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Turkey

Pronunciation: /ˈtəːki/

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Definition of Turkey

a country comprising the whole of the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia, with a small enclave in SE Europe to the west of Istanbul; population 76,805,500 (est. 2009); official language, Turkish; capital, Ankara.

Turkey was the centre of the Ottoman Empire, established in the late Middle Ages and largely maintained until its collapse at the end of the First World War, in which Turkey supported the Central Powers. The nationalist leader Kemal Atatürk established the modern republic of Turkey in the 1920s. Turkey was neutral in the Second World War but is a member of NATO