History of Turkey

Main article: Turkey

2024: Preacher and head of FETO movement Fethullah Gulen, Erdogan's main opponent, dies in US

In October 2024, an Islamic preacher and head of the FETO movement Fethullah Gulen died in the US state of Pennsylvania at the age of 83. Gulen's death was reported by his nephew Ebuseleme. Gulen has struggled with kidney failure, diabetes and dementia in recent years.

Over the years of expulsion, Turkish news resources have repeatedly ranked Gulen dead, passing off wishful thinking. But now the story of Turkish preacher and main foe Recep Erdogan has really come to an end.

2023

Erdogan won the presidential election with 52% of the vote

In May 2023, Erdogan won the presidential election in Turkey with 52% of the vote.

The wealthy layers of Turkey and the elite mainly voted for Kilicdaroglu, while Erdogan's electoral base - state employees, lumpens and "imperials" in the context of restoring Turkey's autonomy in the foreign arena.

In the context of the geopolitical situation, this alignment of elections does not look logical, Spydell Finance wrote. An attempt to build a triple alliance - and the ChinaRussiaTurkey implementation of Turkey's imperial projects in the Middle East Asia and Central is obviously not in geostrategic interests. USA

Turkey at this time remains the only working window of Russia to Europe. Turkey's compartments and Russia's geopolitical and economic situation will deteriorate sharply.

In terms of isolation and weakening Russia, Kylychdaroglu should have won the elections, but did not win, having a minimal gap with Erdogan.

The current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won 49.35% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election following the counting of 100% of the ballots, the Turkish TV24 reports, citing data from the Central Election Committee.

In second place was a single opposition candidate Kemal Kilychdaroglu with 45% of the vote.

The record earthquake since 1939 is 7.7 points. More than 50 thousand people died, more than 108 thousand people were injured

On February 6, 2023, on the Monday before dawn, a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.7 occurred in southern Turkey, as a result of which more than 50 thousand people were killed, more than 108 thousand were injured. 12 thousand buildings were destroyed. The real numbers of the number of victims are most likely much higher.

Turkish authorities in March 2023 said they had documented the deaths of more than 4,000 Syrians on their soil in the quake.

The quake occurred in a seismically active area known as the East Anatolian Fault Zone, which has already seen devastating earthquakes in the past.

The researchers say the quake was impact-sliding as the two tectonic plates slide past each other in a horizontal direction.

In this case, one plate was moving west and the other to the east, resulting in an earthquake.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located 26 km from the city of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, near the border with Syria.

This is the strongest earthquake since 1939 - the previous one was estimated at 7.6 points and claimed the lives of thousands of people, causing a tsunami in the region. Then almost 33 thousand people died, about 100 thousand were injured.

Turkey's strongest earthquakes

Earthquakes in Turkey caused damage to the country's economy in the amount of $84 billion or about 10%, GDP wrote Bloomberg in February 2023.

According to preliminary estimates World Bank (late February 2023), two deadly earthquakes that destroyed southeastern Turkey cost 34.2 billion dollars physical damage, which is about 4% of 2021 GDP.

Reports on the effects of the disaster vary greatly. Bloomberg Economics estimated that earthquakes could cut 1% of GDP in 2023, and JPMorgan Chase & Co said in a report that direct costs from the destruction of physical structures could reach $25 billion, or 2.5% of the country's GDP, with risks upward.

The approximate damage as a result of earthquakes in Turkey is about $80 billion, said the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of the country Vahit Kirishchi in March 2023.

On February 10, 2023, the World Bank announced the allocation of $1.78 billion to assist and eliminate the consequences of a devastating earthquake.

As of February 21, 2023, 865 thousand citizens live in tent camps, 23 thousand 500 people live in container houses, and 376 thousand citizens live in hostels.

2022: Delivery of 50 armored vehicles to Ukraine after the start of the military special operation of Russia

Ukrainian sources in August 2022 reported the supply of BMC Kirpi 4x4 armored vehicles from Turkey for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Similar MRAPs could be seen during joint Russian-Turkish patrols in Syria.

It is alleged that the Ukrainian army has already received 50 Turkish armored vehicles, and Turkey will supply another 150 in the near future.

