Turkey Country History

YEAR

EVENT

c. 1500 bc	The Hittites, early inhabitants of Anatolia (now Turkey), ruled the most powerful civilization in the Middle East.
c. 550 bc	Persian Empire conquered Anatolia.
331 bc	Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Empire and gained control of Anatolia.
63 bc	Pompey the Great conquered Anatolia and brought it under Roman control.
ad 330	Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. Anatolia and Thrace thrived as part of the Eastern Roman Empire.
1071	Seljuk Turks destroyed Byzantine power in Anatolia at the Battle of Manzikert.
1243	Mongol hordes conquered the Seljuk Empire.
1326	Ottoman Turks captured Bursa and founded the Ottoman Empire.
1453	The Ottomans captured Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire. They renamed the city Istanbul and made it their capital.
1520-1566	The Ottoman Empire reached its height during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, controlling an area from Algeria to Yemen and north nearly to Vienna, Austria.
1566-1914	The Ottoman Empire slowly lost power, influence, and territory during a long period of decline.
1829	Greece became the first Ottoman territory to win its independence.
1894-1918	The Ottoman government persecuted Armenian Turks.
1908	The Young Turks movement led a revolt against the government.
1914-1918	The Ottoman Empire allied with Germany during World War I and lost much of its territory after the war.
1922	Greek forces seized Smyrna (now Izmir) and attempted to control territories on the Aegean coast, but Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal drove them from the country.
1923	Mustafa Kemal established the Republic of Turkey and was granted the surname 'Atatürk'.
1947	Turkey began receiving economic and military aid from the United States to guard against Communist expansion.
1960	The army seized power, hanged the prime minister, and revised the constitution. Civilian rule was re-established the following year.
1974	Turkish troops invaded northern Cyprus to protect the island's Turkish minority. The rest of the world condemned the action, but the troops remained.
1990-1991	Turkey worked with the international community to isolate Iraq, its neighbour and one of its leading trading partners, before and during the Persian Gulf War.
1992-1994	Turkey increased ties with the former Soviet Central Asian republics, offering aid and a model for secular Islamic government. At the same time Turkey also expressed interest in closer ties with the European Union.
1993	Tansu Çiller became Turkey's first woman prime minister.
1994	Turkish troops arrived in Bosnia as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force.
1995	The pro-Islamic Welfare Party made gains in the general election in December, prompting left- and right-wing secular parties to forge an anti-Islamic alliance.
1996	In April Çiller's True Path party and the Motherland party formed a power-sharing coalition government. Corruption charges against Çiller, however, threatened the survival of the coalition. In July Necmettin Erbakan became prime minister.
1997	Erbakan resigned in June. Mesut Yilmaz formed a government.
1998	The Constitutional Court banned Erbakan from political office for five years, and outlawed the Welfare Party. Government of Mesut Yilmaz collapsed.
1999	Bulent Ecevit was sworn in as prime minister. Fugitive Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in Kenya and tried. In August and November powerful earthquakes devastated large areas in the north-west.
2000	The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) announced an end to military and terrorist activities. Ahmet Necdet Sezer replaced Suleyman Demirel as president.
2001	A public row between Ecevit and President Sezer in February triggered the flotation of the Turkish lira in an attempt to guarantee emergency aid from the IMF. European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of abuses against Greek Cypriots in northern Cyprus. The pro-Islamic Virtue Party was banned; a new party, Saadet, was set up in its place.
2002	Turkish women gained legal equality with men. In June, Turkey took over command of the International Security and Assistance Force policing safety in Afghanistan. In July, eight ministers stood down from the government. One of them, Ismail Cem, formed a new party. A general election was held in November and the president asked Abdullah Gul of the Justice and Development Party to form a new government.
2003	The leader of the Justice and Development Party-Recep Tayyip Erdogan-won a seat in parliament. Gul resigned as prime minister allowing Erdogan to take his place. In November a series of bombings took place in Istanbul, centred on the city's synagogue and British interests in the city. More than 50 people were killed and hundreds injured.
2004	In January, Turkey banned the death penalty. As a further move towards joining the European Union, Turkey agreed to recognize Cyprus's membership of the organization.
2005	Turkey launched the new Lira currency.
2006	The PKK declared a ceasefire.
2007	Erdogan's AKP won July's general election.