History History

Anatolia is the cradle of humanity. The southeast of the region has been populated since the Paleolithic era. The first traces of habitat date from about 7000-6500 BC. The site of Çatalhöyük, near Konya (6500-5500 BC), is considered the oldest in the world. Men cultivated cereals, made beer and worshipped idols representing the Great Goddess of fertility. Terracotta and bronze were used to make everyday objects and tools. Excavations in Troy show that the Copper Age began around 3000 BC.
During the following millennia, powerful civilizations reached their peak and then declined. Around 1950 B.C., Assyrian populations settle in Asia Minor, leaving behind them cuneiform writing tablets, the first known alphabet, and elaborate artistic creations: jewels, animal statuettes, solar discs..

Around 1800 B.C., the invasion of Indo-European tribes is at the origin of the formation of the Hittite kingdom whose great military power allows it to extend to Syria and Lebanon, even daring to challenge the army of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II. The break-up of the Hittite Empire occurred around 1200 BC with the arrival of the "sea peoples". Almost all the cities of Anatolia are destroyed and the famous city of Troy collapses.

As early as 1000 BC, the Greeks settled on the west coast of Asia Minor and founded colonies along the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara which became an important economic, intellectual and artistic center. The Phrygians, a people of Indo-Germanic origin from Thrace, arrived in Anatolia and founded a kingdom ruled at its peak by the legendary king Midas. Around 750 BC, the Lydians, another people from Greece, settled on the Mediterranean coast and extended their influence after the invasion of the Cimmerians and the fall of the Phrygians. The Lydian civilization culminates with the reign of the tyrannical Gyges and ends, in 546 BC, with that of Croesus. It is during this period that the first traces of civilization are recorded in the region of Istanbul. In 685 B.C., Greeks from Megara founded the colony of Chalcedon, on the site of the present-day district of Kadiköy.

In the ^6th century B.C., Darius ^I founded the Persian Empire which, for three centuries, extended over the whole of Mesopotamia, Anatolia and even part of Egypt.
In 334 BC, Alexander the Great began the conquest of Persia and Anatolia. In 331-326 BC, from Egypt to India, the Hellenistic empire of Alexander the Great supplanted the Persians. Until 130 BC, the great cities develop and prosper.

In 129 BC, Pergamon is the capital of Asia. In 27 BC, all of Anatolia is Roman.
Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), as a fine military strategist, reconquered the entire Persian Empire and extended his lands to the Indus. He managed to unify the Greek cities and spread the Greek culture in all the regions he occupied, while respecting the local customs and deities. Under his reign, Byzantium, after having passed under the yoke of Persia and Athens and having pushed back the Macedonian attacks, enjoys a relative freedom and knows its first hours of glory, as crossroads of the great commercial exchanges. The great cities Pergamon and Ephesus prosper. The exceptional destiny of Alexander the Great is interrupted by his brutal death at the age of 32 years.
In 293, the Roman Empire divided and Byzantium became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. In 324, the Roman Empire was reunited by Constantine. Six years later, in 330, Byzantium was named capital of the Roman Empire. The city takes the name of Constantinople. This is the birth of the Byzantine Empire.

The Roman Empire was definitively divided between Rome and Constantinople in 395. In 476, the fall of Rome put an end to the Western Roman Empire. From 527 to 565, Justinian, the greatest Byzantine emperor, reigned. He gave the present form and magnificence to the Basilica of Saint Sophia (532-537). The year 1054 marks the great schism of the East. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church separated. A few years later, in 1071, the Seljuk Turks chased the Byzantines out of Asia Minor and began their settlement in Anatolia. From 1096, it is the beginning of the Crusades. The Crusaders progressed, took Jerusalem in 1099, and in 1204 they arrived in Constantinople, ruined it, pillaged it and finally took it.

