TURKEY

Male common turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), displaying either of two species of birds in the family Meleagrididae (order Galliformes). The best known is the common turkey (Meleagris gallopavo; see photograph), a native game bird of North America but widely domesticated for the table. The other species is Agriocharis (or Meleagris) ocellata, the ocellated turkey. For unrelated but similar birds, see bustard (Australian turkey); megapode (brush turkey); snakebird (water turkey). Domestication of the common turkey was probably begun by the Indians of Pre-Columbian Mexico. The birds were first taken to Spain about 1519, and from Spain they spread throughout Europe, reaching England in 1541. When the bird became popular in England, the name turkey-cock, formerly used for the guinea fowl of Islamic (or Turkish) lands, was transferred to it. English colonists then introduced European-bred strains of the turkey to eastern North America in the 17th century. Turkeys were mainly bred for their beautifully coloured plumage until about 1935, after which the breeding emphasis changed to their meat qualities. Races of the common turkey found today in Mexico and in the southeastern and southwestern United States differ slightly in feather markings and in rump colour, but all are basically dark, with iridescent bronze and green plumage. Adult males have a naked, heavily carunculated (bumpy) head that is normally bright red in colour but turns to white overlaid with bright blue when the birds are excited. Other distinguishing features of the common turkey are a long red fleshy ornament (called a snood) that grows from the forehead over the bill; a fleshy wattle growing from the throat; a tuft of coarse, black, hairlike feathers (known as a beard) projecting from the breast; and more or less prominent leg spurs. The male turkey, or gobbler, or tom, may be 130 cm (50 inches) long and weigh 10 kg (22 pounds), though average weight is less. Female turkeys, or hens, generally weigh only half as much as the males and have less warty heads than do the males. Domesticated strains of the common turkey, developed for their fine-tasting flesh, may be much heavier. Roast turkey in many European countries has long been a customary Christmas dish. In the United States the bird is especially associated with the holiday of Thanksgiving. Turkey production has thus tended to be seasonal, though in the United States and some other countries, ready-to-cook, lean, boned turkey is available in rolls any time of the year. The wild turkey prefers woodlands near water. It eats seeds, insects, and an occasional frog or lizard. When alarmed it may run rapidly to cover, but it can fly strongly only for short distances (about 0.4 km, or 0.25 mile). Formerly diminished under hunting pressure, M. gallopavo has come back well under various state game management programs in the United States. In courtship display the male spreads his tail, droops his wings and shakes the quills audibly, retracts his head, struts about, and utters rapid gobbling sounds. He assembles a harem, and each hen lays 815 brownish spotted eggs in a hollow in the ground. The young (poults) hatch in 28 days. The ocellated turkey, of Central America, is smaller than M. gallopavo. It has a blue head with reddish yellow bumps, bright-tipped feathers, almost peacocklike, and, in addition to the long bill wattle, a yellow-tipped knob on the crown. It has never been domesticated. See also fowl. Additional reading General works A general introduction that contains a useful bibliography is Helen Chapin Metz (ed.), Turkey: A Country Study, 5th ed. (1996). A helpful shorter work is Dankwart A. Rustow, Turkey: America's Forgotten Ally (1987). Older, still useful works include Lord Kinross (patrick Balfour, Baron Kinross), Turkey (1960); Cedric Salter, Introducing Turkey (1961); and Andrew Mango, Turkey (1968). Geography The land Works in European languages dealing specifically with Turkey are somewhat restricted. The only text devoted solely to the geography of Turkey is John C. Dewdney, Turkey (1971); but much additional geographic information is available from broader studies, including George Babcock Cressey, Crossroads: Land and Life in Southwest Asia (1960); William C. Brice, South-west Asia (1966); Stephen H. Longrigg, The Middle East: A Social Geography, 2nd ed., rev. by James Jankowski (1970); W.B. Fisher, The Middle East, 7th ed., completely rev. (1978); Alasdair Drysdale and Gerald H. Blake, The Middle East and North Africa: A Political Geography (1985); and Peter Beaumont, Gerald H. Blake, and J. Malcolm Wagstaff, The Middle East: A Geographical Study, 2nd ed. (1988). Numerous aspects of Turkey's physical and human geography are mapped and analyzed in Gerald