A History of Turkey

• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Cradle of Civilization: Prehistoric Anatolia
• Chapter 2 The Age of Empires: Hittites, Phrygians, and Urartians
• Chapter 3 Hellenistic Anatolia: The Ionian Coast and the Wars with Persia
• Chapter 4 Alexander's Legacy and the Rise of Rome in Asia Minor
• Chapter 5 Anatolia in the Roman and Byzantine Empires
• Chapter 6 The Arrival of the Turks: The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum
• Chapter 7 The Crusades and the Mongol Invasion of Anatolia
• Chapter 8 From Beylik to Empire: The Genesis of the Ottomans
• Chapter 9 The Conquest of Constantinople and the Golden Age
• Chapter 10 The Reign of Süleyman the Magnificent
• Chapter 11 The Ottoman State: Governance, Society, and the Janissaries
• Chapter 12 Stagnation and Reform: The Tulip Era and Beyond
• Chapter 13 The Eastern Question: Decline and Territorial Loss
• Chapter 14 The Tanzimat Reforms and the Young Ottomans
• Chapter 15 The Era of Abdülhamid II and the Young Turk Revolution
• Chapter 16 The Balkan Wars and the Path to World War I
• Chapter 17 The Great War and the Collapse of the Ottoman Empire
• Chapter 18 The Turkish War of Independence
• Chapter 19 The Birth of the Republic and the Atatürk Era
• Chapter 20 The One-Party State and the Transition to Democracy
• Chapter 21 Turkey in the Cold War: A NATO Ally
• Chapter 22 Political Instability and Military Interventions
• Chapter 23 Economic Liberalization and Social Change in the Late 20th Century
• Chapter 24 The Rise of Political Islam and the AKP Era
• Chapter 25 Contemporary Turkey: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century

To tell the history of Turkey is to narrate a story that spans millennia, a tale of empires rising and falling, of cultures clashing and blending, and of a land that has served as a bridge and a battleground between East and West. The peninsula of Anatolia, forming the bulk of modern Turkey, is a place where history is not merely a subject of study but a tangible presence, etched into the landscape and embedded in the foundations of its cities. It is a crossroads of civilizations, a region that has been coveted and conquered by a succession of powerful forces, each leaving its indelible mark.

The story begins in the mists of prehistory, with some of the earliest known human settlements. From the Neolithic city of Çatalhöyük to the enigmatic temple complex of Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia was a cradle of civilization long before the great empires of the classical world came into being. The Hittites, one of the great powers of the ancient Near East, established a mighty kingdom in central Anatolia, their chariots and iron weapons a testament to their military prowess. They were followed by a host of other peoples: the Phrygians, with their legendary King Midas; the Lydians, credited with the invention of coinage; and the Urartians in the mountainous east.

The coastal regions of Anatolia, meanwhile, became a vibrant hub of Greek civilization. Ionian city-states like Miletus and Ephesus were centers of philosophy, science, and art, their intellectual achievements laying the groundwork for much of Western thought. It was from these shores that the epic Trojan War, immortalized by Homer, is said to have been launched. This Hellenic world would eventually come into conflict with the burgeoning power of the Persian Empire to the east, setting the stage for the epic Greco-Persian Wars.

The arrival of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE ushered in a new era, as his conquests shattered the Persian Empire and spread Greek culture throughout the East. In the wake of his death, Anatolia became a battleground for his successors, the Diadochi, before eventually falling under the sway of the rising power of Rome. For centuries, Anatolia was a prosperous and vital part of the Roman and later the Byzantine Empires, a center of trade, learning, and early Christianity.

The arrival of the Turks from Central Asia in the 11th century marked a profound turning point in the history of Anatolia. The victory of the Seljuk Turks over the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 opened the floodgates for Turkish settlement, gradually transforming the demographic and cultural landscape of the region. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, with its capital at Konya, became a flourishing center of Islamic art and culture, even as it faced the dual threats of the Crusades from the west and the Mongol invasions from the east.

It was from the ashes of the Mongol-shattered Seljuk state that a new Turkish power would emerge: the Ottomans. From a small beylik, or principality, in northwestern Anatolia, the Ottomans would go on to build one of the largest and most enduring empires in world history. Their capture of Constantinople in 1453 under Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror sent shockwaves throughout Christendom and marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. For the next several centuries, the Ottoman Empire would be a dominant force in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, its power reaching its zenith under the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent.

The Ottoman state was a complex and sophisticated entity, with a highly centralized bureaucracy and a formidable military machine, most famously embodied by the elite Janissary corps. Yet, by the 18th century, the empire had begun to show signs of decline. A series of military defeats, coupled with internal stagnation, led to a period of introspection and reform. The Tulip Era saw a flowering of art and culture, while the later Tanzimat reforms sought to modernize the Ottoman state along Western lines.

