History of Turkey

The history of Turkey can be traced back as far as 6500BC, which was when the first stone age settlements were at ‘Catalhuyuk’. This in fact, is the world’s first known settlement, and it has left some pretty interesting artefacts behind, stimulating discussions regarding the goings on of the settlement, nearly 10,000 years ago.

It is believed that the Trojan War occurred around 12th century BC. The ancient city of Troy is located 30km south west of Çanakkale province in the Marmara region of Turkey, the site is marked by a commemorative wooden horse.

The story goes that the Goddess of Discord, Eris, had not been invited to the wedding of Goddess Thetis and mere mortal Peleus. Furious, Eris, stormed into the wedding and threw an apple onto a table. The apple was inscribed ‘for the fairest’, and the wedding was interrupted as three Goddesses competed for the title.

Having decided that Paris, an unbiased, yet particularly good-looking male, would be the judge, each of the Goddesses offered a reward should Zeus choose her as winner. Aphrodite offered make the most beautiful woman; Helen of Sparta, Paris’s wife. This reward, in Paris’s eyes, was far greater than the other offers of becoming a great hero, or the ruler of the richest and most powerful kingdom, and so Aphrodite won.

However, Helen of Sparta was already married, to man named Menelaus, and all of Helen’s previous suitors had signed an oath to defend the interests of whoever she chose to marry. So, Paris had quite the fight ahead of him, without realising.

When Menelaus left Sparta to go to a funeral, Paris kidnapped Helen (perhaps not against her will) and took her, and much of Menelaus’s wealth back to Troy, where Helen and Paris were married.

Menelaus was, as one would reasonably assume, pretty annoyed, and commissioned as many of Helen's previous suitors as he could lay his hands on, as well as ships, armour and more, and set off to find Troy. However, finding Troy proved to pretty difficult initially, but via a series of mishaps and thanks to a certain degree of luck, the Greeks stumbled upon it – and therefore Paris, and more importantly, Helen.

The Trojan War lasted for years, until the Greeks obtained the upper hand with getting the soldiers of troy to accept the famous Trojan horse. The horse was hollow, and it secretly contained Greek soldiers, who waited until everyone was either asleep or in a drunken stupor, before letting themselves out of the horse and killing as many people as they could get their hands on.

Mausolus dies in the year 353BC, leaving his sister and wife (it was customary for men to marry their sisters at the time) completely devastated. As a result, she employed Greece's finest artist to decorate the tomb - and today it stands as one of Turkey's two wonders of the world.

The history of Turkey also has the legend that the year 50 AD saw the apostle St John arrive at Ephesus with the Virgin Mary after Christ’s crucifixion. Ephesus, at it’s peak, was the Roman Empire’s second largest city, thanks to the forward thinking of it’s inhabitants. The city was also one of the main cores of early Christianity.

The third century AD, sometime around 280, was the birth time of St. Nicholas, otherwise known as Santa Claus. He was born in Myra, now known as Demre. His parents died in an epidemic when he was still young, and so he listened to the preachings of Jesus for guidance. Jesus spoke about selling what you own and giving to the poor, so St. Nicholas followed his advice, and spent his life looking after the poor and needy. After becoming the Bishop of Myra, St Nicholas was widely famed for his generosity and kindness. He died in 343BC, on the 6th December. The church in the village of Demre has a sarcophagus claiming to entomb the body of St. Nicholas.

The year 330AD saw Constantine choose Byzantium as the capital of the Roman Empire, and as such, name it Constantinople. A bit on the vain side, no?

1453 saw the Roman empire deafeated by Mehmet the Conqueror, who then renamed Constaninople as Istanbul; capital of the Ottoman Empire (a map of which is on the right). The Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful states in the world, at one point comprising the best part of three continents. The empire actually continued through to 1922, where it met its match in the form of the First World War.

Work began on the much admired Topkapi Palace - which is a fine example of the stunning Ottoman architecture, in 1472AD.

29th October 1923 saw the foundation of the “Republic of Turkey”; the successor of the Ottoman Empire, which fell from power in the after math of the first world war. The republic’s first president was Kemal Pasha who had aims to develop a secular state.

Having cleverly remained neutral throughout the Second World War, Turkey gained charter membership of the UN in 1946, membership of NATO in 1952, and obtains associate member status of the EU in 1964, with accession membership beginning in 2005.

Check out the Places in Turkey for more information on the history of Turkey.