H. Blake, John C. Dewdney, and Jonathan Mitchell (eds.), The Cambridge Atlas of the Middle East and North Africa (1987). The standard national atlas is Ali Tanoglu, S. Erin, and Erol Tmertekin, Trkiye Atlasi (1961). The people The country's population is discussed in John C. Dewdney, Turkey: Recent Population Trends, in John I. Clarke and W.B. Fisher (eds.), Populations of the Middle East and North Africa (1972), pp. 4067. Village life is described in Mahmut Makal, A Village in Anatolia, trans. from Turkish (1954); Joe E. Pierce, Life in a Turkish Village (1964, reissued 1983); and Paul Stirling, Turkish Village (1965). Migration is treated in Nermin Abadan-Unat et al., Turkish Workers in Europe, 19601975 (1976); and in Rusen Keles, The Effects of External Migration on Regional Development in Turkey, in Ray Hudson and Jim Lewis (eds.), Uneven Development in Southern Europe (1985), pp. 5475. The economy Economic development is the main focus of Oddvar Aresvik, The Agricultural Development of Turkey (1975); Edwin J. Cohn, Turkish Economic, Social, and Political Change (1970); Z.Y. Hershlag, Turkey: The Challenge of Growth (1968), and Economic Planning in Turkey (1968); Caglar Keyder, The Definition of a Peripheral Economy: Turkey, 19231929 (1981); Malcolm D. Rivkin, Area Development for National Growth: The Turkish Precedent (1965); and Bertil Wlstedt, State Manufacturing Enterprise in a Mixed Economy: The Turkish Case (1980). John C. Dewdney, Agricultural Development in Turkey, in John I. Clarke and Howard Bowen-Jones (eds.), Change and Development in the Middle East (1981), pp. 213223, surveys agriculture's role in the economy.Much attention has been paid to the modernization of Turkey and the changes that followed the establishment of the republic, most notably in Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 2nd ed. (1968, reprinted 1979); but also in David Barchard, Turkey and the West (1985); Peter Benedict, Erol Tmertekin, and Fatma Mansur (eds.), Turkey: Geographic and Social Perspectives (1974); William M. Hale (ed.), Aspects of Modern Turkey (1976); William M. Hale, The Political and Economic Development of Modern Turkey (1981); Jacob Landau (ed.), Atatrk and the Modernization of Turkey (1984); and Huseyin Ramazanoglu (ed.), Turkey in the World Capitalist System (1985). Administration and social conditions Political aspects are dealt with in detail by C.H. Dodd, The Crisis of Turkish Democracy, 2nd, enlarged ed. (1990); Michael N. Danielson and Rusen Keles, The Politics of Rapid Urbanization: Government and Growth in Modern Turkey (1985); Kemal H. Karpat, Social Change and Politics in Turkey (1973); Lord Kinross (Patrick Balfour, Baron Kinross), Ataturk: The Rebirth of a Nation (1964, reissued 1993); and Robert E. Ward and Dankwart A. Rustow, Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (1964). Binnaz Toprak, Islam and Political Development in Turkey (1981), studies the role of religion in Turkey's development. John C. Dewdney History The best general history covering this period is Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 2nd ed. (1968, reprinted 1979); it is updated by Erik J. Zrcher, Turkey: A Modern History (1993); and by Feroz Ahmad, The Making of Modern Turkey (1993). Niyazi Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey (1964), covers similar ground but concentrates on the development of ideas. Robert E. Ward and Dankwart A. Rustow (eds.), Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (1964), has valuable essays on general themes. Walter F. Weiker, The Modernization of Turkey (1981), covers the period beginning in 1923.R.H. Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 18561876 (1963, reissued 1973); and Carter V. Findlay, Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire: The Sublime Porte, 17891922 (1980), discuss the Tanzimat. Robert Devereux, The First Ottoman Constitutional Period (1963), is a careful study of the 1876 crisis and the establishment of the first Ottoman parliament. Serif Mardin, The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought (1962), is a study of the Young Ottomans; and studies of the Young Turks include Ernest Edmondson Ramsaur, The Young Turks: Prelude to the Revolution of 1908 (1957, reissued 1970); M. Skr Hanioglu, The Young Turks in Opposition (1995); Feroz Ahmad, The Young Turks: The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics, 19081914 (1969); and Erik J. Zrcher, The Unionist Factor: The Role of the Committee of Union and Progress in the Turkish National Movement, 19051926 (1984). David Kushner, The Rise of Turkish Nationalism, 18761908 (1977), considers ideological aspects. The Ottoman public debt is considered in Donald C. Blaisdell, European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire (1929, reissued 