Despite these efforts, the empire continued to lose territory throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, earning it the moniker "the sick man of Europe." The rise of nationalism among its diverse ethnic and religious groups further weakened the Ottoman state, culminating in the disastrous Balkan Wars. The fateful decision to enter World War I on the side of the Central Powers would prove to be the final undoing of the empire.

The end of the war brought defeat and foreign occupation, but it also gave rise to a new and determined Turkish nationalist movement. Led by the charismatic and visionary general Mustafa Kemal, the Turkish War of Independence was a struggle for national survival against overwhelming odds. Victorious against the invading Greek forces and the Allied powers who sought to partition Anatolia, the Turkish nationalists abolished the centuries-old Ottoman Sultanate and established the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923.

As the first president of the new republic, Mustafa Kemal, later granted the surname Atatürk, or "Father of the Turks," embarked on a radical and ambitious program of modernization and secularization. His reforms transformed every aspect of Turkish society, from the legal and educational systems to the alphabet and style of dress. The caliphate was abolished, religion was separated from the state, and women were granted equal civil and political rights. Atatürk's goal was to create a modern, secular, and Western-oriented nation-state from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

The decades that followed were a period of profound social and political change. Turkey navigated the treacherous currents of World War II as a neutral power before aligning itself with the West at the outset of the Cold War, joining NATO in 1952. The transition to a multi-party democracy was not always smooth, with periods of political instability and military interventions.

The late 20th century saw Turkey undergo significant economic liberalization and social change. The rise of political Islam and the coming to power of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the early 21st century have presented new challenges and opportunities, reshaping the political landscape and Turkey's relationship with the world.

Today, Turkey stands at a critical juncture, its rich and complex history continuing to shape its present and future. Its strategic location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia gives it a pivotal geopolitical importance, a role it has played for centuries. The story of Turkey is a testament to the resilience and dynamism of its people, a narrative that continues to unfold in the 21st century. This book will endeavor to tell that story, from the dawn of civilization in Anatolia to the challenges and triumphs of the modern Turkish Republic.

The story of Anatolia does not begin with the arrival of the Turks, nor with the Romans, the Greeks, or even the Hittites. Its narrative is rooted in a much deeper past, a time before written words and grand empires, when the first humans made their mark on this vast and varied peninsula. The prehistory of Anatolia is a sprawling epic, stretching back hundreds of thousands of years, a period that witnessed monumental shifts in climate, landscape, and the very nature of human existence. From the crude stone tools of early hunter-gatherers to the birth of agriculture and the rise of the first towns, Anatolia was not merely a stage for history, but an active participant in the dawn of civilization.

Evidence for the earliest human presence in Anatolia is scattered and often enigmatic, consisting primarily of stone tools that whisper of a long and arduous journey. In places like the Yarımburgaz Cave near Istanbul and the Karain Cave near Antalya, archaeologists have unearthed artifacts dating back to the Paleolithic period, or Old Stone Age. These early inhabitants were nomadic hunters and gatherers, small bands of hominins who followed animal herds and seasonal plant growth. A stone tool found in the Gediz River, dated to around 1.2 million years ago, stands as a silent testament to this deep antiquity. These early people sought shelter in caves and rock overhangs, leaving behind tantalizingly few traces of their lives—chipped flints, discarded animal bones, and the faint echoes of ancient campfires.

The Paleolithic era was not a single, monolithic block of time but a vast expanse characterized by dramatic climate fluctuations. Glacial periods, the great Ice Ages, saw massive sheets of ice expand across northern latitudes, transforming Anatolia's climate into something much cooler and drier than today. The landscape would have been a stark, open steppe-tundra, populated by hardy animals like wild horses, mammoths, and woolly rhinoceroses. Human populations during these periods were likely sparse, their survival dependent on their ability to adapt to the harsh conditions. In warmer interglacial periods, forests would have expanded, and different species of animals, such as deer and wild boar, would have thrived, offering new opportunities for the peninsula's inhabitants.

Life for these Paleolithic peoples was a constant struggle for survival. Their technology, though simple by modern standards, was ingeniously adapted to their needs. They crafted hand-axes, scrapers, and points from flint and obsidian, a volcanic glass abundant in central Anatolia. These tools were essential for butchering animals, processing hides, and working with wood and bone. The discovery of Levallois technology, a sophisticated method of stone-knapping, at sites like Kaletepe Deresi 3 and across the Göllü Dağ volcanic complex, demonstrates a high level of cognitive and technical skill. These hunter-gatherers possessed an intimate knowledge of their environment, understanding the migrations of animals, the properties of different stones, and the seasonal availability of edible plants.