2016: Failed coup attempt by supporters of preacher Fethullah Gulen and occupation of territories in northern Syria

In July 2016, an attempt was made by supporters of the preacher Fethullah Gulen to conduct a coup. But the Turkish authorities were able to resist and attacked the Gulenists themselves.

In August, under the pretext of protecting Turkey's interests in the fight against IS and Kurdish formations, the Turks launched a ground operation in northern Syria, occupying part of the territories.

1958: A storm causes a ferry to flood. 392 people died

March 1, 1958, a ferry with the name "Uskudar" sank along the route Izmit-Göljuk. The captain of the ferry before departure misjudged the rapidly deteriorating weather conditions (a storm was approaching) and set off. This tragedy claimed the lives of 392 people and became the most massive in the history of civilian shipping in the Republic of Turkey.

1945: Germany's formal declaration of war

On February 23, 1945, Turkey officially declared war on Germany to be considered one of the founders of the United Nations. It was a purely symbolic act - the Turkish military machine was not drawn into the battles of the bloodiest war in human history.

1944: Economic crisis

In August 1944, the Turks interrupted diplomatic relations with Germany.

Turkey's internal economic situation rapidly deteriorated as a result of the war.

Due to the imminent threat of invasion, first from the USSR, and then from Germany, Inun had to mobilize the Turkish army, constantly keep more than 1 million people under arms and double defense spending in the budget.

Mobilization has become a huge burden on the economy, which was not very strong before. The removal of thousands of people from the workforce has markedly reduced agricultural and industrial production, while hostilities and blockades in the Mediterranean have halted the flow of most imports and exports, causing severe shortages of most goods and parts and depriving Turkey of many of its foreign markets. The goods necessary for the civilian population went to the needs of the army, and wild inflation and a shortage of goods swept the country.

Production, foreign trade and government revenues fell while military spending increased. Increasingly, the government's military budgets were in deficit. Attempts to get out of the crisis by printing money and domestic borrowing only fueled inflation. A 10 percent tax on agricultural production imposed in 1942 helped somewhat, but it was not enough.

In numbers, the scale of the crisis looked like this - the total price index in Istanbul increased from 101.4 in 1939 to 232.5 in 1942 and 354.4 in 1945, and the food price index increased from 100 in 1938 to 1,113 in 1944, and this was followed by a fall to 568.8 in 1945 due to the discovery of the Mediterranean Sea in the last years of the war. Gross national income fell during the war from 7690.3 to 5941.6 million Turkish lira, and per capita income from 431.53 to 316.22 lira in the same years, that is, there was a reduction of almost a quarter. Such figures are cited in his History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey by historian Stanford Shaw^[1].

Of course, the government has tried various options for solving financial problems, including the most unpopular ones - forced labor, a sharp increase in taxes, and so on. In fact, the Turkish economy was transferred to military tracks, as in the countries that participated in the war.

The only positive economic result of the war came in the last two years (1943-1945), when Turkey, approaching the Western Allies, began to receive credit assistance to increase production and exports and accumulated a sufficient amount of foreign loans to finance most of the post-war economic recovery.

1943

In January 1943, Churchill and Inyonyu reached an agreement on a program to prepare for the arrival - in due course - of Allied warplanes, but preparations were subsequently sabotaged. Pressure increased further at the Inyonyu, Churchill, and Roosevelt Conference in Cairo in December 1943.

Inyonyu finally agreed that Turkey would become an active warring country on the side of the Allies, but he asked first to draw up a general plan for the campaign to conquer the Balkans by the Allies. However, the Allied powers could not agree on the question of the Balkans. Stalin objected to any British or American interference in the region, and Americans tended to listen to his words.

1942: Maintaining neutrality in war

In 1942, the German Ambassador to Turkey von Papen again demanded that the Turks open a transit route for the German army to the east. As an argument, he revealed plans for new Soviet claims to the Straits, which became known to Germany when they were allies. Moreover, the Germans tried to use pan-Turkist sentiments and called on Turkey to ignite the Turk uprisings in the Soviet Union.

But again, Turkey avoided taking on a final obligation under the pretext that such actions, if openly supported by the government, could lead to a massacre of the entire Turkic population, especially with an eye on the fact that Armenians became very strong in the Communist Party. As a result, Germany managed to obtain new trade agreements, but Turkey was able to avoid any obligations that could cause an open break with the Western allies.

