EARLY AGES
The history of Turkey tells of a 10,000 year-old civilisation.
Anatolia is a melting pot where cultures from Sumer, Babylon
and Assyria interacted for centuries with peoples such as the
Hattis, Hittites and Hourrites. The result was a unique
Anatolian civilisation which has long inspired the thoughts
and legends of the West. The ancient Bronze Age witnessed the
establishment of the first independent city states. At that
time, the centre and southeast of Anatolia were inhabited by
the indigenous Hattis. The most spectacular findings from this
time are those of Alaca Hoyuk in the Kizilirmak region and of
Horoztepe near Tokat, in the Black Sea region. They are
contemporary with the royal tombs of Mycenae in Greece.
THE
LEGENDARY TROY
Troy was founded around 3000 BC, and played a major role in
the importation of tin, vital for the production of bronze.
THE HITTITES
ARRIVE
The Hittites
arrived in Anatolia towards the second millennium BC. They
absorbed much of the Babylonian civilisation and long enjoyed
a
monopoly of iron in Asia. This, combined with the use of the
chariot, gave the Hittites a military superiority over Egypt
and other Mesopotamian states. The victorious raid against
Babylon in 1590 BC was the climax of the first Hittite empire,
followed by a period of decline. Then, in the first half of
the fourteenth century, came a revival of power. This second
era saw a Hittite hegemony snatching from the shores of the
Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.
MITANNI KINGDOM
The Mitanni kingdom was a contemporary and the enemy of the
Hittites. It was founded by the Hourrites, a people originally
from the South Caspian Sea. The Hourrites exercised
considerable influence over the religion of the Hittites, and
spread the use of two-wheel chariots and the breeding of
horses throughout the Near East.
THE
URARTIAN STATE
At the beginning of the first millennium BC, the Urartus
created a unified state whose territory extended from the
Caucasus to Lake Urmiya, with its capital in the present city
of Van. The Urartus were masters in hydraulic works and
skilled in irrigation, drainage and the construction of canals
and artificial lakes. They were also known for their horse
breeding and formidable cavalry.
THE
PHRYGIANS AND KING MIDAS
The Phrygians (750-300 BC) settled in Central and Western
Anatolia, in the Afyon-Ankara-Eskisehir triangle, declaring
Gordion on the Sakarya river to be their capital. Their
civilisation met its apogee in the second half of the 8th
century BC, under the famous King Midas whom, according to the
mythology, Apollo ridiculed by having him grow ears of a
donkey, and whom Dionysus invested with the power to turn
everything he touched into gold. Gordion fell to Persian
domination around 550 BC and was liberated in 333 BC by
Alexander the Great.
THE
LYDIANS INVENT M O N E Y - SARDES
Around East of Izmir in Sardes, lived another people, the
Lydians, thought to have invented money between 800 and 650 BC.
In the 6th century BC, Croesus, the King of Lydia, agreed with
the advancing Persians to divide Anatolia along the river Kızılırmak.
The Persians, however, did not keep this commitment and
continued to encroach on Lydian territory. They remained the
sovereign power in Anatolia until the arrival of Alexander the
Great in 333 BC.
ANATOLIA CHANGES HANDS AGAIN - PERGAMON
After the death of Alexander the Great, Anatolia became the
hub of the Seleucid Empire. Pergamon (Bergama) grew at the
expense of its neighbours, and snatched part of Phrygia in 241
BC. The kingdom became prodigiously rich, the emporium of
Anatolia and a brilliant intellectual centre.
THE
ROMAN PERIOD BEGINS
The Roman period of Anatolia began with the death of King
Attalus III of Pergamon (Bergama) who willed his country to
the Romans because he had no direct heir. Anatolia then lived
through a period of peace and prosperity, particularly in the
1st and 2nd centuries AD. The pax Romana proved to be an
extraordinary period of urban development. Ephesus served as
the seat of the Roman governor of Asia and as a great
commercial and cultural centre.
