WELCOME TO THE TURKEY

Turkey 

Officially the Republic of Turkey (Turkish Türkiye Cumhuriyeti), southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, bordered on the northwest by Bulgaria and Greece; on the north by the Black Sea; on the northeast by Georgia and Armenia; on the east by Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxçivan; on the south by Iraq, Syria, and the Mediterranean Sea; and on the west by the Aegean Sea. The total area of Turkey is 779,452 sq km (300,948 sq mi). The capital is Ankara; Istanbul is the largest city.

The modern Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk) from a portion of the Ottoman Empire, following the empire’s collapse as a result of World War I (1914-1918). Turkey became a secular state in 1928, and a multiparty political system was established in 1950. Apart from a brief period of government by a military junta in 1960 and 1961, Turkey remained under civilian rule until 1980, when, in a period of political instability, inflation, and acts of terrorism, the military again took control. Civilian rule was restored to Turkey at the end of 1983.

The main area of Turkey, known as Anatolia, is in Asia between the Mediterranean and Black seas. Turkish Thrace in Europe makes up about 3 percent of the country’s area. Turkey has relatively rich agricultural resources and important deposits of lignite, black coal, iron ore, and chromium; some petroleum is found in the southeast. With several active seismic zones within its boundaries, Turkey is subject to frequent earthquakes.

Turkey can be divided into seven geographic regions: Thrace and the borderlands of the Sea of Marmara; the Aegean and Mediterranean region; the Black Sea region; western Anatolia; the central Anatolian Plateau; the eastern highlands; and southeastern Anatolia.

Thrace and the borderlands of the Sea of Marmara contain a central plain of gently rolling hills. It is a fertile, well-watered area of which slightly more than one-quarter is farmed. The eastern portion of this region rises as high as 2543 m (8343 ft) atop Mount Ulu (Olympus). The coastlands of the Aegean and Mediterranean region are narrow and hilly, and only about one-fifth of the land is arable. To the east, much of Turkey’s cotton crop is grown in the Çukurova, a plain connected with the interior through the Taurus Mountains by a pass known since antiquity as the Cilician Gates (Gülek Bogazi).

The Anatolian coastlands of the Black Sea region rise directly from the water to the heights of the Pontic Mountains (Dogukaradeniz Daglari). Slopes are steep, and only about 16 percent of this area is farmed. Western Anatolia consists of irregular ranges and interior valleys separating the Aegean coast from the central Anatolian Plateau; farming here is restricted to less than one-fifth of the total area. The central Anatolian Plateau, the largest geographic region in Turkey, is surrounded on all sides by mountains. The highest point is the summit of Mount Erciyes (3916 m/12,848 ft). Twenty-eight percent of the region is cultivated.

The eastern highlands region is the most mountainous and rugged portion of Turkey; Mount Ararat (Agri Dagi), mentioned in the Bible as the place where Noah’s ark came to rest, is the highest peak at 5137 m (16,854 ft). Less than 10 percent of this area is cultivated. The eastern highlands are the source for both the Tigris (Dicle) and Euphrates (Furat) rivers. Southeastern Anatolia is a rolling plateau enclosed on the north, east, and west by mountains. With about 19 percent of its area farmed, southeastern Anatolia is part of the so-called Fertile Crescent and has been important since antiquity.

Almost all the rivers of Turkey contain rapids and are thus unsuitable for navigation. A number of rivers do not flow during the dry summer. Some rivers are, however, important sources of hydroelectric power and water for irrigation. The Kizilirmak (about 1150 km/715 mi long), which empties into the Black Sea, is the longest river flowing entirely within national boundaries. The Büyükmenderes (ancient Meander) drains western Anatolia into the Aegean Sea; its many loops and bends have given rise to the term meander in English. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow from eastern Turkey to empty ultimately into the Persian Gulf.

Lake Van is Turkey’s largest lake; its waters are saline, as are those of another large body of water, Lake Tuz. Freshwater lakes include Beysehir, Egridir, and Burdur—all in the southwest.

The Mediterranean and Aegean shores of Turkey experience long, hot summers and mild, rainy winters. Istanbul, located on the Bosporus, has an average temperature range in January of 3° to 8° C (37° to 46° F). In July the average range is 18° to 28° C (65° to 82° F). Precipitation averages about 820 mm (about 32 in) annually, and is heaviest between October and March. Olives, citrus fruit, figs, grapes, cotton, and early spring vegetables are raised. Scattered forests alternate with low herbaceous growth. The central Anatolian Plateau has a continental climate with hot summers and colder winters than those along the shore. Ankara, located here, has an average temperature range of -4° to 4° C (24° to 39° F) in January and 15° to 30° C (59° to 86° F) in July. The average annual precipitation is about 350 mm (about 14 in). Along the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts, more than one-third of the yearly precipitation, which is about 650 mm (about 26 in) at Izmir, falls in December and January. The plateau receives only about half as much precipitation, but it is more evenly distributed over the course of the year. Grasslands and grain fields are abundant on the plateau, with sparse forests restricted to higher slopes. The eastern highlands experience even longer and colder winters. Pastoralism and grazing prevail. Some sparse forests are found, and alpine vegetation is common at higher elevations.

Humid deciduous forests as well as a thick brush cover are found along the Black Sea, and the climate is mild and rainy. Southeastern Anatolia records the hottest summer temperatures in Turkey (averaging more than 30° C/86° F in July and August); grain farming is dominant here, with grazing in its drier portions. Higher elevations have forests similar to those in the eastern highlands.

Only wild boar, which are seldom hunted or killed by Muslims (the great majority of the population), remain abundant in the forests. Wolf, fox, wildcat, hyena, jackal, deer, bear, marten, and mountain goat inhabit more remote areas. The camel, water buffalo, and Angora goat have been domesticated. In addition to numerous local species of birds, including the wild goose, partridge, and quail, migrations of birds of prey—lesser spotted eagles, buzzards, hawks, kestrels, and falcons—pass down the Bosporus. Trout are abundant in the mountain streams, and bonito, mackerel, and bluefish are plentiful in the Turkish Straits. Anchovies are caught in the Black Sea.

In addition to good supplies of coal and iron ore, Turkey has a number of small but important mineral deposits, such as chromium near Guleman and Fethiye, high-grade magnetite at Divrigi, and lead and zinc in scattered areas. Boron, copper, and silver are also found, and petroleum occurs in the southeast.

The territory of Turkey has been home to ethnically and culturally distinct groups from the ancient Hittites, Phrygians, and Assyrians to Greeks, Persians, Romans, and Arabs (see Asia Minor). The nomadic forebears of the modern Turks came out of Central Asia in the 11th century AD, conquered Arab and Byzantine empires, and set themselves up as rulers. Their arrival placed the distinctive stamp of Turkish language and culture on the population they found there, and it was the instrument by which Islam replaced Christianity in this territory. More than 20 percent of the population in the early 1990s, however, belonged to various ethnic groups that continue to maintain their individual identity, particularly the Kurds, Greeks, Arabs, Armenians, and Jews.

Turkey’s population (1996 estimate) is about 62,484,478. The average population density is about 80 persons per sq km (about 208 per sq mi). About 69 percent of the people lived in urban areas in the mid-1990s, compared with about 21 percent in 1950. The highest population concentrations were in Istanbul and in coastal regions.

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, and Ankara is the capital. Other important cities are Izmir, Adana, and Bursa.

The official language of Turkey is Turkish. In addition, about 10 percent of the population speaks a different primary language, usually Kurdish or Arabic.

Islam ceased to be the official state religion of Turkey in 1928. Nevertheless, 99 percent of the population is Muslim—about four-fifths of whom are Sunnites, and the remainder mostly Shiites found in the southeast. Christians account for less than 0.2 percent of the population. The Jewish community numbers about 20,000.

A modern school system based on European models is bringing literacy to Turkey. The arts combine traditional Turkish themes with Western styles. Radio and television broadcasting has removed much of the isolation of rural areas.

At the birth of the republic more than 90 percent of the people were illiterate. Atatürk, the leader of the new republic, stressed the need for modern education, and the first constitution stated that primary education would be obligatory for all Turks and free in government schools. By 1990 about 81 percent of the adult population could read and write. Primary education through the first five grades is compulsory. In the early 1990s, some 6.9 million pupils attended primary schools, about 3.2 million students attended general secondary schools, and about 651,000 students attended technical and vocational schools.

At that time about 444,000 students attended institutions of higher education. Entrance to Turkey’s universities is extremely competitive. Major institutions are the University of Istanbul (1453); the Aegean University (1955), at Izmir; and the University of Ankara (1946) and the Middle East Technical University (1956), at Ankara.

A transition from Islamic artistic traditions under the Ottoman Empire (see Islamic Art and Architecture) to a more secular, Western orientation has taken place in Turkey. Turkish painters today are striving to find their own art forms free from Western influence. Sculpture is less developed, and public-monuments are usually heroic representations of Atatürk and events from the war of independence. Folk music is a source of inspiration for longer symphonic works (see Arab Music).

Literature is considered the most advanced of contemporary Turkish arts. Many critics regard Kemal Tahir as the greatest modern Turkish novelist. Among authors translated into English is Yasar Kemal, author of Memed, My Hawk (1955; translated 1961), a prizewinning novel of a modern Robin Hood, which won the author his international reputation; Anatolian Tales (1968); and Seagull (1981), a story that blends myth with realistic depiction of provincial life in modern Turkey.

Turkey maintains state operas in Istanbul and Ankara, the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, three music conservatories, a national folk dance troupe, and other cultural institutions. Christian churches converted to mosques, and mosques built by the famous 16th-century Turkish architect Sinan, are in Istanbul, Edirne, Bursa, and other cities. The Sultan’s Palace (Topkapi Sarayi) is now a museum housing the imperial treasures and relics of the Prophet Muhammad. Ankara’s Museum of Anatolian Civilizations has outstanding Hittite, Phrygian, and other exhibits. Among the largest of Turkey’s many libraries are the National Library, in Ankara, and the Beyazit State Library, in Istanbul.

Turkey’s manufacturing sector has grown considerably since 1950, but in the early 1990s farming still engaged nearly half the labor force. The government has a great deal of influence over the Turkish economy and owns several important industries. In the mid-1990s the economy was beset by a growing budget deficit and an annual rate of inflation as high as 150 percent. In response, the government initiated austerity measures that included accelerating the pace of a privatization program and increasing the price of goods produced or sold by government enterprises.

Turkey’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) in the early 1990s was $118.9 billion. About 30 percent of the GDP was contributed by industry, 15 percent by agriculture, and 55 percent by government and private services.

The domestic Turkish labor force included about 20.8 million economically active persons in the early 1990s. About 48 percent were employed in agriculture, forestry, and fishing; about 32 percent held jobs in service industries; and 20 percent worked in industry. In addition, about 1.3 million Turkish citizens were employed abroad, especially in Germany, Saudi Arabia, and France; annual remittances from emigrant workers totaled about $3.1 million. The main labor organizations were the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions, with about 1.7 million members, and the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey.

Since 1950, agricultural output in Turkey has increased through the use of more machinery and fertilizer and better plant varieties, and the country is one of few in the world that is self-sufficient in basic foods. The diversity of climates in Turkey allows many specialty crops to be grown, such as tea. In the early 1990s, the annual production of Turkey’s principal crops included 19.3 million metric tons of wheat, 14.8 million tons of sugar beets, 6.9 million tons of barley, 6.4 million tons of tomatoes, 5.3 million tons of melons, 3.6 million tons of grapes, 2.1 million tons of maize, and 1.9 million tons of apples. Other important crops included onions, eggplants, nuts, cabbage, potatoes, rye, oats, sunflower and other oilseeds, olives, and citrus fruit. Cotton and tobacco are leading export crops. Livestock on farms included some 12 million cattle, 980,000 asses, 40.4 million sheep, 10.8 million goats, 336,000 buffalo, and 142 million poultry.

Although 26 percent of Turkey’s area is classified as forested, lumbering is relatively unimportant, with no more than one-third of the forests having commercial value. In the early 1990s about 15.8 million cu m (about 558 million cu ft) of timber was cut. Approximately two-thirds was used as fuel, and most of the rest was sawed into lumber.

More than 364,600 metric tons of fish were caught in the early 1990s; most of the catch came from the Mediterranean and Black seas. Anchovies were generally caught in the largest numbers; mackerel, sardines, mullet, and whiting were also caught.

Turkey maintains an important place in world mineral production. The country is among the world’s leaders in the production of chromium ore, extracting about 613,000 metric tons annually in the early 1990s. Other mineral exports include boron ore (2 million metric tons) and copper (184,000). Fossil fuel extraction is used primarily to meet domestic demands; in the early 1990s Turkey produced annually 30.9 million barrels of petroleum, 212.5 million cu m (7.5 billion cu ft) of natural gas, and 46.4 million metric tons of lignite, a form of low-grade coal. Other mineral products included black coal, bauxite, iron ore, manganese, antimony, lead, zinc, and sulfur. A special mineral produced is meerschaum, which is used to make tobacco pipes.

Turkey’s leading manufactured products in the early 1990s included textiles, processed food, refined petroleum and petroleum products, iron and steel, and chemicals. Istanbul, Izmir, and Bursa were important manufacturing centers.

In the early 1990s Turkey annually produced about 44 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. Installed capacity was about 14.4 million kilowatts, of which 38 percent was hydroelectric facilities, including a large plant on the Euphrates River near Elâzig.

The monetary unit of Turkey is the Turkish lira (TL), which is divided into 100 kurus (135,135 TL equal U.S.$1; 1996). The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, founded in 1930, is the bank of issue. The country also has many state banks concerned with economic development, such as the Agriculture Bank of the Republic of Turkey, founded in 1863, and several commercial banks. Turkey’s principal stock exchange is in Istanbul.

The cost of Turkey’s annual imports is usually much higher than earnings from exports; in the early 1990s annual imports totaled about $22.9 billion and exports $14.9 billion. The principal exports were textiles, iron and steel, dried fruits, leather garments, tobacco, and petroleum products. Chief imports were machinery, crude petroleum, transportation vehicles, iron and steel, and chemical products. Considerable income is derived from tourism in Turkey; in the early 1990s some 6.5 million foreigners spent about $934 million annually in the country. Turkey’s chief trading partners for exports are Germany (accounting for one-quarter of all purchases), Italy, the United States, France, Great Britain, republics of the former Soviet Union, the Netherlands, and Saudi Arabia. Principal sources of imports are Germany, the United States, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and France. In January 1996 Turkey entered a customs union with the European Union, eliminating almost all trade barriers between the two markets.

Turkey has about 10,413 km (about 6471 mi) of railroad track, all of which is operated by the Turkish Republic State Railways. The country also is served by about 59,770 km (about 37,140 mi) of highways. About 2.5 million passenger cars, 460,000 trucks, and 271,000 buses were in use in the early 1990s. The leading ports of Turkey are Istanbul and Izmir; other important ports include Trabzon, Giresun, Samsun, and Zonguldak, on the Black Sea, and Iskenderun and Mersin in the south. The national airline, Turkish Airlines, provides domestic and foreign service; major international airports serve Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, Antalya, and Izmir.

Turkey had about 30 major daily newspapers in the early 1990s, in addition to many dailies with small circulations. Larger dailies include Bugün, Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet, Milliyet, Sabah, Yeni Günaydin, and Zaman—all published in Istanbul. The country is also served by many weekly and monthly publications. The government runs four national radio networks and five television channels; there are also many privately owned radio and television stations. In the early 1990s about 9.2 million radios and 10 million television sets were licensed. About 8.5 million telephones were in use.

An attempt by the Allied powers and Greece to partition the country following World War I (1914-1918) precipitated the Turkish War of Independence, led by Atatürk. The Turkish Republic was proclaimed on October 29, 1923. Modernization efforts followed, such as abolishing the religious courts in 1924. Women gained the right to vote in 1934.

The multiparty era began in 1946, when the newly founded Democratic Party won 62 seats in parliament, joining the Republican People’s Party. In 1950, the Democratic Party won the national elections. Increasing interparty tensions created a crisis in which a military junta seized power and governed from 1960 to 1961. A new constitution was adopted in 1961, and general elections followed. No clear majority emerged, however, and a series of coalition governments were formed by various parties. Following a period of economic uncertainty and political violence in the 1970s, a second junta in 1980 established martial law and dissolved all political parties. A new constitution was ratified by popular referendum in November 1982, and civilian government was restored at the end of 1983.

Under the 1982 constitution, legislative power rests in the National Assembly, a 550-member unicameral body directly elected to five-year terms. The head of government is the prime minister, who represents the majority party or coalition in parliament. The president, as chief of state, is chosen by parliament for a seven-year term. All citizens over age 20 are entitled to vote.

Turkey is divided into 80 provinces which are administered by governors representing the central government. Municipalities elect their own mayors and councils.

Under the 1982 constitution, a constitutional court reviews the constitutionality of laws passed by parliament, and a court of cassation is the final court of appeal. There are many lower civilian and military courts.

All political parties were dissolved after the 1980 coup, and leaders of the Republican People’s Party (Turkish acronym, CHP) and the Justice Party (AP) were subsequently barred from taking part in national politics for at least ten years. In elections since the restoration of civilian rule, the Motherland Party (ANAP) won parliamentary majorities in both 1983 and 1987. The True Path Party (DYP) won the largest number of seats in the 1991 parliamentary elections. Other parties holding seats after the 1991 elections included the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), the Welfare Party (Refah), and the Democratic Left Party (DSP).

In the December 1995 elections the Islamic Refah won a plurality with only 21 percent of the vote. The DYP and ANAP, longtime rivals, formed a coalition in March 1996 to block Refah from power, but this coalition collapsed in June. The DYP was forced to form a power sharing coalition with Refah, which collapsed one year later. Other parties winning seats in the elections were the CHP (reactivated in 1992), the Democratic Left Party (DSP), and the Grand Unity Party (BBP).

Health care in Turkey is financed by the government for many who cannot afford to pay. In the early 1990s Turkey had more than 50,600 physicians and 126,600 hospital beds; medical facilities and personnel were in short supply in rural areas.

In the early 1990s, Turkey’s armed forces included about 504,000 people, of whom 30,000 were deployed in the Turkish-controlled section of Cyprus. All male citizens between the ages of 20 and 32 are required to serve from 1 to 16 months in the armed forces.

Turkey is a member of the United Nations (UN) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and an associate member of the European Union (EU).

For the history of what is now Turkey prior to Ottoman rule.

The first major civilization in Anatolia was that of the Hittites, about 1900 to 1200 BC, which originated in the central plateau. It was destroyed by invaders known as the Sea Peoples, who swept over Asia Minor and Syria toward the end of the 12th century BC. The destruction of the western Anatolian city of Troy, an event celebrated in ancient Greek legends, probably occurred during these invasions.

One group of the Sea Peoples, the Phrygians, established a kingdom that became the dominant Anatolian power in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. During this period the Greeks founded Miletus, Ephesus, and Priene and a number of other cities in Ionia, an area along the Aegean coast. About 700 BC the Phrygian kingdom was overrun and destroyed by the Cimmerians, a nomadic people who thereafter lived in western Asia Minor. In the 7th century BC the Lydians also appeared near the Aegean coast, where they founded a kingdom, the capital of which was Sardis. It was overthrown by the Persians under Cyrus the Great in 546 BC.

From the mid-6th century to 333 BC most of Asia Minor, including Anatolia, belonged to the Persian Empire, although the Greek cities frequently enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy. In the 4th century BC Persian power declined, and after 333 BC it was supplanted by the Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great. In the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Asia Minor was gradually conquered by the Romans.

After the division of the Roman Empire in the 4th century AD, Asia Minor became part of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire, the capital of which was Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), or Byzantium, located on the European side of the Bosporus, just across from the west coast of Anatolia. During the 11th century Asia Minor was invaded by nomadic Seljuk Turks. In 1071 they routed the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert; during the 12th century they ravaged much of eastern and central Anatolia. Although at this time the primary objective of the Seljuks was not to attack the Byzantines but to eliminate the threat of heterodox Shiite Islam posed by the Fatimids of Egypt, some members of the Seljuk dynasty saw an opportunity to win a realm of their own. They established the sultanate of Rum (with its capital at Konya), which ruled central Anatolia in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Most of the nomads who had made the initial Seljuk victories possible were soon pushed to the west of Anatolia, where frontier colonies were maintained against the last Byzantine defenses. Although the sultanate of Rum imitated the Seljuk Empire of Baghdad, the presence within its boundaries of large numbers of Christians and its superimposition of Islam on top of a living Christian tradition produced a milieu considerably different from that of other Islamic states. It provided the basis for the unique Ottoman systems of government and society that began to emerge in the 14th century.

The Seljuks of Baghdad and Konya were soon overwhelmed by the invasion of the Mongols under Genghis Khan, culminating in the capture and sack of Baghdad in 1258. In Anatolia, the Turkish nomads used the resulting anarchy to form a series of principalities, nominally under the suzerainty of Rum, which in turn was dominated by the Mongols. These principalities maintained themselves through their raids against one another and against the last Byzantine nobles, who held out in western Anatolia.

The Ottomans emerged in history as leaders of those Turks who fought the Byzantines in northwestern Anatolia. The location enabled Osman, founder of the Ottoman dynasty, to take the fullest advantage of Byzantine weakness and secure booty by raids into Christian territory. This situation lured into his service thousands of Turkish nomads and also many Arabs and Iranians fleeing from the Mongols. Osman’s conquests in Anatolia were crowned with the capture in 1326 of the provincial capital Bursa by his son Orhan, which gave the Ottomans control over the Byzantine administrative, financial, and military systems in the area. Thus began the Ottoman tradition to expand by force only at the expense of the declining Christian states to the west, but not against the Turkmen principalities to the east. The peaceful acquisition of Turkmen lands by purchase, marriage, and the sowing of dissension within the ruling dynasties was, however, acceptable, and the Ottomans thus took over large territories in western Anatolia.

Ottoman expansion into Europe began late in Orhan’s reign. Ottoman soldiers were hired as mercenaries by leading Byzantines, including John VI Cantacuzene, who was thus able to secure himself the Byzantine throne in 1347. In return, Ottoman soldiers were allowed to raid Byzantine territories in Thrace and Macedonia, and the emperor’s daughter was given to Orhan in marriage. The Ottoman raiders soon began to camp in the Gallipoli (Gelibolu) Peninsula and to mount continuous raids on the remaining Byzantine possessions in Europe.

The transformation of the Ottoman principality into a vast empire, covering southeastern Europe, Anatolia, and the Arab world, was accomplished in three major campaigns between the 14th and 16th centuries. The early Ottoman Empire, stretching from the Danube to the Euphrates, was created by Murad I and Bayazid I. Murad concentrated mainly on Europe in a series of campaigns that extended as far as the Danube, culminating in the Battle of Kosovo (1389), in which an allied Serbian, Bosnian, and Bulgarian army was routed. Murad himself was killed, but his son Bayazid completed the victory. During the next decade Bayazid broke with tradition and conquered most of the Anatolian Turkmen principalities, thus bringing the early empire to its peak.

This conquest, however, greatly weakened the basic supports of the Ottoman state. The Muslim elements and the Turkish notables, who had helped the Ottomans achieve their victories in Europe, opposed this subjugation of Turks and Muslims. They refused to participate in the campaign into Anatolia, which as a consequence was carried out largely by Christians in Bayazid’s service. At the same time, the emergence of the Ottomans as a major power in Anatolia threatened the rear flanks of Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror who had recently taken over much of Iran and Central Asia. Tamerlane briefly invaded Anatolia in 1402, defeating and capturing Bayazid, who died a prisoner the following year.

Muhammad I, Bayazid’s youngest son, restored the Ottoman Empire by defeating and killing his brothers, one after another, and, from 1402 to 1413, by fighting off Christian and Turkmen vassals in Europe and Anatolia. His son, Murad II, reasserted Ottoman dominion in Europe as far as the Danube by defeating the various Christian princes of Serbia and Bulgaria and replacing them with direct Ottoman administration. This policy was continued during the reign of Muhammad II, who defeated the last remaining Christian princes south of the Danube. His conquests culminated in the capture of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) in 1453 and the subjugation of Anatolia as far as the Euphrates. Bayazid II ended the policy of conquests in order to consolidate the lands that had been occupied during previous reigns. Unlike him, Selim I used the territorial and administrative base of power left to him to defeat and destroy the Mameluke Empire in 1517 and to conquer Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Arabia, which he achieved in a single campaign, thus incorporating into the Ottoman Empire the heartland of the old Islamic caliphates. Suleiman I the Magnificent completed the Ottoman expansion by moving across the Danube to conquer Hungary and besiege Vienna in 1529. In the east he conquered the remainder of Anatolia and the old Abbasid and Seljuk center in Iraq.

The Ottoman Empire reached its peak during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, and the social, administrative, and governmental institutions that had been evolving since the 14th century were formalized in a series of codes that remained the basis of Ottoman law until the end of the empire. As revealed in these codes, the society was divided into a ruling class of Ottomans and a subject class of rayas, or the sultan’s "protected flock."

The basic attribute of the ruler’s authority was the right to exploit the wealth of the empire. The sultan divided this wealth into administrative and financial units and assigned them to his agents, along with the authority to collect the accruing revenues. These agents were considered "slaves" of the sultan, but because slaves in Middle Eastern society acquired the social status of their master, they actually constituted the ruling class of Ottoman society. Their authority, however, was limited to functions involved with exploiting the empire’s wealth and with expanding and defending the state organized to accomplish this. To carry out these functions, the ruling class organized itself into four basic "institutions": the Imperial Institution, including the Inner, or Palace, Service, which cared for the sultans, and the Outer Service, which made sure that the system worked; the Military Institution, which kept order through various military corps, of which the most important were the Janissaries and the cavalry; the Scribal Institution, which supported the sultan and his ruling class by assessing and collecting taxes that exploited the wealth of the empire; and the Religious, or Cultural, Institution, which gave religious leadership to the sultan’s Muslim subjects and was in charge of education and justice. The ruling class was made up of two rival elements: (1) Muslim Turks, Arabs, and Iranians, who together constituted the Turkish aristocracy that dominated the Ottoman system during the 14th and 15th centuries, and (2) Christian prisoners and slaves, recruited, converted, and educated through the famous devshirme system. Beginning in the mid-16th century, the latter group took over and dominated the ruling class.

All other social functions were left to the subject class to carry out as they wished, primarily through religiously oriented communities called millets, and through economic and social guilds. The Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Gregorian, and Muslim millets, later joined by Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Bulgarian Orthodox millets, were allowed religious and cultural autonomy.

The decline of the Ottoman Empire began late in the reign of Suleiman I and continued until the end of World War I in 1918. Official reaction to this decline came in phases—that of Traditional Reform (1566-1807), when efforts were made to restore the old institutions, and that of Modern Reform (1807-1918), when the old ways were abandoned and new ones, imported from the West, were adopted.

Until the mid-16th century the sultans had controlled and used both the old Turkish aristocracy and the devshirme Christian converts and their descendants by carefully balancing and playing them off against each other. During Suleiman’s reign, however, the devshirme achieved control, drove the Turkish aristocracy out of the ruling class, and then began to exploit the state for their own advantage. At the same time, the empire began to suffer from overpopulation, resulting from the peace and security that had been established. A high birth rate eventually resulted in both urban and rural unemployment, due to the limited availability of land and to highly restrictive economic policies enforced by the urban guilds. Without jobs, the oppressed masses formed robber bands that infested town and country alike. With incompetent, dishonest, and inefficient government by the ruling class, lands fell out of cultivation, the empire suffered from endemic famine and disease, and entire districts—sometimes entire provinces—fell under the control of provincial notables. The subject class suffered a good deal but was protected from the worst effects of the anarchy by the millets and guilds, which formed a substratum of society, taking over the functions of government when needed. At the same time, Europe was developing nation-states that were far more powerful than those that had faced the Ottoman Empire in earlier centuries.

Ottoman reaction to the decline was tempered for several reasons: First, Europe was so involved in its own affairs that for at least a century it was unaware of the Ottoman situation and made no effort to take advantage of it. Second, most members of the ruling class benefited from the chaos, for it enabled them to retain huge profits for themselves. Finally, the Ottomans in their isolation were unaware of the changes that had made Europe far more powerful than before. They assumed that the Islamic world was still more advanced than Christian Europe. Under these conditions, the ruling class saw no need for change or reform.

After a time, however, Europe began to realize the extent of internal Ottoman decay and to take advantage of it. In 1571 the Holy League fleet, led by John of Austria, moved into the eastern Mediterranean and destroyed the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto. The victory was counteracted by the building of an entirely new fleet, and the Ottomans resumed their naval control in the Mediterranean for another half century. Nonetheless, the impression began to spread in Europe that the Ottomans were not invincible. War with Austria followed (1593-1606), leading the sultan to recognize the Holy Roman emperor as an equal and to give up his insistence on annual Austrian payments of tribute—a fact that further opened Europe’s eyes to Ottoman decline.

Only when powerful foreign attacks threatened the empire, on which its privileges and wealth depended, did the ruling class accept some sort of reform. In 1623, Shah Abbas I of Iran conquered Baghdad and eastern Iraq and stirred up a series of Turkmen revolts in eastern Anatolia. In response, Sultan Murad IV restored honesty and efficiency to the ruling class and the army. By ruthlessly executing thousands found guilty of violating Islamic law and tradition, he began the so-called Traditional Reforms. The reforms were successful enough for the Ottoman army to drive the Iranians out of Iraq and to conquer the Caucasus in 1638. Murad’s successor, however, allowed the previous decay to resume. A war with Venice, which culminated in a Venetian naval attack on the Dardanelles, then led to the rise of the Köprülü dynasty of grand viziers, which once again restored the old institutions with the same methods used by Murad VI. Eradication of the decay and restoration of Ottoman power stimulated the last Köprülü grand vizier, Kara Mustafa Pasha, to make a new attempt to conquer Vienna in 1683. After a short siege, however, the Ottoman army completely fell apart, making it possible for a new European Holy League to conquer integral parts of the empire. The losses of Hungary and Transylvania to Austria; Dalmatia, the Pelopónnisos (Peloponnesus), and important Aegean islands to Venice; Podolia and the southern Ukraine to Poland; and Azov and the lands north of the Black Sea to Russia were confirmed in the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699).

Even at this time, however, the Ottoman Empire had enough internal strength to pull itself together, correct the worse abuses, and, by adopting modern European weapons and tactics, even regain some of its losses. In 1711 the Ottomans defeated a campaign mounted by Czar Peter the Great, forcing him to return the territories lost at Karlowitz, but a war with Venice and Austria (1714-1717) led to the loss of Belgrade and northern Serbia. This stimulated a new reform era called the Tulip Period (1715-1730), in which the Ottoman army was reorganized and modernized in order to spare the empire further losses. This effort was continued during the reign (1730-1754) of Mahmud I, when the French artillery officer Claude de Bonneval, called Humbaraci Ahmed Pasha, created a new European-style artillery corps. As a result, in the war that broke out with Russia and Austria (1736-1739), the Ottomans were able to regain most of their previous losses in northern Serbia and the northern shores of the Black Sea. A period of peace with Europe followed, largely because of European involvement in other wars; this lull, however, once again convinced the ruling class that the danger was past, and the old abuses and decay soon returned. Consequently, in two disastrous wars between 1768 and 1792 (see Russo-Turkish Wars), the Ottoman army crumbled, major new territorial losses were suffered, and the empire itself seemed near total collapse.

During the 19th century, the continuous danger of foreign conquest was aggravated by the rise of nationalism. One after another, the non-Turkish peoples of the empire sought and obtained independence. Greece was the first country to do so, gaining autonomy in 1829 and independence in 1830. This was followed by revolts of the Serbs, Bulgars, and Albanians, as well as of the Armenians of eastern Anatolia. Ottoman survival was due less to the empire’s own strength than to European disagreement over how to divide the spoils—a part of history often referred to as the Eastern Question.

The Ottoman ruling class responded to these crises with a concentrated effort at reform; it replaced the old ways with new ones imported from the West in a reform movement (1839-1876) known as the Tanzimat (Turkish for "reorganization"). Planned and begun under Mahmud II, and culminating in the highly autocratic reign (1876-1909) of Abd al-Hamid II, the Tanzimat modernized the Ottoman Empire by extending the scope of government into all aspects of life, overshadowing the autonomous millets and guilds that previously had monopolized most governmental functions. A modern administration and army were created along Western lines, with highly centralized bureaucracies. Secular systems of education and justice were created to provide personnel for the new administration. Large-scale programs of public works modernized the physical structure of the empire, with new cities, roads, railroads, and telegraph lines. New agricultural methods also contributed to Ottoman revitalization. Another response was the suppression of minorities. This policy resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians between 1894 and 1918.

Severe economic, financial, political, and diplomatic problems emerged, however, to undermine the Tanzimat reforms. The newly industrialized European states preferred to keep the Ottoman Empire as a source of cheap raw materials and a market for their manufactured goods. Using the Capitulations—treaties by which, since the 16th century, the sultans had allowed Europeans to live and work in the empire according to their own laws and under their own consuls—the Europeans were able to prevent the Ottomans from restricting foreign imports and thus kept them from protecting their own nascent industries. Because the Ottomans depended largely on foreign industrialists for capital and know-how, the Europeans could also undermine and destroy what industrial efforts were made. The empire borrowed so heavily from European banks that by the last years of the Tanzimat, more than half of its total revenues were consumed by interest charges. Moreover, the new and modern bureaucracy soon began to use its authority to misrule the subjects.

A group of intellectuals and liberals known as the Young Ottomans for a Constitution then began to demand a limit to the power of the ruling class and the bureaucracy and a parliament to enforce the rights of the people. Severely suppressed by the Tanzimat leaders, the Young Ottomans fled abroad, publishing their demands in books and pamphlets that were sent into the empire through the foreign post offices, which, protected by the Capitulations, were free of Ottoman government control. At the same time, the newly independent Balkan states began large-scale agitation to gain control of Macedonia, where the population was almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. In Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria, societies were organized that sought to enforce their claims by terrorist campaigns, severely straining the ability of the Ottoman state to keep order. Finally, the deaths of the principal Tanzimat leaders about 1870 left the autocratic structure of government they had created in the hands of dishonest politicians, who resumed the corruption and misrule that had prompted the Tanzimat in the first place.

At this point a new international crisis, threats of a war with Russia and Austria, and the constitutionalist aspirations of a group of reformers led to the overthrow of Sultan Abd al-Aziz. After a very short reign, Murad V was succeeded by Sultan Abd al-Hamid II. He promulgated a constitution and accepted a representative parliament, which convened in 1877, but was soon suspended because of war with Russia. In cooperation with Britain, Abd al-Hamid managed to solve the international crisis at the Congress of Berlin (1878). He then moved to restore the Tanzimat reforms, which by the end of the century had created a relatively modern and prosperous state. In the face of continued European dangers, however, Abd al-Hamid suspended the parliament and installed a highly autocratic government in 1878. Governmental power was taken from the bureaucracy and centered in the palace, and all opposition was suppressed. Abd al-Hamid restored financial stability and advanced the economy, but the political repression ultimately led to the rise of a new liberal opposition movement, the Young Turks, who forced him to restore the constitution and parliament in what is known as the Young Turk Revolution (1908). The success of the new constitutional regime was immediately undermined, however, by a series of disasters: Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria annexed East Rumelia, and terrorism in Macedonia and eastern Anatolia resumed with renewed fury.

Abd al-Hamid and those around him in the palace blamed these disasters on the new constitutional regime and attempted a counterrevolution in April 1909. Parliament was dissolved and many members arrested, but the army in Macedonia, dominated by Young Turks, marched back to Istanbul, defeated the counterrevolution, and dethroned the sultan. Subsequent Ottoman sultans reigned but did not rule.

The early years of the Young Turk era (1908-1918) were the most democratic period of Ottoman history. The constitution and parliament were restored, and parties were formed to contest for leadership. The strongest among them was the Union and Progress party, founded and supported by the Young Turks, but many others also flourished.

The Young Turk reforms, which reached all areas of life, culminated in the secularization of the Muslim schools and courts and the introduction of women’s rights during World War I (1914-1918). The modern state apparatus of the Tanzimat was democratized, industry and agriculture were developed, and modern budgetary techniques were introduced. However, the First Balkan War (see Balkan Wars) in 1912 led to a revolt within the Committee of Union and Progress and an attempt to take over the government by a triumvirate led by Enver Pasha. The triumvirate’s domination was assured when it took advantage of dissension among the victorious Balkan states to regain Edirne (Adrianople) in the Second Balkan War in 1913.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk 

Mustafa Kemal, founder of the Turkish Republic, was born in Saloniki on the l9th May 1881 of humble background. His father started out as a customs officer, later becoming a timber merchant. Following his sudden death he left behind a family having to fend for itself.

As a child Mustafa finished primary school in Saloniki, going on to secondary education at Rucholigè School. Despite opposition from his uncle, who had taken on the responsibility of looking after the widow and her two children following the death of his brother, Mustafa entered military school, completing his military training in Istanbul. He succeeded in entering the Military School (Harbiye) where he completed his studies with flying colors, after which he was accepted into the School of the General Staff. In December 1905 he was commissioned as General Staff Captain.

Throughout his studies Mustafa Kemal consistently proved himself a conscientious, aspiring and diligent student who liked to interest himself with particularly difficult and complex problems. Whilst at military school in Saloniki, he distinguished himself in mathematics and literature. At the same time, and due mainly to his own efforts he started to learn French, in which he made considerable progress. Yet another trait of character which began to show through in his early youth was Mustafa's ability to show initiative and exceptionally his ability to give orders, whilst at the same time maintaining a sense of fraternity with his comrades. In the School of the General Staff he pondered long and hard over the hardship caused by the dictatorial rule of Abdullamid, who from within his famous Yildiz Palace spread fear throughout the whole country. Just like his comrades at the school, Mustafa harbored the same feelings of disgust and rebelliousness towards the political regime of the Sultan. For this reason he did not hesitate for one moment about taking part in the secret underground activities going on at the General Staff School, directed towards the overthrow of the Yildiz Regime.

Between the years 1905 and 1918 Mustafa Kemal was deservedly awarded high ranking posts in the military chain of command. He became Chief of General Staff of the army that was sent out from Saloniki to put down the uprising of the l3th April 1909, a movement designed to return the country to Hamadic Absolutism and which had started with the non recognition of the Constitution that had been declared on the 23^rd July 1908. Mustafa proved to have special qualities in the organization and management of this army of oppression, known as the Army of the Movement. In 1910 he lead the Turkish Forces during military maneuvers in the Province of Picardy in France. In 1911 he fought in Tripoli against the Italians, and in 1914 whilst serving as Military Attaché in Sofia, he successfully drew the governments attention to the catastrophic results connected with Turkey's entry into the war with Germany and its allies.

During World War I Mustafa fought against the Allied Forces at the Dardanelles, the Russians on the Mus Front, in the east and against the British in Syria and Iraq. During the war he visited Germany as Military Adviser, together with hereditary Prince Vahdettin. At the time of signing the Armistice Declaration on the 30th October 1918 Mustafa Kemal remained at the head of his troops, a command given to him by the German General Liman on Sanders. In the years between 1918 and 1923 Mustafa Kemal was at the forefront of the Turkish War of Independence and involved with the eradication of the antiquated institutions of the Osmanic Empire and in laying the foundations of the new Turkish State. He approached the National Congresses of Erzurum and Sivas to organize and lift the morale of the people in its determined opposition to the Forces of the Entente who were occupying Anatolia.

By the end of these conventions he had managed to convey the message that the idea and the ideals of outdated imperialism ought be dropped so that people within the national boundaries could make decisions in accordance with the principles and general guidelines of an effective national policy. After the occupation of Istanbul by the Forces of the Entente he laid the foundations for the new Turkish State when in 1920 he united the Great National Assembly in Ankara. With the government of the Great National Assembly, of which he was President, Mustafa Kemal fought the Forces of the Entente and the Sultan's army which had remained there in collaboration with the occupying forces. Finally, on the 9th September 1922 he succeeded in driving the Allied Forces back to Izmir, along with the other forces which had managed to penetrate the heartland of Anatolia. By this action he saved the country from invasion by foreign forces.

On the 24th July 1923 the States of the Entente were obliged to recognise the territorial integrity of Turkey in the Treaty of Lausanne. So it came to pass that in quite a spectacular fashion Mustafa Kemal had achieved the first step in his reform programme, the creation of a sovereign and independent state.

From 1923 to 1938 Mustafa Kemal's main work lay in leading the Turkish State and its people along the path in the direction of the outside civilised world. The ideal of an independent fatherland within national boundaries had already been achieved before 1922 and therefore the idea of a truly modern state, whose role relied on the sovereignty of its people, could be developed by the most rational means available during this period.

Following their separation, Sultanat was abolished in 1922, whilst Khalifat continued to exist. At the Proclamation of the Republic on the 29th October 1923 this emporia institution proved to be superfluous and it was likewise abolished. This also resulted in the disbandment of other theocratic institutions on which Khalifat was founded. By the same token all similar types of organizations and theological institutions which had regulated the role of the individual and society in general were closed. Finally by amendment to the constitution, the principle of (secularism) - that all so important factor in community life - was introduced as an anchor of the new democratic and republican constitution. As a result of this new direction, all laws, rules and regulations, institutions and methods of a theological nature that had been an influence on the dealings of state and social order were abolished and various political and social reforms introduced along Western lines, suitably adapted to meet national security and interests.

In brief are mentioned here some of the important reforms introduced under Kemal: the international calendar and time were adopted (1923).

in place of the traditional head garment, the fez, introduced under the rule of Sultan Nahmond II, the West's style of hat became obligatory (1925).

Swiss civil law was introduced adapted to the conditions and needs of the country (1926).

the Latin alphabet was adopted (1928).

The Civil Code, Penal Statute Book and the Trade Law Book were introduced.

The legal position of women and their place in society in the new republic was greatly improved (for example the active and passive voting right at national and local elections).

Only due to the efforts of this great man, which he maintained with exceptional strength of character and persistence, helped along by his ability to work methodically, was it possible to introduce all these reforms. Thanks to his great organizing talent he led the country to considerable prosperity and down the path of civilisation and peace.

Kemal laid the foundations of a truly modern Turkey, a democratic, republican and independent state based on national sovereignty. Although these ideas originated from him and were paramount in the foundation of the new state they remain today an integral part of the republican government of our country. The foundation stone, or perhaps even the very soul of Ataturk's spiritual and intellectual philosophy, was the thought of universal peace and although the biggest part of his life was taken up by war, he always considered it a crime.

According to Ataturk war can only be just or justified if it is fought out of sheer necessity or for reasons of national defense, or pursued by a people awaiting their sovereignty, their very lives depending on it.

To live freely and be independent is both a holy right of the individual and of the nation, this right being stronger than power itself. Only by his own personal conviction was he able to frame the all inspiring guiding principle of the Republic of Turkey - "Peace in the country, peace in the world." This principle points with absolute clarity and determination the way forward for the country's future home and foreign policy.

From the ideas that Ataturk held the idea of civilisation should not be overlooked as it is no less important. In the course of his short life he never ceased repeating the fact that views which are based broadly on regional perspective's of the West or East, or on religious perspective's, be they Islam or Christian, often weaken the thoughts of civilisation, as they fail to manifest the small or special characteristics. Civilisation is something whole and exclusively human, a universal property. It therefore goes without saying, that the share every nation in the world has in civilisation is considerable.

In the view of this inspired reformer, mankind has a duty to constantly adapt himself to the needs that reason demand. His guide in life should be science. Following on from these basic beliefs Kemal took it upon himself to provide everyone in the country with an education, at the heart of which lay the creation of citizens having special qualities, or in other words, the sense and direction of the education he wanted to give to the people was very clear in that the Republic needed to produce generations of people whose thinking, beliefs and education were totally free. Not to mention his view of egoism being wholly incompatible with the idea of civilisation "Egoism, whether individual or national is to be condemned". He reminds us that all nations of the world form one large family and that whenever a disaster strikes one of its members, then it is felt by the rest - like the pain felt from a needle penetrating a part of the body and felt throughout the whole body.

With the intention of spreading his ideas within the educational sector, and supported by national campaigns, Kemal continued to put forward his form of humanitarian education, with the aim of producing an enlightened people free from prejudice and intolerance. The desired objective being simply to develop citizens of the world, free from desires such as envy, revenge and conspiracy. In a world inhabited by such communities it might be possible to find an instrument, an organization that stands above individual states, or in other words: "a body of united nations", whose main purpose is to maintain peace.

In this respect Ataturk's ideas date from the time between the World Wars, particularly that before World War II but are nevertheless topical because in a way Ataturk had predicted the concept of the United Nations.

Furthermore, it was at a time when the ideological battle had reached its climax and for this reason such views were of a prophetic nature.

For a man who had set himself the task of building up a country based on the most convincing human achievements and under the banner of reason.

The Inauguration of the Monument to the "Unknown Soldier" held in Dumlupinar on the 30^th August 1924

Mustafa Kemal was again dressed very well, his eyes sparkling and radiant with happiness over the "Great Victory" and accompanied by his wife Latife Hanim and wartime comrades. He talked to the crowd, his beloved people, saying; "A country may be conquered forcibly, but that in itself is not enough to govern its people. As long as its soul has not been conquered, its determination and resolution cannot be destroyed and it is a nation impossible to rule" …. "Undoubtable, the foundation laid will give to the new Turkish Republic and state its stability. The eternal life of the Turkish Republic has been crowned here. The Turkish blood shed on the battlefields and the souls of the martyrs in heaven will be the immortal guardians of our state and republic" …. "Gentlemen, the most important effect of this great victory is that the Turkish Nation has gained absolute control of its independence. If we remember the years of suffering under the reign of khans, monarchs, sultans and caliphs, we can now understand the importance of gaining independence." In connection with the nations independence Mustafa Kemal stated; "Gentlemen, the nation's independence is a power that breaks chains and burns crowns and thrones. Unions which were based on the slavery of nations, will always be condemned to decline."

On the Cal Plain, Ataturk expressed his opinion about the sultans and caliphs saying: "My friends, expelling from Turkey those who sat in their palaces relying on nothing other than (Turkishness), and who marched with our enemies against Anatolia and against (Turkishness) has proved an even greater mission than that of removing the enemy from our country. (!) Absolute control of the Turkish Nation, our country and ancestral heritage, could only be achieved following the closure of these superfluous and harmful offices.

Ataturk in expressing his opinion about technology and science stated; "Our country not only needs cultural development and wealth but also science, technology, civilisation, freedom of thought and a free ideology. Our honour, independence and existence must support us in the basic and important work necessary to achieve the interests of the nation.

The people who ruled Turkey for centuries thought of everything except Turkey itself! Our nation is unselfish in its desire for independence and land and this has been proven. Our nation is the guardian of reform. A nation encompassing such high values cannot therefore be led astray by others."

At midnight on Thursday the 3^rd September 1936, during the Balkan Festival at the Beylerbeyi Palace, Ataturk honoured the gala with a visit. Yugoslavian, Bulgarian, Romanian and Turkish delegations and folk groups took part. When Ataturk arrived all the groups sang together; "Welcome, Mustafa Kemal Pasa". General Kazim Dirik read out Ataturk's speech to the guests; "The fortunes of mankind must be realised by moving closer together, by loving each other and by meeting each other with pure feelings and thoughts. A symbol of this high human ideal is our being here together this night. For this reason, I express my great appreciation to our important guests."

Later, a Turkish child communicated Ataturk's notes to the guests. "A nation is able to carry out reforms in many ways and to succeed in them. The reformation of music however reflects the exceptional development of a nation

World War I

At first, the triumvirate tried to avoid involvement in World War I, but German offers to help regain lost provinces, British confiscation of Turkish warships being constructed in England, and manipulation by Enver Pasha led to an alliance with the Central Powers and Turkish entry into the war in 1914. The Turkish armed forces performed well during the Gallipoli campaign and drove back and captured an entire British expeditionary force at Al Kut in Iraq. A campaign across the Sinai Peninsula with the aim of capturing the Suez Canal and Egypt was unsuccessful, however, and led to the British organization of an Arab revolt in the Arabian Peninsula. With Arab help, a British force from Egypt then invaded Syria and had reached southern Anatolia by the time the war ended. A campaign led by Enver Pasha into the Caucasus at the start of the war was defeated less by the Russians than by poor organization and revolts in the eastern provinces. Thereafter the Russians invaded eastern and central Anatolia at will in 1915 and 1916, until their campaign was brought to an end in 1917 by the Russian Revolution. The destructive effects of these foreign invasions were compounded by internal revolts, famine, starvation, and disease. Some 6 million people of all religions, one-quarter of the entire population, died or were killed, and the economy was devastated.

In the wake of surrender, the Turkish government was placed under the authority of the Allied occupation powers led by the British. The Paris Peace Conference prepared to impose a settlement by which not only the Balkan and Arab provinces would be ceded, but areas occupied by predominantly Turkish populations in eastern and southern Anatolia would be placed under foreign or minority control. A large Greek army captured Izmir in 1922 and invaded southwestern Anatolia, but massacres of the Turkish population led the Allies to withdraw their support from the Greeks. In reaction to the proposed peace settlement and to the Greek invasion, the Turkish nationalist movement rose in Anatolia under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. During the Turkish War of Independence (1918-1923), Atatürk successfully resisted the Allied terms; drove out the Greeks and the British, French, and Italian occupation forces; and imposed a settlement, embodied in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), by which the Turkish areas of eastern Thrace and Anatolia were left to form their own state. Following this victory, a Turkish republic was proclaimed, with its capital in Ankara, and the Istanbul government of the sultan simply ceased to exist in 1923.

Led by Atatürk during its first 15 years, the Turkish republic was founded on six basic principles incorporated into the constitution: republicanism (based on the premise that sovereignty belongs to the people); Turkish nationalism (emphasizing the glories of the Turkish past and the need for the Turks to build their own state according to modern principles and without foreign intervention); populism (the idea that the people ruled through the Grand National Assembly, with all economic and social interests represented); secularism (dictating complete separation between the Muslim religious establishment and the state); statism (meaning state intervention in major sectors of the economy and its control of the rest, so as to assure rapid economic development); and revolutionism (dictating that all these changes be instituted at once and in full so that Turkish society could develop as rapidly as possible). The Atatürk years were ones of substantial economic progress and general development. Turkey avoided tendencies toward revenge, joining in close diplomatic relations with its former Balkan territories and at the same time emphasizing its secularist policy by avoiding alliances with its Muslim neighbors to the east.

Atatürk was succeeded as president by his close associate Ismet Inönü, who continued his internal policies. Remembering the terrible experience of World War I, Inönü kept Turkey neutral during almost all of World War II; not until February 1945 did Turkey declare war on Germany and Japan. Following the war, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) attempted to include Turkey within its sphere of influence, demanding control of Turkey’s eastern provinces and the straits. In response, Turkey accepted large-scale aid offered by U.S. President Harry S. Truman and entered a close military and economic alliance with the United States; in 1952 it became a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Along with this new association with the democratic West, Inönü democratized the regime and allowed the introduction of opposition parties. This led to the triumph in 1950 of the Democratic Party (Turkish acronym, DP), advocating more private and individual enterprise than had been permitted by the statist policies of Atatürk’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), which now went into opposition.

Led by President Celâl Bayar, along with Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and Foreign Minister Fuat Köprülü, the DP controlled the Turkish government from 1950 to 1960. The Turkish economy expanded rapidly during this time as a result of the new economic liberalism and the large-scale foreign assistance, principally from the United States, that followed Turkey’s entry into the Western alliance. Ultimately, however, too rapid economic growth and poor management led to severe economic and social strains and increasing political discontent voiced by the CHP, which the Democrats began to repress. In 1960 an army coup finally overthrew the government, hanged Menderes and a few associates on charges of corruption the next year, and installed a new constitution based on modern economic and social principles, with provisions to prevent the kind of repression the Democrats had inflicted.

After the second constitution was adopted in 1961, Turkey was governed by a series of ever weaker governments. The rapid economic development of the 1950s, combined with liberal legislation freeing workers and others to unite, engendered a series of organizations that assumed power and authority formerly held by the government, the legislature, and the political parties. At the same time, an increasingly active leftist movement spawned violent extremist groups, which engaged in terrorist acts to achieve their ends. These in turn led to the formation of right-wing terrorist bands, leaving the country polarized and both sides fomenting violence. The labor organizations that sprang up after 1950 coalesced into two major labor confederations, Turkish Labor (Turk IŠ), representing the rightist and more moderate groups, and the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions, incorporating the Communist and other leftist groups. By the mid-1960s the influence of these organizations spread to all areas of Turkish life.

Political affairs also were polarized in two major parties, the CHP, which under the leadership of Bülent Ecevit tended to incorporate social-democratic ideas, and the Justice Party (AP), led by Süleyman Demirel, which more or less represented the old Atatürk traditions. Several minor Communist and Socialist parties represented the various extremes of the left, whereas the National Action Party (MHP) spoke for Turkish nationalists and the National Salvation Party (MSP) advocated a return to an Islam-oriented state. Both of these parties favored active social and economic programs, making it difficult to classify them as right wing in the ordinary sense of the term. The proportional representation provisions of the 1961 constitution made it difficult for any party to gain the majority needed to enact effective legislation. Action, therefore, was taken to the streets.

Through all the governmental chaos of this era, Turkey remained faithful to its alliance with the West, providing military bases for NATO and U.S. forces facing the USSR. This alliance was subjected to considerable strain in 1974, when Turkey occupied the northern part of Cyprus in response to a Greek-engineered coup on the island. The United States subsequently suspended military and economic aid, and Turkey responded by temporarily closing all U.S. bases in the country. Turkish troops remained in northern Cyprus, and Turkey continued to support a separate Turkish Cypriot government, defying the United States and the United Nations (UN).

The Congress of the United States ultimately resumed its assistance, leading the Turks to reopen the bases, but the incident left them suspicious of the U.S. presence, a situation encouraged and amplified by the vocal leftist groups and abetted by Communist propaganda. Islamic groups also began to oppose the U.S. presence, preferring that Turkey abandon its secularist traditions in foreign affairs and draw closer to the Muslim Arab countries that were benefiting from their newfound oil wealth and the resulting political power.

The government (1979-1980) of Süleyman Demirel chose to retain Turkey’s close alliance with the West in the hope of developing the private sector of the economy with foreign assistance. The CHP reacted by advocating socialist control of the basic means of production and the establishment of new alliances with developing nations and the Communist bloc. Extremists on both the left and the right turned to political assassinations and other forms of violent acts. On September 12, 1980, the army took over the government and suspended the constitution. The new rulers imposed martial law, banned political activity, restricted the press, and jailed thousands of suspected terrorists.

The military governed through the National Security Council; the council’s head, General Kenan Evren, was chief of state, and Admiral Bülent Ulusu became prime minister. A major step toward civilian rule was taken in 1982, when a new constitution was enacted, under which Evren became president of the republic. Parliamentary elections in November 1983 resulted in an upset victory for the conservative Motherland Party (the military had favored a more right-wing group), and party leader Turgut Özal became prime minister. In 1989, Özal was chosen as Turkey’s first civilian head of state since 1960, and Yildirim Akbulut replaced him as prime minister. Akbulut was replaced by Mesut Yilmaz in 1991.

In 1993 Özal died and Demirel replaced him as the country’s president. Economics Minister Tansu Çiller replaced Demirel as leader of the True Path Party (Turkish acronym, DYP) and became the country’s first female prime minister. Turkey’s economy suffered because of government deficits, a weak currency, and continued economic losses incurred by the UN trade embargo of Iraq. In April 1994 Çiller announced an economic austerity package, including price and tax increases and privatization of state assets, in an attempt to boost Turkey’s faltering economy.

In December 1995 parliamentary elections, the Welfare Party (Refah), an Islamic party led by Necmettin Erbakan, received the most votes in the elections but not enough to rule alone. Çiller’s DYP and Turkey’s other main secular parties refused to form a coalition government with Refah. In March 1996 Çiller and Mesut Yilmaz of the Motherland Party (ANAP) formed a coalition government in which Yilmaz would serve as prime minister until 1997, when Çiller would take over. The tenuous coalition was threatened in April when parliament approved an investigation into whether Çiller, during her term as prime minister, improperly favored certain companies in awarding government contracts. Angered by ANAP’s charges against Çiller, the DYP withdrew from the coalition; at the same time, parliament voted to hold a no-confidence vote to oust the coalition government. In the face of the impending collapse of his government, Yilmaz in early June announced his voluntary resignation. The DYP was forced to form a coalition government with Refah, with Erbakan and Çiller alternating one-year terms as prime minister. Erbakan was declared prime minister at the end of June, making him the first Islamic leader of Turkey since the country was founded in 1923. The coalition’s first year was shaky. Çiller suffered from a series of scandals involving her financial practices and the DYP’s alleged links to organized crime. Erbakan’s attempts to adopt Islamic policies in Turkey were heavily criticized, especially by the Turkish military, traditional defenders of Atatürk’s secular state. In June 1997 Erbakan was forced to resign by the military and President Demirel designated Yilmaz prime minister.

Meanwhile, in May 1996 an Islamic extremist attempted to assassinate President Demirel, reportedly because Turkey had signed a military-cooperation agreement with Israel.

Kurdish Conflict

Turkey supported the international effort to oust Iraq from Kuwait during 1990 and 1991, although no Turkish troops fought in the Persian Gulf War. After the war, in the wake of an unsuccessful uprising by Iraqi Kurds, hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees crossed the border into Turkey. Many were kept near the border under the watch of allied troops.

The Turkish government had been fighting the Turkish Kurds, led by the Marxist secessionist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), since 1984. In 1992 fighting escalated in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Throughout 1994 relations worsened between government forces and Kurdish separatists. As Kurdish forces continued their attacks, focused on such locations as coastal resorts and points in central Istanbul, the government responded with added troops and air attacks on suspected Kurdish strongholds. Meanwhile, thousands of Turkish Kurds sought refuge in the border region of northern Iraq, which is controlled by the two main Iraqi Kurdish groups and continues to be monitored by the allied forces that fought in the Persian Gulf War. By mid-1996 at least 16,000 rebels, government troops, and civilians had been killed or left homeless in the conflict between the PKK and the Turkish government.

In 1995 35,000 Turkish troops moved across the border into northern Iraq in an aggressive effort to prevent PKK rebels from mounting cross-border raids into Turkey. The troops took control of the 290-km (180-mi) border and moved about 40 km (about 20 mi) inside Iraq to surround several Turkish Kurdish guerrilla strongholds in the region. Turkish officials claimed they would only withdraw from the region upon the creation of a security border zone. International criticism of the incursion was widespread, however, and Turkey withdrew its troops six weeks later. In June 1996 and May 1997 Turkey repeated the incursion.

Thank You For Visit My Web Page.

SELIM SONMEZ