| 7500BC |
First Stone Age settlements at Çatalhüyük. |
| 1900-1300BC |
Hittite Empire, contemporary with ancient
Egypt and Babylon. |
| 1250BC |
The Trojan War. Fall of Troy (Truva). |
| 1200-700BC |
Migration of Greeks to Aegean coastal
regions. Kingdoms of Phrygia, Ionia, Lycia,
Lydia, Caria and Pamphylia. Urartian civilisation
in eastern Anatolia. |
| 700BC |
Birth of Homer in Smyrna (Izmir). Beginnings
of Hellenistic culture in Aegean Turkey. |
| 546BC |
Cyrus the Great of Persia invades. Anatolia
under Persian rule. |
| 334BC |
Alexander the Great conquers Anatolia,
freeing it from the Persians. |
| 130BC |
Anatolia becomes the Roman province of Asia
with Ephesus (Efes) as capital.. |
| 40BC |
Antony and Cleopatra marry at Antioch, (in
Syria until AD1939). |
| AD47-57 |
St Paul’s missionary journeys. First
Christian community at Antioch. |
| AD313 |
Christianity accepted as the official
religion of the Roman Empire. |
| AD330 |
Byzantium (Istanbul) renamed Constantinople
by Emperor Constantine as new capital of the
Byzantine Empire. |
| 527-565 |
Reign of Justinian and the height of
Byzantine power. |
| 636-713 |
Muslim Arabs defeat Byzantines and besiege
Constantinople. |
| 1054 |
Schism between Greek and Roman churches. |
| 1071-1243 |
Seljuk Turks conquer Anatolia with Konya
(ancient Iconium) as their capital. |
| 1096-1204 |
The Crusades, with Latin armies entering
Anatolia for the first time. Byzantine Empire
dismembered. |
| 1288 |
Birth of the Ottoman Empire with capital at
Bursa. |
| 1453 |
Mehmet II conquers Constantinople and renames
it Istanbul as the capital of the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1520-1566 |
Reign of Süleyman the Magnificent and the
Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire, which extended
from the Danube to Aden and Eritrea, and from the
Euphrates and the Crimea to Algiers. |
| 1682-1725 |
Reign of Peter the Great in Russia begins new
era of Russo-Turkish rivalry. |
| 1854 |
Crimean War. Ottomans are supported by the
British and French against Russia. |
| 1909 |
Abdul Hamid, last Ottoman sultan, deposed by
Young Turks. |
| 1914 |
Turkey enters World War I as an ally of
Germany. On defeat, the Allies propose carve up
of Ottoman Empire. |
| 1915 |
Gallipoli Campaign. Allied landings on
Turkish soil are repulsed. |
| 1919 |
Atatürk leads Turkish resistance in fight
for national sovereignty. |
| 1923 |
Turkish state proclaimed with Atatürk as
President. Exchange of minority population
between Greece and Turkey. Reforms to modernise
and secularise the state. Islam disestablished,
Arabic script replaced by Latin alphabet, Turkish
language revived. Women’s veils and the fez
banned. |
| 1938 |
Atatürk dies. |
| 1945 |
Turkey remains neutral in World War II. |
| 1946 |
Turkey becomes charter member of the United
Nations. |
| 1952 |
Turkey joins NATO. |
| 1960 |
Almost bloodless military coup followed by
successive inefficient governments. |
| 1964 |
Turkey becomes associate member of the EEC. |
| 1974 |
Turkey intervenes in Cyprus to protect the
Turkish Cypriot community, seizing the northern
third of the island. |
| 1980 |
Bloodless military coup under General Kenan
Evren, three years of military rule. |
| 1983 |
Return to civilian rule with Turgut Özal
elected Prime Minister, moving to the Presidency
in 1989. |
| 1985-1990 |
Disputes with Greece over Cyprus and Aegean
territorial waters damage Turkey’s attempts
to join the EEC, as does its human rights record
in handling Kurdish insurrection in the
southeast. |
| 1991-1993 |
Süleyman Demirel elected Prime Minister
forming a coalition government. Forms post of
Minister for Human Rights and promises rule of
Kurdish policy. Economic reforms introduced to
combat 70% inflation. |
| 1993 |
President Turgut Özal dies. Prime Minister
Süleyman Demirel becomes his successor and Tansu
Çiller becomes in turn, the first woman Prime
Minister. |
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Information about Turkey | Some
notes on the Turkish language.