1966). Charles Issawi (ed.), The Economic History of Turkey, 18001914 (1980); and Donald Quataert, Social Disintegration and Popular Resistance in the Ottoman Empire, 18811908: Reactions to European Economic Penetration (1983), are good economic histories.Several chronologies are useful for Turkish history since 1918; they appear in Gotthard Jschke, Die Welt des Islams, Die Trkei in den Jahren 19351941 (1943), Die Trkei in den Jahren 19421951 (1955), and Die Trkei in den Jahren 19521961 (1965). Economic developments during this period are outlined in Max Weston Thornburg, Graham Spry, and George Soule, Turkey: An Economic Appraisal (1949, reissued 1968); Z.Y. Hershlag, Turkey: The Challenge of Growth (1968); Anne O. Krueger, Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: Turkey (1975); and William M. Hale, The Political and Economic Development of Modern Turkey (1981).Ahmed Emin (Ahmet Emin Yalman), Turkey in the World War (1930), is still the only account of the subject; although relations with Germany can be followed in Ulrich Trumpener, Germany and the Ottoman Empire, 19141918 (1968, reprinted 1989); and with Austria in Frank G. Weber, Eagles on the Crescent (1970). Several books consider aspects of Allied war aims in the Middle East. Although outdated in parts, Harry N. Howard, The Partition of Turkey: A Diplomatic History, 19131923 (1931, reissued 1966), is comprehensive; but the best modern account is David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 19141922 (1989). E.D. Smith, Origins of the Kemalist Movement and the Government of the Grand National Assembly, 19191923 (1959), is also worth consulting. Lord Kinross (Patrick Balfour, Baron Kinross), Atatrk: The Rebirth of a Nation (1964, reissued 1981; also published as Atatrk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey, 1965, reissued 1978), is a good biography. Political developments in Turkey and particularly the rise of the Democratic Party are detailed in Kemal H. Karpat, Turkey's Politics (1959). Richard D. Robinson, The First Turkish Republic (1963), is a good general account, strongest on economic aspects. Frederick W. Frey, The Turkish Political Elite (1965), is an illuminating and detailed analysis of the membership of the Grand National Assembly.Various periods are examined in the following works: Walter F. Weiker, The Turkish Revolution, 19601961 (1963, reprinted 1980), on the 1960 military coup; C.H. Dodd, Politics and Government in Turkey (1969), and Democracy and Development in Turkey (1979), on the period 196165; and, for the postwar period generally, Feroz Ahmad, The Turkish Experiment in Democracy, 19501975 (1977). Later political movements are analyzed in Jacob M. Landau, Radical Politics in Modern Turkey (1974); Ergun zbudun, Social Change and Political Participation in Turkey (1976); Lucille W. Pevsner, Turkey's Political Crisis (1984); and Metin Heper and Ahmet Evin (eds.), State, Democracy, and the Military (1988). Political parties are addressed by Metin Heper and Jacob M. Landau (eds.), Political Parties and Democracy in Turkey (1991). Nationalist ideology is discussed in Jacob M. Landau, Pan-Turkism in Turkey (1981); and the role of Islam in politics is explored by Mehmet Yasar Geyikdagi, Political Parties in Turkey (1984). Richard Tapper (ed.), Islam in Modern Turkey (1991), a collection of essays, is also of interest. Andreas M. Kazamias, Education and the Quest for Modernity in Turkey (1966), may serve as a history of educational developments. A fine study of Turkish foreign relations is Kemal H. Karpat et al., Turkey's Foreign Policy in Transition, 19501974 (1975). The Kurdish problem is considered by Martin van Bruinessen, Agha, Shaikh, and State (1978, reissued 1992); and Michael M. Gunter, The Kurds in Turkey (1990). Andrew Mango, Turkey: The Challenge of a New Role (1994), covers political, economic, social, and diplomatic developments since the 1960s. Malcolm Edward Yapp Administration and social conditions Government Following a period of authoritarian, one-party rule under the first president of the republic, Mustafa Kemal (Atatrk; 192338), and his successor, Ismet Inn (193850), multiparty democracy was instituted in 1950. Parliamentary democracy has for the most part remained in force since that date, although it has been interrupted by brief periods of military government at times when civilian rule was perceived as ineffective. After each military interlude (196061, 197173, 198083), power was returned to civilian hands under a revised constitution. Constitution Under the current constitution, approved by national referendum in 1982 and amended in 1987 and 1995, the main legislative body is a 550-member parliament, the Grand National Assembly (Byk Millet Meclisi), elected by universal adult