The Ottoman Empire was born in 1299, with Iznik (Nicea) as its first capital and then Bursa (Brousse). Led by Mehmed II the Conqueror (Fatih), the Ottomans took Andrinople (Edirne) in 1361 and, in 1453, they entered Constantinople and put an end to the Byzantine Empire. This event marked the end of the Eastern Roman Empire and was a real turning point in world history. In 1457, Constantinople was renamed Istanbul and became the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire reached its peak under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent from 1520-1566.
Soliman, the shadow of God on Earth (1495-1566). Suleiman was the longest reigning sultan, from 1520 to 1566. It was during his reign that the Ottoman Empire experienced its greatest expansion. Nicknamed the Magnificent and the Lawgiver of the Turks, he nevertheless led thirteen military campaigns. Described as benevolent and melancholic, he marked the beginning of his reign by repealing the arbitrary laws promulgated by his father, Selim ^I. He authorized trade with the East again and compensated merchants whose goods had been confiscated. Consistent in his political choices and driven by a strong sense of justice, he succeeded in establishing a balance within an empire composed of a multitude of peoples. To give a solid structure to such a vast territory, the Sultan undertook substantial changes in the legal field. He adopted a secular legislation that integrated Muslim law. In the military field, he was a man of action. Warlike without being warmonger, he organized several "august campaigns". Moreover, patron of the arts, he led the Sublime Porte to its greatest territorial expansion and its highest degree of splendor. His reign ended with his death on September 10, 1566 while trying to conquer Szigetvá.
In 1683, after two months of siege, the Ottoman assault on Vienna failed and they lost Hungary and the control of the Balkans. In 1699, the Treaty of Karlowitz consecrates the first retreat of the Ottomans in front of Austria, Poland, Venice and Russia.
Theera of the Tulips, the reign of Ahmed III (1703-1730) is a sumptuous time of cultural radiation. From 1855 to 1856 the Crimean War took place. The Turks, the English and the French attacked the Russians. The control of the Europeans on Istanbul is growing. The European nationalist outbursts spread within the Ottoman Empire, whose influence declined in the face of the internal revolt movements of the subjugated peoples. Abdülhamid Han II was the last powerful sultan, he reigned from 1876 to 1909. It was under his rule that the empire broke up and witnessed the rebellion of the populations to obtain their independence, soon followed by the first Armenian revolts which were severely repressed in blood and claimed 200,000 victims (1894-1896). The "Young Turks" movement, the young generation of Turkish elites, was in favour of reforms based on the Western model. And in 1908, while the Ottoman territory was in full dislocation, they organized their revolution. The sultan is only a straw man.
In 1914, as the First World War is launched, the Ottoman Empire makes an alliance with Germany and enters in war against France, England and Russia. In 1914 and 1915, eastern Anatolia was invaded by the Russians with the support of Armenian volunteers. The Ottoman Empire succeeded in reclaiming its land and implemented the mass deportation of Armenians to Syria. Between 1915 and 1916, more than 1,200,000 Armenians were killed. At the same time, Mustafa Kemal distinguished himself in the Battle of the Dardanelles. In 1919, the Greeks landed in Smyrna, now Izmir. Mustafa Kemal called for an uprising during his speech in Samsun. At the Erzurum congress and the Sivas congress, he laid the first stones of the Republic. Two camps faced each other: the nationalists (republicans) who opposed the loyalists, loyal to the sultan. On August 10, 1920, the Treaty of Sevres organized the pure and simple dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and reduced Turkey to a tiny territory around Ankara. Mustafa Kemal set up a provisional government in Ankara.
The year 1922 was a pivotal year. Mehmed VI was the last sultan, Abdülmecid (Abdül-Medjiid) the last caliph. The Ottoman sultanate, more than six centuries old, was abolished.

In 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne annulled the Treaty of Sevres and established the birth of modern Turkey. On October 29, the Turkish Republic was proclaimed, with Ankara as its capital and Mustafa Kemal as its president. The former Ottoman Empire was secularized and given modern laws. From 1923 to 1938, many texts were written and voted, notably in favour of women's rights. Thus, as early as 1930, the right to vote was granted to them and, four years later, women were eligible for election. As for Mustafa Kemal, we witness his consecration and his apogee. In 1935, he took the name of Atatürk, literally "the father of the Turks".
This child of a modest family, who became a general and then a politician, is also the visionary who dreamed, thought and founded the Turkish nation and Republic. In this respect, he remains celebrated throughout the country. His honor is even enshrined in the penal code and any obstruction of it is punishable by severe punishment.
On November 10, 1938, Atatürk died in Istanbul. Ismet Inönü, Prime Minister, became the second President of the Turkish Republic. Since then, every year, the death of the founder of the Republic is commemorated by a minute of silence at the exact time of his death.