Meanwhile, the Allies themselves encouraged Turkish neutrality (instead of openly entering the war), as they were no longer in a position to help Turkey if it entered the war on their side.

After the German defeat at Stalingrad (November 1942), Allied pressure gradually increased, but Turkey was still very vulnerable to a German attack. Allied demands changed, and they now viewed Turkey as more of an advanced base for Allied forces and air power than a source of manpower, but the Germans threatened that even a single Allied fighter would mean war.

1941: Treaty of Friendship with Germany

The Turks saw Italy how easily they invaded Greece and, and Albania Germany without much trouble, conquered Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, capturing Crete and advancing in North Africa in early 1941, and understood that if they entered the war on the side of the Allies, they had no chance to withstand German power. It is noteworthy that, as Stefan Ihrig shows, the German commanders, who nevertheless had a plan to invade Turkey, nevertheless did everything possible not to provoke its armed response. The Germans remembered the Greek-Turkish War and believed that the Turks would fight fiercely anyway.

The British government, for its part, viewed Turkey as a valuable source of human resources and pressured it to enter the war. Turkey resisted.

After the German occupation of Greece and the transition of Bulgaria to the side of the Axis in 1941, the war reached the borders of Turkey. As a result, on June 18, 1941, just four days before the start of Operation Barbarossa and the attacks on the USSR, Germany and Turkey signed a friendship treaty. The German press proclaimed this agreement "one of the greatest political sensations of this war." The main Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter ("People's Observer") spoke in detail for more than two weeks, in eighteen articles and reports, about the treaty as a "victory for Germany."

According to German propagandists, this was a logical step in the "hundreds of times tested in the past" relations between the "two brave military nations," the Germans and the Turks. Hitler himself believed that this treaty "secured the (southern) flank with the help of the Turkish army."

The next step, from the point of view of Berlin, was to be the entry of friendly Turkey into the war on the side of the Axis countries - and as historian Stefan Ihrig convincingly showed, the Germans until the very end believed that Turkey was as neutral an Axis country as Francoist Spain. Nevertheless, despite anti-Soviet sentiments in Turkish society and contrary to the pro-German sympathies of the Turkish military elite, Turkey never entered the war on the side of the Reich.

For the next year and a half, the period of the greatest German expansion, Turkey meticulously maintained a neutral position, citing insufficient preparation and the need for supplies from the British government.

The German ambassador to Turkey during the war years was Franz von Papen, a native of the ancient knightly family, a brilliant diplomat and politician, a former Reich Chancellor of Germany, and, most importantly in this case, a former major of the Ottoman army, who served in 1917-1918 on the Palestinian front. He made every possible effort to draw Turkey into the war on the side of Germany.

Despite pressure from Germany, Ankara agreed only to a non-aggression treaty on June 18, 1941. Germany, after the invasion of the USSR, added to its requirements the supply of raw materials, in particular manganese and chromium, but the Turks were able to avoid obligations on the grounds that they had already agreed to send these metals to Great Britain. The trade agreement with Germany (October 9, 1941) provided for the supply of chromium in exchange for military equipment, but nothing more.

1939: Italian threat and Anglo-Franco-Turkish Mutual Support Treaty

Ankara's main foreign policy headache in the late 1930s was fascist Italy, which at that time controlled the islands of the Dodecanese archipelago in the Aegean Sea off the very coast of Anatolia. The fascist idea of ​ ​ Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea") was perceived as an immediate threat to Turkey. Ankara also openly opposed Italy's expansion into Ethiopia (Turkish military advisers trained the Ethiopian army), not to mention the traditional closeness with the Libyan Sanusites, who fought a guerrilla war against the Italian colonialists in Cyrenaica.

Concern increased after the Italian occupation of Albania in April 1939, bringing Turkey, France and Britain closer together. In fact, in the face of the Italian threat, relations with Britain have been improving since the mid-1930s. The culmination of this process was a visit by King Edward VIII to Istanbul during a Mediterranean cruise on a personal yacht (4-5 September 1936) and a visit by Inyonyu to London for the coronation of George VI (9-10 May 1937).

Discussions of a mutual assistance treaty between Turkey, France and Britain continued throughout 1939. They went rather slowly, since Turkey demanded a lot of military and financial assistance, but at the same time was resolutely opposed to any possible involvement of the country in the war with the USSR. The Turkish government very much hoped for the inclusion of the Soviets in the alliance. The sudden announcement of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939 was a huge shock for Ankara.