suffrage for a five-year term. Members are chosen by a modified system of proportional representation based on political parties. There are a number of restrictions: extremist parties of both left and right are banned, as are any parties founded on an overtly religious basis, and no party that obtains less than 10 percent of the national vote may be represented in parliament. Executive power is divided between the prime minister and the president. The prime minister, elected by the parliament, selects other ministers (subject to parliamentary approval) and is responsible, along with the cabinetthe Council of Ministersfor carrying out government policy. Cabinet actions may be referred to a constitutional court for a ruling on their legality. The president, also elected by the parliament, holds a symbolic role as head of state but has considerable powers, notably calling or dissolving parliament, approving the appointment of the prime minister, returning legislation to parliament for reconsideration, referring laws to the constitutional court, and submitting proposed constitutional changes to a popular referendum. The independence of the judiciary, including the constitutional court and the courts responsible for criminal, civil, and administrative matters, is assured by the constitution. Turkey is divided into 79 provinces. These provinces are administered by governors, who are appointed by the Council of Ministers, subject to the approval of the president. Provinces are divided into districts and subdistricts. Villages are governed by a headman and a council of elders, both elected by the village residents. Cultural life The covered bazaar of Kapali Carsi, Istanbul, Turkey. Culturally, as in so many other respects, Turkey sits between East and West, drawing elements from both to produce its own unique blend. The territory that now constitutes the republic has been subject to a striking range of cultural influences; these have left a rich archaeological legacy, still visible in the landscape, from the civilizations of classical Europe and the Islamic Middle East. With the division of the Roman Empire into western and eastern sections, Asia Minor became part of the Byzantine realm, centred at Constantinople (Istanbul). The rise of Islam in the east led to a division of the peninsula between the Byzantine Christian world and the Islamic Middle East, and it was not until the arrival of the Turks that Asia Minor finally became part of the Islamic world. The Ottoman Empire was multinational and multicultural; the new Turkey established by Atatrk, however, was more homogeneous in language and religion than its predecessor states. Under Atatrk and his followers, Turkey became increasingly secular and Western-oriented, a trend manifested in the reform of the Turkish language, the replacement of the traditional Arabic script by a modified Roman alphabet, and the separation of Islam from the state. Nevertheless, Islam has exerted a profound influence on the relations between the sexes and on family life. The strength of this influence varies between the more- and less-developed regions of the country, between urban and rural populations, and among the social classes. In the 1980s and '90s Islam reasserted its role in political affairs. Daily life Work In the rural areas each season has different tasks and activities. Except in the south and west, winter is a period of frost, snow, and social activities. Animals are often kept indoors and fed mainly chopped straw. With the spring thaw, plowing and sowing are soon under way. After a month or so of less urgent work, the hay harvest is followed immediately by the main grain harvest, a period of intense activity lasting some six to eight weeks; everyone works, some people 16 to 20 hours a day. Most village areas contain weavers, masons, carpenters, and smiths such as tinsmiths. Some villagers go to town for craft services, and a number of craftsmen travel around the villagesparticularly specialists, such as sieve makers or sawyers. It is impossible to summarize in a few words the material culture of the towns and cities, which not long ago were the central part of a great empire and have since been profoundly influenced by European fashions and technology. Most towns, large and small, nevertheless still contain markets where simple lockup shops stand side by side in rows. Usually these are arranged by craft or warescoppersmiths, jewelers, cobblers, tailors, motor mechanics, and so on. Retailers also are grouped by commodity. The larger towns have become increasingly Westernized, with modern factories, offices, and shops. Large-scale commuting from sprawling suburban areas is typical of the major cities, where it produces traffic congestion, air pollution, and strains on public transportation.