|
Anatolia is the Asiatic portion of contemporary Turkey, extending
from the Bosphorus and Aegean coast eastward to the borders of the
Soviet Union, Iran, and Iraq. The Greeks and Romans called western Anatolia
"Asia." Later the name "Asia Minor," or "Little
Asia," was used to distinguish Anatolia from the land mass of the greater Asian
continent.
Anatolia, the land of
sun and history, is one of the rare places in the world which have
been inhabited ever since the first man was seen on the earth. The
Paleolithic Age, which we call the Stone Age, reigned between the
years 600.000-10.000 B.C. in Anatolia and was followed by the
Mesolithic and Neolithic Ages. The men began to leave their caves
between the years 8000-5500 B.C. during the Neolithic Age, and to
establish villages on the meadows. We can conduct studies on this
culture in ancient localities of habitation such as Diyarbakir,
Catalhöyük, Konya and Burdur Hacilar. The men lived the Chalcolithic
age, which we call the metal-stone, after Neolithic Age. The early
Bronze Age followed the metal-stone age and it was lived through
very gloriously in Anatolia. An indigenous tribe called Hatti lived
in central Anatolia during this age. We see the golden works of art
of this magnificent civilization belonging to the years 2300-2000
B.C., in the royal tombs in Alacahoyuk. A civilization similar to
this one was lived in Troy II during the same age in Anatolia.
Already in late prehistoric times, occupation by cave dwellers in
various sub regions set the stage for Anatolia's emergence as a
center of the agricultural revolution identified with the NEOLITHIC
PERIOD. Villages and towns of this era appear at Siirt, Diyarbakir,
and Urfa (southeastern Anatolia); Tarsus and Mersin in the Cicilian
Plain; the Amuq Plain; at CATAL HUYUK (southeast of Konya); Hacilar
(southwestern Anatolia); and Suberde (southwest of Konya). The 13-ha
(32-acre) site at Catal Huyuk (c. 7000-5600 BC) has produced
outstanding artifacts revealing it as a metalworking, specialized-craft,
and religious center. Individual city-states abound during the
Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages (3d to early 2d millennium BC).
Between 1940 and 1780 BC, Assyrian merchants from Mesopotamia
peacefully established a score of trading colonies in central and
eastern Anatolian cities, thereby drawing the region into wider
politico-economic focus.
Anatolia is one of the oldest continually inhabited regions in the
world, and it has repeatedly served as a battleground for foreign
powers. The earliest major empire in the area was that of the
HITTITES, from the 18th through the 13th century BC. Subsequently,
the Phrygians, Indo-European people, achieved ascendancy until their
kingdom was destroyed by the CIMMERIANS in the 7th century BC. The
most powerful of Phrygia's successor states was LYDIA. Coastal
Anatolia (IONIA) meanwhile was settled by Greeks. The entire area
was overrun by the Persians during the 6th and 5th centuries and
fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BC. Anatolia was subsequently
divided into a number of small Hellenistic kingdoms (including
BITHYNIA, CAPPADOCIA, PERGAMON, and PONTUS), all of which had
succumbed to Rome by the mid-1st century BC. In AD 324 the Roman
emperor CONSTANTINE I chose Constantinople, now Istanbul, as the
capital of the Roman Empire. It subsequently became the capital of
the Eastern Roman or BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
In 1055 a group of Central Asiatic Turks, the SELJUKS, conquered
Baghdad and established a Middle Eastern and Anatolian empire. When
this empire was broken up by the Mongol invasion, one of the
remaining local powers became known as the Ottoman dynasty, after
its leader OSMAN I. The OTTOMAN EMPIRE spread from northwestern
Anatolia and captured Constantinople in 1453. At the peak of their
power the Ottomans controlled much of the eastern Mediterranean. The
Ottomans had a sophisticated system of internal administration and
also organized the first standing army in Europe.
 As
the Ottoman Empire began to collapse under its own weight in the
18th and 19th centuries, it became a battleground for rival European
powers, wedged as it was between the Russian and Austrian empires.
By the outbreak of World War I the Ottoman Empire had essentially
been divided into spheres of influence by the great European powers,
but a reform movement was active within the Ottoman Empire itself.
The YOUNG TURKS brought about a revolution in 1908 and were
successful in introducing civil and social reforms of far-reaching
consequence.
In 1922, however, the Turks, led by Mustafa Kemal (later known as
Kemal ATATURK) and Ismet INONU, defeated the armies occupying
Anatolia. Inonu then won what has been called "the greatest
diplomatic victory in history" when the Treaty of Lausanne (see
LAUSANNE, TREATY OF) recognized the Republic of Turkey. The republic
was declared on Oct. 29, 1923, and Ataturk was elected its first
president. Turkey remained neutral in World War II until it joined
the Allies in February 1945. Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) in 1952.
|