As the last Ice Age drew to a close around 12,000 years ago, the climate began to warm, initiating a period of profound environmental change known as the Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age. Glaciers retreated, sea levels rose, and forests expanded across Anatolia. This new, more stable environment fostered a richer and more diverse ecosystem, allowing human populations to grow and adopt a more settled, or sedentary, lifestyle. Evidence from caves along the Mediterranean coast, such as Beldibi and Belbaşı, and sites in southeastern Anatolia, show communities beginning to exploit a wider range of resources. They hunted, fished, and gathered nuts, fruits, and wild cereals, developing more refined and specialized stone tools, including microliths—small, sharp flint blades used as arrowheads and barbs.

This transitional period laid the essential groundwork for one of the most significant transformations in human history: the Neolithic Revolution. This was not a sudden event but a gradual process, unfolding over thousands of years, during which humans transitioned from a nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering to a settled existence based on farming and animal husbandry. Anatolia, as part of the Fertile Crescent, was a core region for this momentous shift. The domestication of wild grasses like einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, and barley, along with legumes such as lentils and peas, provided a more reliable and storable food source. Simultaneously, the herding of wild sheep, goats, and eventually cattle, offered a steady supply of meat, milk, and hides.

The consequences of this revolution were profound. For the first time, people began to live in permanent villages, constructing durable houses and developing new technologies like pottery for storing food and water. This shift to settled life fundamentally altered human society, leading to population growth, the development of new social structures, and the emergence of complex belief systems. Anatolia became a hotbed of Neolithic innovation, dotted with tells, or settlement mounds, built up over centuries of continuous occupation. Sites like Aşıklı Höyük and Çayönü provide crucial insights into this period, revealing organized communities with sophisticated architecture and early evidence of domesticated plants and animals.

Perhaps the most astonishing discovery from this era, one that has fundamentally reshaped our understanding of prehistoric societies, is Göbekli Tepe. Located on a hilltop in southeastern Turkey, this site is not a settlement but a vast ceremonial complex, which has been described as the world's first temple. Dating back to around 9600 BCE, it is thousands of years older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. The site consists of multiple circular enclosures, at the center of which stand massive, T-shaped limestone pillars, some reaching over 18 feet in height and weighing up to 50 tons.

The construction of Göbekli Tepe represents a staggering feat of organization and labor, accomplished by people who were, for all intents and purposes, still hunter-gatherers. This discovery challenges the long-held theory that agriculture was a prerequisite for complex society and monumental architecture. It suggests that, in this region at least, the immense social effort required to build such a structure may have been the very catalyst that spurred the development of settled life and farming, as large groups of people needed to be fed and organized. The pillars at Göbekli Tepe are not crude monoliths; many are intricately carved with reliefs of wild animals—foxes, lions, gazelles, snakes, and vultures—as well as abstract symbols. These carvings offer a glimpse into the complex symbolic and religious world of the people who built it, a world teeming with powerful animal spirits and perhaps a focus on rituals related to death and the cycle of life.

The purpose of Göbekli Tepe remains a subject of intense debate among archaeologists. Klaus Schmidt, the German archaeologist who led the excavations for many years, believed it was a mountain sanctuary, a central pilgrimage site for a cult of the dead. The sheer scale of the site, along with the discovery of similar, smaller sites in the surrounding region, such as Karahan Tepe, suggests a widespread and deeply ingrained belief system that united the people of Upper Mesopotamia during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. Whatever its exact function, Göbekli Tepe stands as a testament to the remarkable creative and social genius of these early societies, proving that the drive to create meaning and connect with the cosmos is one of the oldest human impulses.

While Göbekli Tepe represents the spiritual beginnings of settled life, the site of Çatalhöyük in the Konya Plain of south-central Anatolia provides an unparalleled look into the daily reality of a fully developed Neolithic town. Flourishing between approximately 7500 and 6000 BCE, Çatalhöyük was a large and bustling settlement, home to as many as 8,000 people. What makes it extraordinary is its unique architecture: the town had no streets or public squares. Instead, houses were built tightly packed together in a honeycomb-like cluster, and residents entered their homes through openings in the flat roofs, moving across the rooftops and down ladders into their living spaces. This design likely served a defensive purpose, creating a continuous, solid exterior wall around the community.

The houses themselves, built from mud-brick, were remarkably uniform in their layout. A main room served as the primary living space, complete with hearths, ovens, and raised platforms for sleeping and other activities. Smaller adjoining rooms were used for storage. The interiors were kept meticulously clean, and the walls were frequently replastered and sometimes decorated with elaborate murals. These paintings depict hunting scenes, geometric patterns, and dramatic encounters between humans and wild animals, most notably the powerful aurochs, or wild bulls. Plastered bull heads, or bucrania, were often mounted on the walls, their horns thrusting into the room, suggesting a deep cultural or religious significance.

