A BRIEF HISTORY
The Observer – United Kingdom
Published: May 20, 2007
334 BC Alexander the Great conquers Anatolia.
324 AD Emperor Constantine selects Byzantium as the new capital of the
Roman empire. Renamed Constantinople.
5th century Becomes the capital of the new Byzantine Empire.
10th century Turks arrive in Anatolia from central Asia.
1453 Mehmet the Conqueror seizes Constantinople, renamed Istanbul.
1915-17 An estimated 1 million Christian Armenians are killed in
ethnic strife during the reign of the Young Turks. Seen by many as the
first genocide of the 20th century.
1918 The Ottoman Empire collapses at the end of the First World War.
1923 Mustafa Kemal Pasha defeats Greek occupying army, founds the new
Republic of Turkey, and moves the capital to Ankara.
1934 Mustafa Kemal becomes Ataturk – father of the Turks. He dies in
1938.
1952 Turkey joins Nato.
1960 Military coup.
1971 Military coup.
1973 Bosphorus Bridge is completed, linking Europe and Asia.
1980 Military coup.
1984 War with separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) costs an
estimated 37,000 lives.
1990-1999 37 journalists murdered.
1997 ‘Postmodern’ military coup. Islamist PM Necmettin Erbakan forced
to resign.
2002 The Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) win election.
2006 Orhan Pamuk (left) wins Nobel Prize for literature.
January 2007 Armenian journalist Hrant Dink murdered.
April 2007 Military issues a warning on its website after Abdullah Gul
is nominated as president. Dubbed the ‘e-coup’.
May 2007 3-4 million Turks take to streets in defence of secularism.