Republic of Marmara

The Republic of Marmara (Marmara Cumhuriyeti - Turkish) is a small country located in Northern Turkey. It covers the former Turkish province of Marmara on the coast of the Sea of Marmara, and borders with Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece. The country was officially put into existance in 1941 at the Geography Congress in Ankara. The capital and largest city in Istanbul.



History
Although the first inhabitents of the Marmara region were various Indo-European tribes, the area is best known for being a focus of intense ancient Greek settlement. The famed city of Troy, center of the Iliad, was located in the region. It was also involved in the Persian wars, with various parts beinmg split between the Persian Empire and the Delian League. Marmara was later conquered by the Roman Empire. After emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity, Marmara quickly became a center of the Christian faith. Its most important city, Constantinople, was a stronghold of the Christian Byzantine Empire even after Muslims began to predominate in neighboring regions. It therefore remained predominately Christian until Muslim Turks invaded Anatolia in the late eleventh century. Afterwords, it was a territory of various Turkish and Christian empires, until it was finally conquered by Islam by the Ottoman empire, which gave Constantinople its present name, Istambul.

In Ankara in 1941, at the Geography Congress, the area of Marmara was officially separated from Turkey, and became its own country.

Geography
The Yıldız Mountains and Uludağ are in the Marmara Region. Islands in the Aegean Sea are Gökçeada and Bozcaada, and in the Sea of Marmara are Marmara Island, Avşa, Paşalimanı, İmralı and the Princes Islands of Istanbul.

Marmara has a surface area of 67.000 km² and takes up 8.6% of Northern Turkey.

Climate
The Marmara region has a hybrid mediterranean climate/humid subtropical climate on the Aegean Sea coast and the south Marmara Sea coast, an oceanic climate on the Black Sea coast and a humid continental climate in the interior. Summers are warm to hot, humid and moderately dry whereas winters are cold and wet and sometimes snowy. ==Government and Politics==

Provinces
Marmara is divided into 12 provinces or, each of which has its own council, or ilçe in Turkish.
 * Balıkesir Province
 * Bilecik Province
 * Bursa Province
 * Çanakkale Province
 * Edirne ProvinceMarmara.png
 * İstanbul Province
 * Kırklareli Province
 * Kocaeli Province]
 * Sakarya Province
 * Tekirdağ Province
 * Yalova Province

Settlements
Istanbul is Marmara's largest city, and its capital, its second largest is Edirne, which is located near the border with Greece.