However, France and Britain became even more concerned about Turkey, and the Anglo-Franco-Turkish Mutual Support Treaty was signed on 19 October 1939. With his help, the Turks received almost everything they wanted. Ankara was given a loan of £16m in gold and a loan of £25m for the purchase of military equipment. In a separate protocol attached to the treaty, Turkey was relieved of any obligations that might involve it in a war with the Soviet Union.

The treaty stipulated that Turkey would "cooperate effectively" with France and Britain in the event of an act of aggression by a European power leading to war in the Mediterranean (a clear reflection of the importance of the Italian threat). Such a case, requiring the fulfillment of allied obligations, clearly arose after Italy declared war on France and Great Britain on June 10, 1940. By that time, however, the collapse of France had radically changed the balance of power, and Turkey in turn devoted all its energy to staying away from the war, citing a separate protocol.

1938: Ismet Inyonyu became President of Turkey

In 1938, Ismet Inönü, a former Ottoman army officer, commander of the First World War and the Turkish War of Independence, became president of Turkey. Inönü, his associates, like most Turks, remembered very well how the Ottoman Empire was drawn into the devastating First World War, which almost brought the Turkish nation to the brink of destruction. The memory of this experience forced Ankara to stay neutral later in World War II.

1923: Ankara declared capital of Turkey

On October 13, 1923, Ankara was declared the capital of Turkey.

1921: Assassination of 15 leaders of the Communist Party of Turkey

15 leaders of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) were killed on January 28, 1921. Some of them were thrown with their hands tied into the sea and drowned off the coast of Trabzon. An article and interview on this topic was published in 2021 by the newspaper BirGün.

The party was created a few months before the event. September 10-16, 1920 in Baku at a congress attended by delegates from Turkey, European countries and Russia. As a result, it was decided that a group of party leaders would go back to Turkey, and there in Ankara would begin to carry out organizational work.

"The party, like the government of Soviet Russia, the Bolshevik Party and the Third International, created after the October Revolution, was aimed at" supporting the revolutionary movement against the invasion of imperialism in Anatolia, and, in support of the government of the Great National Assembly (Parliament) of Turkey, which led this movement, "- writes the author of the article.

Despite the fact that initially their plans included supporting the liberation war in Turkey, the division of power would have gone further. History in Turkey could follow a different scenario if these Turkish communist figures were able to implement their plan.

In an interview, a newspaper columnist talks with a man who has been looking for answers to the question of who killed these revolutionaries for several years, they are called "15" in the article. As "26 Baku commissars," and they, apparently, would become "15 Anatolian commissars."

In search of an answer about who might have wanted death to the revolutionaries, the researcher says this: "Mustafa Kemal told Karabekir: we do not want them to come to Ankara. Then decide for yourself. Do as you like! "

1918

Occupation of Constantinople by Entente forces

The occupation of Constantinople by the Entente took place from November 13, 1918 to October 4, 1923.

End of World War I. Millions of victims in Turkey

Main article: World War I

The total number of victims, according to various estimates, is from 9 to 18 million people.

Death toll as a proportion of countries' pre-war population, including deaths from hunger and disease

1915

A Turkish official teases starving Armenian children with a piece of bread, 1915.

1914: Entry into World War I

Main article: World War I

When the Russian army reached the Istanbul suburb of San Stefano in 1877-1878, the Turks were forced to make a humiliating peace. To perpetuate their victory, the Russian authorities erected a monument there - a tomb temple.

The monument has long callowed the eyes of the Turkish Committee of Unity and Progress as a symbol of national humiliation. With the beginning of the First World War, the Young Turks could no longer put up with its existence. In early November, the Ottoman Empire entered the war, and on November 14, 1914, the monument was blown up.

The first Turkish film was shot in 1914. It was called 'Demolition of the Russian Monument in San Stefano'.

1913: Defeat in the First Balkan War

During the First Balkan War in 1913, after a long siege, Adrianople (now Edirne in Turkey) was taken by Bulgarian troops and passed to Bulgaria under the London Treaty (1913). As a result of the Second Balkan War, it was returned to the Ottoman Empire.

Serbian soldiers in Adrianople, First Balkan War, 1912-1913.

