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Countries of the World: Turkish

TURKEY IN EUROPE. -The Ottoman Empire, properly speaking, comprehends all the countries in which Turkish supremacy is directly or indirectly recognized, and it includes some of the most beautiful as well as most ancient sections of the globe, in point of civilization. As a whole, the empire is an aggregation of governments, often widely separated, and only united by having been the subjects of a common conquest. That portion of the Ottoman Empire known as Turkey in Europe lies N. of the Sea of Marmora and the Grecian Archipelago or Ægean Sea, which, together with Greece, form its S. boundary, and is bounded on the N. by Servia, Bulgaria, and Eastern Roumelia, on the E. by the Black Sea, and on the W. by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. Down to the years 1877-78, at which time the Turkish Government engaged in a war with Russia, Bulgaria, and Eastern Roumelia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina were included in the European Turkish possessions, but the result of that war was to create semi-independent States of the former two, and to place the latter two under the protectorate of Austro-Hungary. This act, together with the cession of a large tract of country in Asiatic Turkey to Russia, and a small one to Persia, and the addition of territory to Servia, Roumania, and Montenegro, greatly reduced the area and population. The possessions were further cut down, in 1878, by the placing of the Island of Cyprus under British control. The area and population in Europe were estimated as follows, before and after the treaty of Berlin: Turkey in Europe, before the treaty, 138,264 sq. m.; population, 8,315,000; cessions made under the treaty, 76,236 sq. m.; population, 4,040,000 ; actual Turkey in Europe, 66,500 sq. m.; population, 4,668,000. The shores of European Turkey are washed by 5 historic bodies of water-the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmora, and the Ægean, the Ionian, and the Adriatic Seas; while connecting the Ægean Sea with the Sea of Marmora, and the latter in turn with the Black Sea, are the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, two narrow strips of water which afford excellent defence, and command the approach to the capital and chief commercial city of the empire. The river system is quite extensive, owing to the undulating and mountainous nature of the country, but under the treaty made after the late war, Turkey has lost the most important watercourse, the Danube, which empties into the Black Sea, just S. of the Russian line. The chief rivers at present are the Maritza, Kara-Soo, Varda, Voyusa, and Drin. There are numerous lakes, the principal being Ochrida and Scutari in the western portion of the empire. The principal forest trees are pine, beech, oak, lime, and ash, maple, almond; while the palm, sycamore, chestnut, and carob are found in the lowlands of the S. The olive, orange, citron, vine, peach, plum, and other fruit-trees abound, and most of the region S. of the Balkan Mountains abounds in roses, from which the attar is largely distilled.

MINERALS.-Turkey has an abundance of iron ore, argentiferous gelena, copper, sulphur, salt, and alum; but the characteristics of the people are such that these deposits are not advantageously worked.