A Brief History of Turkey
The history of Turkey is very long and proud. It played host to the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire, and it is now a diverse country comprised of many…
The history of Turkey is very long and proud. It played host to the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire, and it is now a diverse country comprised of many factions, bordering the Middle East and Europe.
In 510, Greeks from the Mediterranean sailed down the Black Sea into the Bosporus Strait; they settled the tip of the peninsula, founding a city named Byzantium.[1] This was one of the most strategically significant locations in the world, as it allowed access to all the major parts of the world. The Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea were open to passage and, from there, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Additionally, it connected the European continent with the Middle East and greater Asia, making it the crossroads between worlds and cultures.[2]
The red circle is where modern Istanbul (formerly Byzantium) is located, demonstrating the geographic significance of its location.
The Athenians and Spartans fought over the area for centuries, then the Persians, until it became a Roman settlement in 73CE. While history has named this section the Byzantine Empire, the citizens saw themselves as Romaioi or Romans, with no distinction between them and their Italian counterparts.[3]
During the upheaval of Roman politics in the final centuries of the empire, Emperor Diocletian determined in 284 that the empire was too big for one man to rule. He decreed that it would be split into the Western Empire, which stretches from the tip of modern England and Spain to the edges of Romania and the crest of Africa, and the Eastern Empire, which picked up in eastern Europe and spread over modern-day Turkey.
A visual of the eastern and western Roman empires.[4]
Emperor Diocletian established a system of tetrarchy in which the empire was divided into east and west; each ruled by a supreme ruler (Augustus) and vice ruler (Caesar). Each would be allowed to rule for twenty years, then they were required to surrender their power. This system lasted for the initial twenty years; then a colossal power struggle erupted within hours of when the first rulers were to leave office.[5]
Eventually, fully-converted Christian Constantine emerged victorious as the new emperor. Both Rome and the eastern capital Nicomedia were Pagan. Constantine decided that a new city must be built to enshrine and legitimize the new Christian religion. He chose Byzantium on the shores of the Bospherous, christening it Constantinople.[6]
The city thrived, in large part thanks to the construction of its massive defensive walls. The walls were built by Constantine and improved by later rulers, culminating in one of the most impressive and impenetrable city defenses in history. The first layer of defense was a moat, preventing siege engines from getting close enough to the wall to use battering rams or ladders. The second layer was a battlement from which archers could rain arrows onto attackers, and the final layer was a massive inner wall, twelve meters high and six meters thick. These defenses proved impenetrable to any land-based army until the Ottomans.[7] An earthquake in 447 partially destroyed the walls—just as Attila the Hun was marching to take the city. Emperor Theodosius rallied the people to rebuild the wall just enough to repel the Huns.[8] Afterward, the triple layer defense of the Theodosian Walls was constructed, which utilized a mortar of lime and brick to give the walls some flexibility in the event of future earthquakes.[9] Engineers protected the seaward approach with a massive chain spread across the harbor to prevent ships from landing troops on the beaches and docks. For a thousand years, Constantinople was untouchable.[10]
The awe-inspiring Theodosian Walls of Constantinople.[11]
A cross-section of the Theodosian walls of Constantinople.[12]
A section of the sea chain that secured the city from attacks from the strait.[13]
A map of Constantinople's defenses, including the formidable walls and sea chain.[14]
In 531, to celebrate Constantinople's unprecedented wealth and security, Emperor Justinian ordered the construction of one of the most beautiful and architecturally-impressive churches in the world, the Hagia Sophia.[15] Famous for its massive central dome that epitomized Byzantine architecture, it would be unrivaled for nearly a thousand years.[16]
The Hagia Sophia.[17]
The inside of the Hagia Sophia is stunning even to this day.[18]
In 613, the archangel Gabriel appeared to the prophet Muhammad who preached the word of God. Muhammad continued this message for the rest of his life, which lead to the birth of the Islam religion.[19] In September 717, a Muslim force attempted to enter Europe by passing through Constantinople. Emperor Leo II delivered a crushing defeat and sent a powerful message that Constantinople was the sentinel of the west, standard and dedicated to keeping Europe safe from foreign invaders.[20]
In 1198, after a long and complex series of events, Constantinople was sacked by the 4th Crusade, in spite of the threat of excommunication by Pope Innocent III.[21] The defeat was crushing and the city never fully recovered.