Izmir / Ephesus
THE
ERA OF EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE
The era of Roman Empire is an essential chapter in the history
of the region. In 330, Constantine, the Roman emperor,
transferred his capital from Rome to Roman Empire. Roman
Empire, at that time a small city founded 1,000 years earlier
by Greeks on the shores of the Strait was henceforth called
Constantinople. The centre of the Empire thereafter became the
Orient, in particular Anatolia, inhabited by the descendants
of Hattis, Hittites, Phrygians, Greeks and others. Roman
Empire became the Eastern Roman Empire; its official religion
was proclaimed to be Christianity in 380 and in 392 paganism
was banned. In 476, Rome collapsed and Constantinople remained
the sole capital of the empire. Roman Empire was both a state
and a civilisation, built along the lines of the Roman state,
the Greek culture and the Christian faith. The emperor enjoyed
divine power and relied heavily on the Church.
Roman Empire knew its first golden age under Justinian. One
thousand years of Roman jurisprudence were gathered together
in four volumes, a work which had a lasting influence for many
centuries. Justinian was also a great builder. The Basilica of
Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) (AD 532-7) was constructed during his
reign. The history of Roman Empire is one of alternating
periods of glory and decay, of religious dissent, of conflicts
and wars with Persians, Arabs, Seljuks, Ottomans and peoples
of the North.
By the 13th century, Roman Empire was drawing her final breath.
After the mortal wound of 1204, when the Crusaders occupied
Constantinople, sacked the city, forced the emperor to leave
and established a Latin kingdom, she was a small state.
Bulgaria declared her independence and a new maritime power,
Venice took for herself the whole Aegean complex of islands.
In 1261, the Byzantines had regained possession of their
capital, but there were new threats.
SELJUK AND OTTOMAN TURKS
Konya / Ince Minare
In
the 11th century, under their leader Tugrul, the Seljuk Turks
founded the dynasty of great Seljuks reigning in Iran, Iraq
and Syria. In 1071, his nephew Alp Arslan defeated the
Byzantines in Malazgirt, near Lake Van. The doors of Anatolia
were thus opened to the Turks, and Anatolia went through a
profound transformation ethnically, politically, and in the
religious, linguistic and cultural spheres. The Seljuk
Sultanate in Anatolia continued until the beginning of the
14th century. The zenith of the Seljuk civilisation came in
the first half of the 13th century with Konya as its political,
economic, religious, artistic and literary centre. The Seljuks
created a centralised administration organised around the
Sultan, his ministers and provincial governors. Science and
literature blossomed, as did mystic poetry. Anatolia was
crossed by the great routes linking the east and west, and
many of the caravanserais built along these routes still stand
today. Agriculture, industry and handicrafts expanded and the
country was suddenly rich in mosques, madrasahs (medreses -
educational institutions) and caravanserais (kervansarays -
roadside inns).
COLLAPSE OF THE SELJUK SULTANATE
The Seljuk Sultanate collapsed due to internal dissent and
Mongol invasions. Anatolia was again fragmented into rival
independent principalities, one of which came under Ottoman
rule. Anatolia, though divided, had been united by language,
religion and race, offering an opportunity for statesmanship
and courage. This would be the task of Osman and his
successors.
THE
OTTOMAN EMPIRE GAINS GROUND
Topkapi Palace
In
1296, Osman declared himself the independent Sultan of the
region of Sogut near Bursa he had hitherto held in fief, and
founded the Ottoman State. During the rule of his son Orhan,
Bursa and Iznik were captured and soon the whole south-eastern
coast of Marmara was under Ottoman control. The many conquests
and diplomatic successes of Orhan were not the only
achievements of his reign. He had encouraged and promoted art,
literature, science and commerce. He also established a
regular standing army, known as the Janissaries. Well paid and
disciplined, the Janissaries provided the new Ottoman state
with a patriotic force of trained soldiers.
