The history of Turkey tells of a 10,000 year-old civilization. Anatolia is a
melting pot where cultures from Sumer, Babylon and Assyria interacted for
centuries with peoples such as the Hattis, Hittites, Hourrites. The result was a
unique Anatolian civilization 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 center and southeast of Anatolia were
inhabited by the indigenous Hattis.
The most spectacular finding from this time are those of Alaca Höyük 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 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 millenium BC. They
absorbed much of the Babylonian civilization and long enjoyed a monopoly of iron
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 stretching 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 millenium 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 civilization met its apogee in the second half of the 8th
century BC, under the famous King Midas whom, according to Greek 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 MONEY
In the east of Izmir, 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
Kizilirmak. 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.
THE ROMAN PERIOD BEGINS
After the death of Alexander the Great, Anatolia became the hub of the
Seleucid Empire. Bergama grew at the expense of its neighbors, and snatched part
of Phrygia in 241 BC. The kingdom became prodigiously rich, the emporium of
Anotolia and a brilliant intellectual center.
The Roman period of Anatolia began with the death of king Attalus III of
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 extra ordinary period of urban development.
Ephesus served as the seat of the Roman governor of Asia and as a great
commercial and cultural center. The era of Byzantium is an essential chapter in
the history of the region. In 330, Constantine, the Roman emperor, transferred
his capital from Rome to Byzance. Byzance, at that time a small city founded
1,000 years earlier by the Greeks on the shores of the Bosphorus was henceforth
called Constantinople. The center of the Empire thereafter became the Orient, in
particular Anatolia, inhabited by the descendants of Hattis, Hittites,
Phrygians, Greeks and others. Byzantium 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. Byzantium was both a state and a civilization, 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.
THE GOLDEN AGE
Byzantium 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 St. Sophia (AD 532-7) was constructed during his reign. The history
of Byzantium 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.
BAD TIMES
By the 13th century, Byzantium 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.
ENTER THE SELJUK TURKS
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 Byzantians 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 civilization came in the first
half of the 13th century with Konya as its political, economic, religious,
artistic and literary center. The Seljuks created a centralized administration
organized 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, medreses and caravanserais.
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.
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In 1296, Osman declared himself the independent Sultan of the region of
Sögüt 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 his grasp when he was
called to meet the 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 16th 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
Turkey was on the losing side with Germany. Great Britain had reversed the
policy she followed until then, and undertook with France, Russia and Italy to
dismember the Empire. At the end of the war in 1918, the Ottoman government,
under the occupation of the allied forces, was in no position to 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 offensive to occupy
Western Turkey.
THE VISIONS OF ATATURK
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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 decrepit order and to build a modern Turkey dedicated to
political, social and economic progress. This was the vision of Atatürk, a
general in the Ottoman army who had distinguished himself in the defense of the
Dardanelles. Atatürk 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 Atatürk died in 1938, he left a legacy of which the Turkish people
today are proud. This is now a nation that has regained confidence in itself and
is ready to confront challenges; 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 70 years. During
this period, great changes have occurred. But the country remains firmly
attached to the policies initiated by Atatürk. It has established a democratic
multi-party political system, developed a vibrant civil society, and embarked on
the path of industrialization and market economy. It has consolidated its ties
with the west through membership of NATO and the Council of Europe and Customs
Union with the European Union. These trends mark radical change from the days of
the Ottoman Empire. Yet there is also continuity. The Turks have inherited both
from the Islamic past ant 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
civilization of modern Turkey. A symbol of this union is the two bridges that
span the Bosphorus, linking the two continents with as many parts and one
future.
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