In 1293, Osman the First emerged as the leader of his principality in Anatolia, a province of Constantinople. Faced with attacking the powerful Turkish forces to the east or the crumbling Byzantine frontier to the west, Osman decided to attack the weakened Byzantine borders and established the Ottomans as the premier Muslim force in the region.[22] The Ottomans attracted nomads and wanderers who were seeking to fulfill their religious obligations to expand Islam and rapidly expanded their territory between the Turkish and the Byzantines. By 1354, the Ottomans marched into the city of Gallipoli, consequently bringing back wealth, strengthening the Ottoman position, and establishing a permanent base to launch incursions into Europe.[23]
In 1453, Ottoman General Mehmet the Conqueror finally finished off Constantinople; his powerful cannons rendering obsolete the thick, impenetrable walls. He swarmed into the city and captured it for the Ottoman Empire, renaming it Istanbul and declaring it the new capital of the Ottoman Empire.[24]
With the conquering of former Constantinople, the Ottomans enter the peak of their power, personified by Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled from 1520 to 1566. Thanks to previous conquests, the Ottoman territory encompassed all of Turkey, the northern shores of Africa, the edge of the Black Sea, and into Hungary in southern Europe. Suleiman’s forces marched as far west as Vienna and threatened the Hapsburgs before being turned back.[25]
A map of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power.[26]
Art, culture, architecture, and law flourished under Suleiman’s leadership. He commissioned the construction of public mosques, schools, bathhouses, hospices, and soup kitchens.[27] He fought corruption and reworked the entire Ottoman legal system to cover nearly every aspect of daily life, earning him the nickname “the lawmaker.” He also commissioned public infrastructure and defenses for all the major Christian cities that he captured, as well as added wonder and splendor to the Islamic world, notably by renovating holy sites such as Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina.[28] His rule is historically regarded as one of the pinnacles of good leadership.[29]
Suleiman the Magnificent.[30]
The decline of the Ottomans was very long and slow. The Office of the Grand Vezirs was built to allow the Sultans, the executive of the Ottoman Empire, to be less involved in ruling. While the Grand Vizier could wield the power of the Sultan, the Grand Vizier could command the same loyalty from the people. This split in power fragmented the executive authority—as the Grand Vizier held more executive power with the Sultan as more of a figurehead—and it lead to inability to efficiently revise government procedure.[31] In 1606, the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, the Hapsburgs, signed the Treaty of Zsitvatorok to cede control of central Hungry back to the Ottomans. While the Ottoman Empire gained territory, they lost prestige and exposed their waning strength to other European powers.[32] Finally, a two-front war with Venice and Iran in 1640 weakened the empire enough to be exposed to a major naval attack by Venice which while repelled in 1669 left the empire shaken with enemies on every front.[33] While other reforms were attempted, none were substantial enough to halt or reverse the Ottoman decline.
In 1683, Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa assaulted Vienna again, quickly overextending his fragile military base and prompting a massive unified European response by Vienna overland routes—Venice over the sea and Russia in the east. While the Ottoman Empire survived, its borders and prestige shrank considerably.[34]
Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Ottomans fought on-and-off wars with Europe. The empire gained ground but was losing influence in its fringe territories which, under the rising influence of nationalism, fought to identify as their own nationality rather than associate with the Ottoman Empire.
Battle of Vienna.[35]
In the late 1800’s, several conspiracies formed against the Sultan. They coalesced and unified into the Committee for Union and Progress, commonly known as the Young Turks. Their aim was the formation of a democratic solution to the nation’s problems. This democratic parliament was suspended by the absolutist Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1878.[36] In 1908, the Committee revolted, which forced Sultan Abdülhamid II to abdicate and reinstated the democratic parliament.
The young Turk revolution.[37]
Unfortunately, power transferred back to the Grand Viziers who found themselves responsible for a fracturing empire. The fringes of the Ottoman Empire were continually seceding under the pressure of local revolutions; and the Empire’s allies, like England, had become indifferent. In the hopes of preserving the Empire, the Grand Viziers’ only option was to ally with the relatively new nation of Germany.[38]
The fall of the Ottoman Empire came August 1, 1914 when Germany declared war and dragged its reluctant ally into the first World War. It started with massive opening moves: England launched a preemptive strike to secure the Persian oil pipeline (vital to their navy) and the Ottomans responded by attempting to take the Suez Canal and cripple England’s capacity to move ships and troops. However, the Turks were beaten back at heavy losses for the Ottomans.[39]
Next England deployed an expeditionary force at Gallipoli which was routed and defeated, prompting the empire to redouble its efforts and open more fronts than the Ottomans could counter. In 1916, T.E. Lawrence—better known as Lawrence of Arabia—was sent as a liason to the Arab uprising, led by Prince Feisal who sought to overthrow the Ottomans.[40] In a stunning move, the Arab coalition walked hundreds of miles of inhospitable desert to conquer Aqaba, a critical Ottoman fortress and shipping station.[41]
T.E. Lawrence, Prince Feisal, and their forces.[42]
