Turkey Tourist Guides — History

Turkey is a nation, which can boast of a historical journey that started from the Stone Age. The first human inhabitants came to occupy the land from 7500 B.C. in the Catahuyuk region. Anatolia, the land it occupies, has cradled various post-Neolithic civilizations and has watched the transition from agriculture to artisanship, matriarchical to patriarchical society and so on. The first well-known civilization was that of the Hittites (1900-1600 BC), who formed their great empire in central Anatolia. The Hittite domination started from the Middle Bronze Age, and then they clashed with Egypt under the great Ramses II and captured Syria and became more powerful. But, by the time Achaean Greeks attacked Troy in 1250 BC the Hittite empire was weakening. The invasion of 'sea peoples' from Greek islands was an unendurable pressure on the Hittites whereas; the final blow came when Cyrus, emperor of Persia (550-530 BC) swept into Anatolia from the east. The Persians got driven out by Alexander the Great, who conquered the entire Middle East, from Greece to India.

Romans ruled the land successfully for almost three centuries and during this period, there was peace, prosperity, high culture and rapid spread of Christianity. The Roman Empire started weakening around 250 A.D. but got integrated under the strong leadership of Constantine, who built the beautiful capital of Constantinople.

The eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire got extremely powerful under the rule of Justinian (527-565 A.D.) and this empire was the direct successor of the Roman Empire. However, several warfare, continuous territory losses and non-stop challenges from the migrating nations gradually weakened the Byzantine Empire and with the birth of Mohammed, a new power started gaining successive strength, the Islam, which in future was to shake the foundation of Byzantium.

The Seljuk empire of the 11th century clung to the power and ruled the land which is now Turkey, Iran and Iraq till 1453, when they had to, but lose ground to the powerful Ottomans. Constantinople was conquered by Mehmet, which now became Istanbul, and its beautification was done by Sultan Suleyman (1520-66 A.D.), who extended the territory of the empire to the gates of Vienna. But among his successors, very few were capable and by the 19th century, decay and misrule prompted people to rise into rebellion with the assistance of European powers. The result was the formation of separate kingdoms by the Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Rumanians, Albanians, Armenians and Arabs.

Turkey.s unfortunate decision to side with Germany during the First World War, led to the Allied plan to carve up Turkey and to combat it. Ottoman general Mustafa Kemal organized resistance. When Greece tried to invade Turkey, the shocked Turks broke into a war and this War of Independence (1920-22) ended in the Turkish victory and the abolition of Sultanate.

Mustafa Kemal (AtatIsmet Inonu, Atat)
General Kenan Evren became the president and lead the country for three years, when in 1983 Turku Ozal of Centre Right Party, became the Prime minister. During his time, there was a business boom, but his untimely death again pushed the country towards uncertainty, which continued for the rest of the decade.

Turkey.s aspiration of a full EU membership was impeded by a shaky economy and poor Human rights record . particularly, the issue of Kurdish separation. Policy of assimilation, outburst of Marxist Kurdish guerrillas, the Gulf War, the arrest of the Kurdish leader Abdulla Ocelan in 1999 . after all these phases, the situation has now finally improved and the attitude towards the Kurds have also got better.

The year 2001 saw the collapse of the Turkish economy. More than one million people lost their jobs. Just when the country was recovering from this worst disaster, it received another huge blow, which almost crippled the tourism-dependent economy of Turkey . the massacre of 11th September. International Monetary Fund had to intervene with a transfusion.

In the election of the same year, the age-old Islamic Justice and Development party won a landslide victory. Gradually Turkey is recovering from all the set backs and is nurturing its long-standing hope of membership in the European Union.

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