Twenty-five Random Facts About Turkey

I was inspired by my friend Kristal and her stories about Albania...

1) Saint Nicholas lived in Turkey, but Turks don't celebrate Christmas.

2) Turkey has more mosques per capita than any other country.

3) Turks eat fresh baked bread with every meal.

4) Unlike Americans, Turks don't eat bread with pasta.

5) Turks answer the phone with the phrase, "My Master?"

6) Although 99% of Turks are Muslim, Turkey has a rich Christian heritage.

7) Most Turks drink 10 or more cups of tea a day.

8) Turkish homes have one room containing all their most beautiful furnishings.  They only go in it when special guests arrive.

9) Arranged marriages are very common in Turkey.

10) Three percent of Turkey is in Europe.  The other 97% is in Asia.

 

11) Turkish is an agglutinative language, meaning that base words get lots of affixes and suffixes, making them longer and longer.  For example, the sentence, "I will be able to come" in Turkish is only one word with lots of endings added to it, gelebilicegim.   Supposedly the longest word in Turkish is: Cekoslovakyalilastiramadiklarimizdanmissiniz, meaning, "You are said to be one of those that we couldn't manage to convert to a Czechoslovak."  

12) The Turkish word for lion is aslan (anybody a fan of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe?)

13) Jelly beans got started as an American form of Turkish Delight.

14.) Turkey is bordered by eight countries and three seas.

15) Turks are very hospitable.  It's not unusual for a perfect stranger to strike up a conversation with you, then invite you over for tea.

16)  Baklava, shish kebab, stuffed bell peppers, zucchini, and grape leaves, rice pilaf, olives, lots of fresh fruit and veggies.... Turkey has amazing food.

17) There are about 70 million people in Turkey.  That's double the population of California.

18) Bob Dylan is of Turkish decent, and Dr. Oz (the Dr. that Oprah has on her show a lot) is Turkish.

19) You don't really know the definition of sublime until you've tried pistachio ice cream that's been hand churned in southern Turkey... I don't know how or why, but it's so thick and stretchy that you have to cut it with a knife.  I also don't know the actual definition of sublime, but it's the only word that comes to mind when I think of this amazing ice cream.  I'm pretty sure I'll eat it in heaven...

20)  Turkey is full of amazing Roman ruins.

21) Noah's ark landed on Mr. Ararat, which is in Turkey.

22) The first church ever built (St. Peter's Church in Antioch) is in Turkey.  The seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation, in the Bible are all in Turkey.

23) Turks gave the Dutch their famous tulips.

24) Here's a good one to remember next time you sip a mocha.  Turks introduced coffee to Europe. 

25) You may have been wondering about this one:  A case of mistaken identity resulted in the American bird (turkey) being named after the country of Turkey.  The Spanish first brought turkeys to Europe from the Americas over 400 years ago.  The English mistakenly thought it was a bird they called the "turkey," so they gave it the same name.  That other bird was actually from Africa, but came to England by way of Turkey (lots of shipping went through Turkey at the time).  The name stuck even when they realized the birds weren't the same.