1878

In 1878, Sultan Abdulhamid experienced great difficulties in supplying troops during the Russo-Turkish war due to ice that made it difficult to cross.

1873

From left, a Kurdish woman, a married Muslim woman, a married Christian woman. Diyarbakir, Turkey, 1873. Photographer Pascal Sebah.

1870

Turkish Bashibuzuki are members of irregular military units in the Ottoman Empire. 1870

Galatian Bridge in Constantinople, Turkey, 1870

1700

Main article: 1700

Part of the territory in the east as part of Safavid Persia

Safavid Persia

Control of Southwest Europe

1618

14th century

763: Bosphorus Bay froze by 30 metres

In 763, the Bosphorus Bay froze 30 meters.

600g: Greek dominance

Languages spoken in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East in 600g (as of 2021)

As part of the Roman Empire

Main article: Roman Empire

114: Roman Emperor Trajan's military campaign

Military campaigns of the Roman Emperor Trajan in 101-115

129 BC.

188 BC: Kingdom of Pergamon

200 BC: Kingdom of Pergamon, Bithynia, Galatia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Seleucid Empire

250 BC: Bithynia, Cappadocia, Pergamus, Galatia, Pontus, Seleucid Kingdom, Armenia

362 BC: Persian Achaemenid state

530 BC: Persian Achaemenid state

640 BC: Scythians in the east of the country

650 BC: Greece, Lydia, Lycia, Cappadocia, Cilicia

1290 BC: Hittite kingdom during its highest power period

The Hittite kingdom (highlighted in red) during the confrontation with Egypt (green), 1290 BC.

By the end of the 2 millennium B.C.E., the Hittite kingdom was breaking up into a number of small states, from which the eastern ones were soon absorbed by Assyria, and the western ones continued in the form of post-Hittite Anatolian states (Lydia, Lycia, etc.) until the conquest by the Persians.

1700 BC: Megaliths

2200 BC: Indo-European Hittite tribes begin conquering Hutts

The Hutt states were subjugated by the Hittites, whose language belonged to Indo-European. The Hittites moved their capital to the city of Hattusa, but borrowed some elements of the Hattic culture, including the name of the state.

2500 BC: State of the Hutts

In 3 thousand BC, the Hutt culture continued to develop, the center of which was located on the territory of the modern settlement of Alaja-Hyuyuk. The Hatts were organized into theocratic city-states and small kingdoms (principalities).

Neolithic

7400-5600 BC: Chatalhyuk Neolithic Settlement

Main article: Chatalhyuk

Chatalkhoyuk (Tur. Çatalhöyük [tʃaˈtal.højyk], literally "Fork-Mound") is a large settlement of the Ceramic Neolithic and Eneolithic era in the province of Konya (southern Anatolia). It is the largest and best preserved Neolithic settlement discovered. The earliest cultural layers found date back to 7400 BCE. The settlement existed until 5600 BCE.

Chatalhöyük Reconstruction

10,000-8000 BC: Göbekli Tepe

Stone slab from Göbekli Tepe (p. 10,000-8,000 BC) depicting a woman during childbirth

10,400 BC: Residents of Ashikla-Hyuyuk contain sheep and goats, no ceramics yet

The settlement in Ashikly-Hyuk was first inhabited during the pre-ceramic Neolithic era, about 10,000 years BC. e. In Ashikly-Hyuk, early evidence of human keeping of sheep and goats dates back to 10,400 years to the present.

According to the observation of Bled S. Duhring, the settlement of Ashikly Khoyuk was located near the obsidian deposits^[2] The settlement forms large agglomerations of small houses joined by walls, many of which have no foci. Apparently, During believes, the family usually used several such houses. The lodges reemerged on the same site, and the cultural layer grew, creating a stratigraphic sequence. Burials in different poses and with different orientations - under the floors of dwellings (not all, but about a third), and they pierced the floor.

There were no streets, and so were the doors in the houses. They entered the house from above, from the roof, there was an entrance. A significant part of the life of the inhabitants also flowed on the roofs in hot times, as the houses were too hot. There are larger buildings for public meetings.

The Neolithic of Asia Minor is often represented as the offspring of the Neolithic Near East (Fertile Crescent). This seems unproven to Duhring, since the stone tools of Ashikla show continuity with the local, and not Middle Eastern Paleolithic. As well as architectural traditions.

Paleolith

• Karain (cave)

Notes