Turkey Public Holidays 2013 Calendar

Public holidays in Turkey fall into 2 groups: The ones which commemorate the important events from the foundation days of Turkish Republic and the Muslim festivals. There are only 2 religious holidays but they tend to be long, usually Turkish take a week long holiday during these holidays and business life almost stops.

Religious holidays for Muslim festivals and their date change every year since they are based on lunar calendar.

Below are the Turkish holidays in 2013 with their dates:

Turkey 2013 Holidays
Here is the list of Turkey 2013 holidays in Turkey 2013 calendar:

New Year Holiday
(Turkish Yilbasi)
January 1st, 2013 Tuesday
Turkey celebrates Gregorian Calendar's first year as new year and most of the time December 31st is also a half day holiday. Since the holiday is Tuesday, many will merge this with the weekend and create a 4 day holiday for themselves.

National Sovereignty and Children's Day 
(Turkish Ulusal Egemenlik ve Cocuk Bayrami)
April 23rd, 2013, Tuesday
Grand National Assembly of Turkey has first opened its door at Ankara in 23 April 1920 and the day is a holiday for the commemoration of the event. This official holiday is dedicated to the children.

Labour and Solidarity Day
(Turkish Turkish Emek ve Dayanışma Günü)
May 1st 2013, Wednesday
This is May Day holiday, which was removed from the list of public holidays in 1981 by the military rulers of 1980 Turkish coup d'état. 28 years after, in 2009, May Day has been an official public holiday again.

Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day
(Turkish Atatürk'ü Anma Gençlik ve Spor Bayramı)
May 19th, 2013, Sunday
May 19th 1919 is a public holiday commemorating the beginning of national liberation movement initiated in 1919 by Atatürk's landing in Samsun. The holiday is dedicated to the youth.

Ramadan Feast
(Turkish Ramazan Bayrami)
August 7-8-9-10 2013


This religious fest is Eid_ul-Fitr and one of the longest holidays in Turkey and if all these days are in weekdays, Turkish tend to have a long 9 days holiday by merging this holiday with the weekends. Since August is summer time, many Turkish will flock to south for holiday and it would be difficult if not impossible to find hotel rooms and plane tickets during this time.

Victory Day
(Turkish Zafer Bayrami)
August 30, 2013, Friday
This holiday is for the commemoration of the victory at the final battle in Dumlupinar which has ended the Turkish Independence War in 1922 with a victory and it is dedicated to the armed forces.

Sacrifice Feast
(Turkish Kurban Bayrami)
October 15-16-17-18 2013
This religious fest is Eid_ul-Adha and one of the longest holidays in Turkey and if all these days are in weekdays, Turkish tend to have a long 9 days holiday by merging this holiday with the weekends. It is very difficult to find tickets and hotel rooms around this time.

Republic Day
(Turkish Cumhuriyet Bayrami)
October 28-29th, 2013
This 1.5 day holiday starts at 28th afternoon and October 29th is a full day holiday commemoration of the proclamation of the republic in 1923.

Interesting facts about Turkey

• Why Turkey (country) is called Turkey(bird)? Actually, opposite is true. The bird Turkey takes its name from the country named Turkey. Turkey (bird) is native to Americas and when Europeans first encountered them, they incorrectly identified these birds as a type of guineafowl  (Numididae). At that time guineafowl were also known as turkey fowl (or turkey hen and turkey cock) because they were imported to Central Europe through Turkey. The name turkey fowl, shortened to just the name of the country, stuck as the name of the North American bird.[1]
  
  
• The largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date is in Turkey. The place is named Çatalhöyük and is in southern Anatolia. The settlement existed from approximately 7500 BCE to 5700 BCE! 9,000 years ago, at a time when most of the world's population were wandering hunter-gatherers, Catalhoyuk was one of the world's largest settlements with a population of 10,000. The settlement is composed of domestic buildings an was home to 10,000 people at some time before being abandoned before Bronze age. Many in Turkey think this place is the oldest settlement ever found but this record probably goes to Jericho (Israel) where earliest settlements goes to 11,000 years back!
  

• Troy, the legendary city best known for being the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, is in Turkey. It is located in located in northwest Anatolia, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida. So basically, the famous Trojan Wars took place in Western Turkey. There is an urban legends circulated in Turkey which hints Turks relate themselves to the people of Troy: According to the Turkish writer Sabahattin Eyüboglu’s book "Mavi ve Kara" (Blue and Black), Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, told an officer besides him  "We’ve got revenge of Troy at Dumlupinar". Dumlupinar was a war between Turkish army and Greek army which was invading Anatolia after WWI.
  
• Santa Claus was born in the town of Patara on the South West coast of Turkey between the years of 260 and 280AD.  Technically, the republic of Turkey was not formed until 1923 so if you want to split hairs, Patara at that time was under Lycian rule. 2 – The true name of Santa Claus was Nicholas and in adult life, he became the bishop of Myra which was a town further up the coast from Patara. It is now called Demre.[2]
• Another interesting thing is that, the trojan horse built for the famous 2004 movie Troy is currently in Canakkale city in western Turkey near Ancient Troy.



Trojan Horse built for the movie Troy in Canakkale Turkey - Source : mlahanas

• Istanbul, the largest and the most famous city in Turkey, is the only city in the world built on two continents. The city lies both on Europe and Asia and two sides are connected by 2 large bridges (and a 3rd one is under construction).
  
  
• No, Istanbul is not the capital of Turkey. Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire and still the cultural, economical and social capital of Turkey but it lost its title as political capital to Ankara when Turkey was founded.
  
  
• According to IMF, Turkey has the 18th largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP.

[1] – Turkey, Wikipedia
[2] - Santa Claus and His Life in Turkey : Six Facts You Never Knew