British forces landed in Iraq, captured Bagdad in 1917, failed an assault on Gaza, and pushed towards Jerusalem. December 11, 1917, General Sir Edmund Allenby’s forces entered the Jaffa Gate, becoming the 34th conqueror of Jerusalem and the first Christian conqueror since the Crusades.[43] In 1918, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George recognized that trench warfare had resulted in a stalemate on the western front and he determined that it would continue indefinitely unless something changed; so he ordered the British military to focus on breaking the Ottomans in the east. At the Battle of Megiddo (September 19, 1918), General Allenby attacked with superior morale, weapons, and staunch Arab allies, taking Damascus on October 1 and Aleppo on October 26. Five days later, the Ottomans signed an armistice, effectively ending their involvement in the war.[44]
After the Paris Agreement ended World War One and dissolved the Ottoman Empire, Britain was the prime power in the Middle East. They had promised Prince Feisal, and his Arab allies, an independent Arab nation. Yet when the time came to deliver, Britain worked with various Arab actors to carve up the region and establish the modern borders of the Middle East. Back in 1916, Britain and France secretly signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which stated that they could divide the Middle East into spheres of influence for each country. The newly-founded League of Nations enforced the mandate system to ensure that a balance of power between the two countries was maintained. France received Syria and Lebanon, while England got Palestine, three provinces of Mesopotamia, and modern-day Iraq.[45]
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was both a member of the Young Turks and a war hero. He was the commander of the Ottoman 19th Division, which achieved repeated victories against Allied Forces. He was repeatedly promoted until the armistice ended the fighting.[46] The armistice gave the Allies the right to occupy any fort and territory that posed a threat to the Allies’ border security.[47] In 1919, Mustafa led a push for national independence against the colonizing British and French forces. Conflict continued with colonial, as well as Arminian and Greek forces, until Mustafa signed the Treaty of Lausanne on October 29, 1923, formally establishing the Republic of Turkey.[48]
Mustafa instigated a series of wide-reaching civil and cultural reforms. After years as a one-party system, Turkey allowed an experimental democracy to flourish, culminating in the 1950 election of a democratic party and the peaceful transition of power.[49]
During the tumultuous events of WWII, Turkey attempted to remain neutral and succeeded until 1945, when it entered the war on the side of England and France against Germany, Italy, and Japan. In 1944, Turkey stopped shipping chromite, a key ingredient in the manufacture of stainless steel to Germany. In 1945, Turkey attended the inaugural meeting of the United Nations and joined their declaration of war on Germany on February 23, 1945.[50] No Turkish troop ever saw combat.
In the aftermath of World War II, Israel was created with the full support of the United States—which further destabilizing the region. In 1952, Turkey officially joined NATO.[51] In 1960, the Democratic prime minister Adnan Menderes and president Celal Bayar instituted a lessening on restriction on religion, allowing mosques to reopen and the call to prayer to be spoken in Arabic rather than Turkish.[52] Simultaneously, they imposed new restrictions on the press and publishing. In response to increasing tension, martial law was declared in 1960, The army defected and arrested the president, prime minister and several cabinet members. General Cemal Gursel stepped in and lead a military dictatorship that lasted until 1965.[53]
The Turkish economy crashed in the late 1960s. Their currency was devalued and inflation rose eighty percent.[54] The military stepped in again to restore order in 1970 and installed Nihat Erim, a member of the right-wing Republican People's Party, as head of a caretaker government. He was the first of many until 1973 when retired naval officer Fahri Koruturk was made the Turkish President by parliament.
In 1974, Turkey intervened on the Island of Cyprus to prevent a Greek takeover and established the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is only recognized by Turkey.[55]
Instability ensued; Turkey went through eleven prime ministers in ten years, inflation continued to rise, and the economy continued deteriorate. In 1980, amid rampant assassinations and violent clashes in the streets, the military televised the announcement that they were imposing martial law and dissolving the government.[56] In 1983, Turgut Ozal came to power and immediately privatized several public industries, which eventually corrected inflation and promoted an increase in employment.[57] A new constitution was drafted and overwhelmingly supported in 1982.
Turgut Ozal, arguably one of the saviors of the Turkish economy.[58]
In 1984, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) began a coordinated insurrection against the Turkish government with the intent to create a Kurdish state in southern Turkey. Their tactics included kidnapping foreign tourists, suicide bombings, and attacking Turkish political offices; and they have since claimed more than forty thousand lives.[59] In 1999, Turkey initiated a brutal crackdown that captured the PKK’s leaders which prompted the rest of the PKK to withdraw into northern Iraq.[60] The group agreed to a cease-fire but disregarded it again in 2004. Both Turkey and the United States have classified PKK as a terrorist organization. Despite this, the PKK still maintains a popular following in Turkey and Europe, especially during Kurdish spring festivals.[61]
On the fifteenth of July 2016, a faction of the Turkish military attempted to instigate another coup that was defeated by widespread spontaneous popular resistance at the cost of two hundred and forty dead and over two thousand injured.[62] In response, the Turkish government arrested and dismissed more than 100,000 security personnel, journalists, judges, academics, and civil servants due to their alleged connection with the attempted coup.[63]
In July 2016, Turkey initiated a state of emergency that was extended to July 2017. Additionally, Turkey initiated a referendum on April 16, 2017, that will, when implemented, change Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential system.[64]
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