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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.
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