuments dating from the eleventh century onwards, as well as magnificent city bazaars, still holding their own despite the encroachments of chain stores and shopping malls. The country’s modern architecture is less pleasing, the consequence both of government policy since 1950 and of returned overseas workers eager to invest their earnings in real estate – an ugliness manifest at the coastal resorts, where the beaches are rarely as good as the tourist-board hype. Indeed it’s inland Turkey – Asiatic expanses of mountain, steppe, lake, even cloud forest – that may leave a more vivid memory, especially when accented by some crumbling kervansaray, mosque or castle.

Synopsis
This fully revised and thoroughly updated fifth edition of "The Rough Guide to Turkey" provides an insider's handbook to the country. A full colour section introduces Turkey's highlights, from the markets of Istanbul to the rock churches of Cappadocia. There are informed accounts of the country's wide-ranging sights and incisive reviews of the best places to eat, sleep and drink in every price range. Throughout the guide there is practical advice on everything from bazaar shopping to chartering a yacht. The authors also provide expert background on Turkish history, literature, music and film.

3 Reviews 5 star:    (0) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review (3 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   33 of 37 people found the following review helpful: in a big country..., 20 Aug 2003 By  simon gurney - See all my reviews       ok, ill admit to being a fan of rough guide rather than lonely planet, for the simple fact of the ammount of copies of lonely planet you see in the hands of other travellers around the world, but alas as the books get bigger with each edition, they get closer and closer in terms of content. with a book this size obviously it is pretty comprehensive, and the fact that the condensed history of turkey weighs in at nearly a hundred pages you are getting a lot (perhaps too much) guidebook, in all honesty i wouldnt mind losing all the contexts section at the back increasing the language guide which is tiny, and getting a much smaller book a a result.. The reccomendations for where to eat are a little hit and miss, so best approached with a large pinch of salt, it is possible to find some gems which would have remained hidden, but theres quite a few lumps of coal as well. a big plus is the excellent coverage of diving, with the highlights of diving in each area contained in a boxout, very very useful. a worthy guidebook, although a bit to weighty, reasonably objective and comprehensive.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   6 of 6 people found the following review helpful: Lots happen in 3 years, 1 Jun 2006 By  K. Truong "wanderer" (London) - See all my reviews    Overall, it's OK but really disappointed with some bum steers because the book is now 3 years old. In a more stable countries it might be OK but the boom in tourism Turkey has meant heaps of change and heaps of turnover. Prices were generally doubled those quoted; restaurants have packed up & closed; hotels that might have been OK are now run down. I'm normally a fan of Rough Guides but I think they should get this edition updated if it's to be useful.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: disappointed, 17 Aug 2006 By  Will (London, UK.) - See all my reviews I have just returned from 3 weeks travelling around Turkey using the Rough Guide along the way. I have used, and been happy with, Rough Guides on previous trips around Europe and the Middle East but was really disappointed with this guide. The accomodation listings were unhelpful ... in the end, I tended to deliberately avoid the accomodation recommended in the guide! A number of the maps were pretty hit and miss and some of the details with regards to the practicalities of getting from A to B lacked the necessary useful detail. Unfortunately, the guide is already very out of date (the 5th edition is 2003). However, in the end, the principal problem was the general rather opinionated tone which varies from being disparaging at times and downright miserable on a number of occasions - you wonder whether the authors actually like the country they're writing about! (Incidentally, Turkey is a pleasure to visit!) I agree with another reviewer that the Contexts section is a too detailed (and rather ernest) and could do with some judicious editing. I also took the Lonely Planet guide to Istanbul (but not Turkey) and found it much better on all fronts.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all 3 customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews