Turkey - History and Monuments

Turkey has a long and illustrious history well marked by historical monuments and ancient remains. The earliest traces of humans are found in the neolithic caves along the south coast. The oldest civilized settlements are in the south-east close to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on the fringes of Mesopotamia and date from the seventh millennium BC. The best remains of early civilisation are from the time of the Hittites, an influential people whose capital city was at Hattusas, east of Ankara. The well-preserved city ruins and temple comploxes date from the second millennium BC.

At the start of the first millennium BC the Aegean and Mediterranean coast was colonised by a wave of Greek migrants who built cities and established small kingdoms. In 546BC the colonies fell into the hands of the Persians who retained power up until334BC when Alexander the Great conquered Anatolia and freed the Greek cities from Persian rule. After Alexander's death in 323BC his kingdom was divided between his generals. Lysimachus took Anatolia and founded one of the most powerful dynasties in the classical world. The capital city was at Pergamum which remains one of the most impressive ancient sites on the Aegean coast.

When the Romans took power in the first century BC they generally enlarged or built on top of the already existing Hellenistic cities so that most of the classical sites in Turkey have a mixture of the Greek and Roman architecture. Between AD47-57 St Paul brought Christianity to the Roman province of Asia as he wandered through the region spreading the gospel. The simple rock-hewn churches carved at this time still remain, as do many of the later Byzantine monastic centres. Cappadocia has a particularly rich collection of churches, many of which are decorated with outstanding frescoes.

Although the Byzantine empire lasted for over 1,000 years surprisingly little is left. Most of the buildings were destroyed during the Turkish invasion, and Aya Sofia in Istanbul stands as one of the few examples of Byzantine architecture. The decline of the Byzantine empire began in 1071 with their military defeat at the hands of the , Seljuk Turks at Manzikert. The Turks gradually seized more and more, Byzantine territory in the east, at the same time the Latin church threatened from the west. Crusaders en route for Jerusalem were drawn Into the conflict sacking Constantinople in 1204.

One of the many tribes encouraged by the Seljuk Turks to expand their territory at Byzantine expense became so powerful that they took over from their former rulers. These were the Osmanli known to the west as the Ottomans, so named after their leader Osman. Bursa became the first capital of the Ottoman empire in 1326, from there it moved to Edirne and finally to Istanbul in 1453. The empire expanded quickly reaching its height in the sixteenth century under the rule of Suleyman the Magnificent, and so me of the finest Ottoman monuments date from this era. After the sixteenth century the Ottoman empire slowly started to decline, so that by 1909 a political group known as the Young Turks were able to wrest control from the sultanate. After World War I, during which Turkey allied itself with Germany, the country was occupied by France, Britain, Italy and Greece. Turkey gained its independence in 1923 after Kemal Atatürk waged a military campaign against the occupying Allied forees.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in Ottoman Greece in 1881, and he was the moving force behind the struggle for independence after World War 1, leading the republic until his death in 1938. Throughout this period he introduced numerous reforms intended to transform the country into a modern Western society. Atatürk died before he had completed reforming the country, but his principles and ideals have been adhered to ever since and he is regarded as the great national hero. There is a statue of him in every town and his memory is held in great respect; it is an official offence to make any derogatory comment about him.