Turkey is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwestern Asia and the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. The region comprising modern Turkey has seen the birth of major civilisations including the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Owing to its strategic location at the intersection of two continents, Turkey's culture is a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition, often described as a bridge between the two civilisations. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Since then, Turkey has increasingly integrated with the West while continuing to foster relations with the Eastern world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, a member state of the Council of Europe since 1949 and of NATO since 1952. Since 2005, Turkey is in accession negotiations with the European Union, having been an associate member since 1963. Turkey is also a member of the G20 which brings together the 20 largest economies of the world.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1461: Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then became King Edward IV. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VI_of_England) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV_of_England)

1681: King Charles II of England granted William Penn a charter for the Pennsylvania Colony. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn)

1825: Despite having lost in both the electoral and popular votes in the 1824 presidential election, John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as the sixth President of the United States. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams)

1980: Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union was elected to head the first government in Zimbabwe. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

In all living nature (and perhaps also in that which we consider as dead) love is the motive force which drives the creative activity in the most diverse directions. -- P. D. Ouspensky (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/P._D._Ouspensky)