Anatolia

Native name: Anadolu, Άνατολή
One definition of Anatolia within modern Turkey, excluding most of the Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia Regions.[1][2] Other definitions are coterminous with Turkey’s eastern and southern borders.
Etymology	“the East”, from Greek
Geography
Location	Western Asia
Coordinates	39°N 35°ECoordinates: 39°N 35°E
Area	756,000 km2 (292,000 sq mi)[3] (incl. Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia Region)
Administration
Turkey
Largest city	Ankara (pop. 5,700,000[4])
Demographics
Demonym	Anatolian
Languages	Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Greek, Kabardian, North Caucasian languages, various others
Ethnic groups	Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Chechens, Circassians, Greeks, Laz, various others
Additional information
Time zone	TRT (UTC+3)

Anatolia,^[a] also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Turkish Straits to the northwest, the Black Sea to the north, the Armenian Highlands to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean seas through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the Balkan peninsula of Southeast Europe.

The eastern border of Anatolia has been held to be a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea, bounded by the Armenian Highlands to the east and Mesopotamia to the southeast. By this definition Anatolia comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. Today, Anatolia is sometimes considered to be synonymous with Asian Turkey, thereby including the western part of the Armenian Highlands and northern Mesopotamia^[5] and making its eastern and southern borders coterminous with Turkey’s borders.^[6][7][8]

The ancient Anatolian peoples spoke the now-extinct Anatolian languages of the Indo-European language family, which were largely replaced by the Greek language during classical antiquity as well as during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods. The major Anatolian languages included Hittite, Luwian, and Lydian, while other, poorly attested local languages included Phrygian and Mysian. Hurro-Urartian languages were spoken in the southeastern kingdom of Mitanni, while Galatian, a Celtic language, was spoken in Galatia, central Anatolia. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the rule of the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century and it continued under the rule of the Ottoman Empire between the late 13th and the early 20th century and it has continued under the rule of today’s Republic of Turkey. However, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Neo-Aramaic, Armenian, North Caucasian languages, Laz, Georgian and Greek. Other ancient peoples in the region included Galatians, Hurrians, Assyrians, Hattians, Cimmerians, as well as Ionian, Dorian, and Aeolic Greeks.