For Foreign Policy, Andrew Finkel listed ten things you didn't know about Turkey. I suggest you to read the full article, but here is the short list:
1. Turkey is nearly as urban as France.
2. Turkish political life is secular, but religion still has a role.
3. It's the economy, stupid -- in Turkey, too.
4. Atatürk liberated Turkish women (but forgot to tell the men).
5. Turkey has the biodiversity of a small continent.
6. Istanbul is the world's largest Kurdish city.
7. Turkey's press operates with one hand tied behind its back.
8. Fifteen percent of senior Turkish military officers are now standing trial.
9. Not all Islam in Turkey is the same.
10. Turkey's quest to be European dates back to the 1950s.
Although I agree with most of the points, I have reservations about the sixth point, as I prefer not to refer to any city with an ethnic adjective. Istanbul is neither Turkish nor Kurdish nor Ottoman nor Byzantine. It is a city.
I should also add that the last point is wrong. Turkey's quest to be European dates back much before than the 1950s. Although Turkey's drive for the European Common Market started then, the 1950s was actually a decade under a proto-Islamist government that was against Westernization of Turkey. If we mean the Republic of Turkey, then the quest to be European kickstarted in 1926 by Atatürk. If we are talking about the Ottoman Europeanization, then it precedes the Hatt-i Sharif.
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