Life in Çatalhöyük appears to have been remarkably egalitarian. The similarity in house size and the equal distribution of resources suggest a society with little evidence of a ruling class or significant social hierarchy. Men and women seem to have had similar diets and performed complementary tasks. They cultivated a variety of crops, including wheat, barley, and peas, and had fully domesticated sheep and goats, although hunting for wild animals remained an important source of food. The people of Çatalhöyük were also skilled artisans, crafting tools from obsidian, weaving textiles, and creating distinctive clay and stone figurines.

One of the most compelling aspects of life at Çatalhöyük was the treatment of the dead. Deceased family members were not buried in a separate cemetery but were interred beneath the floors of the houses themselves, often under the sleeping platforms. This practice suggests a powerful connection to ancestors, who remained an integral part of the household even after death. In some cases, skulls were removed from the bodies, plastered to recreate human features, and possibly used in rituals before being re-buried. This intimate connection between the living and the dead underscores the importance of kinship and lineage in Neolithic society.

Following the long Neolithic era, Anatolia entered the Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, a transitional period lasting from roughly 5500 to 3000 BCE. As the name implies, this era is defined by the first use of metal, specifically copper, which was worked alongside the traditional stone tools. This was not a sudden technological leap but a gradual development. Early metalworkers likely discovered that native copper could be hammered into shape, and later learned to smelt it from ore. This innovation, while significant, did not immediately replace stone tools, which continued to be used for most everyday tasks. Settlements like Hacılar and Canhasan show the development of this early metallurgy, as well as changes in pottery styles, which became more refined and were often decorated with intricate painted designs.

This period saw a continuation of the agricultural way of life established during the Neolithic. Communities grew in size and complexity, and regional variations in culture became more pronounced. In eastern Anatolia, there was contact and influence from the Halaf and Ubaid cultures of Mesopotamia, known for their distinctive pottery. In the west, settlements showed a different cultural trajectory. Architecture began to shift, with the appearance of simpler, rectangular houses that would become characteristic of the subsequent Bronze Age. The Chalcolithic was a period of consolidation and incremental innovation, laying the social and technological foundations for the more dramatic changes to come.

The dawn of the Early Bronze Age, around 3100 BCE, marked a significant acceleration in cultural development across Anatolia. The key technological advance was the discovery that adding tin to copper produced a much harder and more durable alloy: bronze. While Anatolia was rich in copper, tin was rare and had to be imported, a factor that spurred the development of long-distance trade networks. This era witnessed the rise of larger, fortified settlements, the emergence of a clear social hierarchy, and the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a ruling elite.

One of the most famous sites from this period is Troy, on the Aegean coast. The earliest levels of settlement, known as Troy I and Troy II, reveal a small but prosperous fortified citadel. The discovery of a cache of gold and other precious items, dubbed "Priam's Treasure" by its discoverer Heinrich Schliemann, speaks to the wealth accumulated by the city's rulers through trade and, likely, control over the strategic Dardanelles strait. Further inland, sites like Alacahöyük provide even more spectacular evidence of an emerging elite class.

The so-called "Royal Tombs" at Alacahöyük, dating to around 2500 BCE, are shaft graves containing the remains of powerful individuals buried with an astonishing array of grave goods. The dead were adorned with gold diadems, buckles, and jewelry. Alongside them were placed exquisite objects, including vessels of gold and silver, weapons, and enigmatic bronze "standards." These standards, often in the form of stags or bulls set within openwork circles, were likely symbols of religious or political authority, carried in processions. The craftsmanship of these items demonstrates a mastery of metallurgy far beyond what was seen in the Chalcolithic. The wealth and power on display at Alacahöyük point to a highly organized society, one that predates the arrival of the Hittites and is now thought to represent the indigenous Hattian civilization.

Throughout the Early Bronze Age, Anatolia was not a unified political entity but a patchwork of local kingdoms and city-states. In eastern Anatolia, the Kura-Araxes culture spread from the Caucasus, bringing with it a distinctive black burnished pottery and its own set of cultural traditions. In central and western Anatolia, different regional styles of pottery and architecture flourished. The introduction of the potter's wheel around 2450 BCE allowed for the mass production of ceramics, another sign of increasing specialization and economic complexity. By the end of the third millennium BCE, the stage was set for the next chapter in Anatolia's history. The foundations had been laid: agriculture was well-established, metallurgy was advanced, trade routes crisscrossed the peninsula, and complex, stratified societies had emerged. The prehistoric era was drawing to a close, and Anatolia was on the cusp of entering the historical record as a land of powerful kingdoms and empires.