Built upon such solid foundations, the Ottoman Empire spread
apace. In the reign of Murat, this expansion was still in a
westerly direction and it was not until the frontiers were
extended to the Adriatic, the Danube and Thessaly, that the
Sultan turned his attention towards Eastern Anatolia Now that
his rule was established in Europe and Asia, Beyazit turned
towards Constantinople in 1402. The city was almost within
Iris grasp when he was called to meet me westward march of
Timurlane which delayed the conquest of Istanbul for several
decades.
In 1453, under Mehmet the Conqueror, the Ottomans took
Constantinople, a momentous event for the whole world and a
great feat of arms. But the banner of Ottoman success was to
be raised much higher and by the late l6th century the
Ottomans were deep into Europe. In the following centuries,
however, the Ottoman Empire lost its momentum, entered a
period of stagnation and then gradually a period of decline.
WORLD WAR ONE
The final blow to the Empire came with the First World War,
during which The Ottoman Empire was on the losing side with
Germany. Great Britain reversed the policy she had followed
until then, and undertook with France, Russia and Italy,
forming the Allied Forces. At the end of the war in 1918, the
Ottoman government, under the occupation of the Allied Forces,
choose not to further resist a peace treaty embodying the
partition of Turkey. In May 1919, the Greeks, who had been
promised a part of Anatolia, landed at Izmir and started an
invasion in Western Anatolia while France sought control over
South-Eastern Anatolia, and the Great Britain do the same in
Istanbul in particular regions of the Middle East.
THE
VISIONS OF ATATÜRK AND REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Against
this challenge, the Turkish nation engaged in a struggle to
restore her territorial integrity and independence, to repulse
foreign aggressors, to create a new state, to disassociate
Turkey from the crumbling Ottoman dynasty, to eradicate an old
and decrepit order and to build a modern country dedicated to
political, social and economic progress. This was the vision
of Ataturk, a general in the Ottoman army who had
distinguished himself in the defence of Gallipoli (Canakkale)
against the Naval Forces of Britain, France, Australia and New
Zealand. The Ottoman victory over the Allies at Gallipoli
renewed Turkey's visions for the empire Ataturk wanted a clean
break with the past, to unite the nation in the quest for
modernism and to lift Turkey to the level of European
countries. On October 29 1923, the republic was proclaimed and
Atatürk was elected president. Secularism was established by
separating religious and state affairs. The Latin alphabet
replaced the Arabic script and women were given the right to
vote and to be elected as members of parliament. These reforms,
as well as many others in all aspects of social life, put
Turkey on the track towards becoming a thoroughly modern
country.
A
PROUD NATION
When Ataturk died in 1938, he left a legacy of which the
Turkish people today are proud. A nation that had regained
confidence in itself after the independence war; a society
determined to preserve the political, intellectual, cultural
and social values he had bequeathed. The Turkish Republic has
now been a member of the international community for over 80
years. During this period, great changes have occurred and
many difficulties have been encountered. But the country
remains firmly attached to the policies initiated by Ataturk.
It has established a democratic multi-party political system,
developed a vibrant civil society, and embarked on the path of
industrialisation and market economy.
It has consolidated its ties with the west and with the
European Union through membership in NATO and the Council of
Europe and Customs Union. These trends mark a radical change
from the days of the Ottoman Empire. Yet there is also
continuity. The Turks have inherited both from the Islamic
past and their Ottoman past. They have also inherited from
their western past, as well as forming a part of the Western
present. All these heritages, Eastern and Western, Asian and
European, are intermingled in the civilisation of modem Turkey.
A symbol of this union is the two bridges that span the
Istanbul Strait, linking the two continents with many pasts
and one future.And Turkey is a candidate country negotiating
with European Union for being a member of EU. A Turkish
government agency; General Secretariat of European Union is
responsible for the negotiations (www.abgs.gov.tr)
Note
: quoted from goturkey.com