Turkey
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TURKEY
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Turkey) Capital: Ankara Population projection, 2020: 83·84m. GNI per capita, 2015: (PPP$) 18,705 HDI/world rank, 2015: 0·767/71= Internet domain extension: .tr KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS There is evidence of human habitation in Anatolia (Asia Minor) from around 7500 BC. Catal Huyuk (on the Konya Plain) flourished between 6500 and 5800 BC to become one of the world’s largest and most important Neolithic sites. Between 1800 and 1200 BC much of Anatolia came under Hittite rule, initially centred on Cappadocia. The artistic work of the Hittites shows a high level of culture with Babylonian and Assyrian influence. Greek colonies were established around the Anatolian coast from around 700 BC including Byzantium, which was founded by Greeks from Megara in 667 BC. Anatolia was conquered by Persians in the 6th century BC. Alexander the Great defeated the Persians around 330 BC. After his death there was a long civil war between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, while the kingdoms of Galatia, Armenia, Pergamum, Cappadocia, Bithynia and Pontus all established footholds in the region. Rome gained dominance around the 2nd century BC and brought stability and prosperity. Turkey was home to some of the earliest centres of Christianity, such as Antioch (modern Antalya) and Ephesus. In AD 324 the Emperor Constantine began the construction of a new capital at Byzantium. Constantinople became the centre of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, which peaked under Justinian in the mid-6th century. Muslim Arab forces attacked Constantinople in the 670s and besieged the city again in 716 but were repelled, thwarting the expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate ruled by Umar II. Constantine V (741–75) led Christian Byzantine forces eastward to recover lands in Anatolia. The Seljuk Turks, whose origins were in central Asia, established dominance over much of Anatolia during the 11th century, led by Alp Arslan. They came under threat during the Crusades and were overrun by the Mongol hordes from 1243. The Ottoman principality was one of a number of small Turkish states that emerged in Anatolia amid the retreat
of the Mongols and the waning of the Seljuk and Byzantine empires. Osman I led the early phase of Ottoman expansion, conquering Byzantine towns in northwest Anatolia in the early 14th century. Sultan Mehmed II seized Constantinople in 1453 and went on to establish Ottoman dominance in the Balkans and the Aegean. The empire expanded to its fullest extent under Suleiman the Magnificent (1494–1566), taking in North Africa, the Levant, Persia, Anatolia, the Balkans and the Caucasus. From the early 17th century the Ottoman empire fell into a long decline, its power weakening rapidly in the 19th century. The Kingdom of Greece broke away from Ottoman rule in 1832, with Serbs, Romanians, Armenians, Albanians, Bulgarians and Arabs demanding independence soon afterwards. Attempts by Turkey to redefine itself were further hindered in the 20th century by the First World War, during which it sided with Germany. In figh
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