In 1945, the Second World War was declared and Turkey entered the war on the side of the Allies. One year later, and until 1950, the country introduced a multi-party system and democratic reforms. In 1948, an economic cooperation agreement was signed between Ankara and Washington. Turkey was among the states that recognized the State of Israel and was the first Muslim country to do so. In 1951, the country joined NATO. In July 1959, it applied to join the EEC (Common Market). Four years later, in 1960, General Gürsel staged a military coup against the democratically elected government.
In 1984, the armed conflict with the PKK, a Marxist-Leninist group that claimed to be seeking independence for Kurdistan (in eastern Turkey) through armed struggle, began.
In 1989, Turgut Özal became President of the Republic until his death in 1993. Süleyman Demirel succeeded him. In the early parliamentary elections of 1995, the Welfare Party (religious) won. Erbakan became Prime Minister. But in 1997, the army put pressure on Erbakan to resign, using the defence of Turkey's secularism as an excuse. Mesut Yılmaz was appointed Prime Minister. On April 19, 1999, there was a nationalist tidal wave in the legislative elections.
At the same time, the rapprochement between Turkey and the European Community was taking shape. On¹ January 1996, the customs union agreement with Europe came into force. In 1999, Turkey officially became a candidate for membership in the European Union.
In 2000, Ahmet Necdet Sezer became President of the Republic and faced the economic crisis that hit the country hard a year later. In 2002, early parliamentary elections were won by the Islamist AKP (Justice and Development Party) with more than 34 per cent of the vote. The death penalty was abolished. The state of emergency, imposed on the country to combat the Kurdish rebellion in southeastern Anatolia, was lifted for the first time in 15 years. This measure is part of the European Union's conditions for the opening of negotiations on Turkey's accession.

In March 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan officially became prime minister and founded the 59th government. Four bombings in the year leave nearly 60 people dead and hundreds injured. In 2004, a referendum was held in Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots voted in favour of reunification, while Greek Cypriots rejected the plan. In October, the EU Commission issued a favourable opinion to begin the accession phase with Turkey. In 2005 and 2006, the currency, the new lira, was introduced. Inflation stabilized. Negotiations with the European Union (EU), however, stalled. In October 2006, Kurdish rebels declared a new ceasefire. The country is experiencing a rise in fundamentalism on its territory. In 2007, the Justice and Development Party, AKP, won the early parliamentary elections and Erdoğan was reappointed as prime minister. Abdullah Gül, from the Islamist movement (AKP), was elected president of the Republic. The army launched air raids against PKK bases in Iraq. In 2009, the AKP won the municipal elections. The president signed a bill limiting the exercise of power by the military.

In 2010, senior army officers were questioned by the courts for their alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the Erdoğan government in 2003. This is the "Ergenekon trial," an obscure political affair that shakes and occupies the country's domestic news for several years. At the same time, the government presents a draft revision of the constitution to bring the country "in line with European standards." 58 per cent of Turks responded favourably to a referendum on a revision of the constitution to reduce the weight of the army.in 2011, and for the third consecutive time, Erdoğan's AKP won the legislative elections. But it lacks 4 votes and does not have the required majority in the Assembly to amend the Constitution on its own and thus move towards a presidential system.in 2013, Istanbul and the whole of Turkey were shaken by the "Gezi events". On May 31, following a violent police crackdown on peace activists who opposed an urban development project in Taksim Square aimed at destroying Gezi Park, numerous demonstrations (and repressions) ignited the whole country with the appearance of May '68.
On August 6, after a five-year trial, the verdict of the Ergenekon case was handed down. 275 former military officials were given heavy sentences, accused of organizing a plot to overthrow the AKP government. As a result of the popular uprising, the AKP government tightened the laws in favour of its Islamo-conservative line. In September, it brought into force the law on alcohol restriction. From now on, the sale of alcoholic beverages from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in all shops, except bars and restaurants, is prohibited. As well as the consumption and sale within 100 meters of schools and places of worship.after the events in Gezi Park, the March municipal elections take on a national scope. And in March 2014, the AKP won the election with 44% of the vote. In August, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan becomes the first directly elected president of the Turkish Republic. Invested in the first round with 52% of the vote, the new head of the executive asserts his legitimacy. Ahmet Davutoğlu, former foreign minister, was appointed prime minister. The new president intends to strengthen his prerogatives as head of state, at the cost of numerous constitutional reforms.

In July 2016, a coup attempt failed. The country then experienced an unprecedented purge.

In June 2018, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was once again re-elected president of the Republic with 52.5% of the vote.

On February 6, 2023, two particularly devastating earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people in southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria.