Historical Landmarks

c. 3600BC Troy founded on the north Aegean coast.

c.1250–1210BC Troy falls to Greeks; Hittite empire collapses.

1200–800 BC Sea Peoples, Phrygians, Lydians, Greeks colonise Anatolia.

546BC Persian King Cyrus II conquers Anatolia.

334–323BC The campaigns of Alexander the Great.

4th–2nd centuries BC Era of the Hellenistic city-states.

130BC Roman province of Asia Minor created.

AD325 First ecumenical council at Nicaea codifies Christian belief.

330 Constantine inaugurates capital at Constantinople (Byzantium).

647–717 Arab invasions introduce Islam to Anatolia.

1071 Seljuk Turks rout Byzantine army at Manzikert.

1204 Latin Crusaders sack and occupy Constantinople.

1243 Seljuk empire defeated by the Ilkhanid Mongols.

1326 Ottomans take Bursa, which becomes their first capital.

1453 Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II conquers Constantinople.

1520–66 Reign of Süleyman the Magnificent.

1877–1913 Accelerated decline of the Ottoman Empire.

1908 Young Turk Revolution abolishes sultan’s absolute power.

1914–18 Ottomans fight World War I as a German ally.

1919–22 Gallipoli hero Mustafa Kemal leads War of Independence.

1923 Republic of Turkey established with Kemal as president.

1924–38 Kemal, as Atatürk, imposes secularisation and modernisation.

1946 Turkey comes under American tutelage.

1950 First free elections, won by Adnan Menderes.

1960 Menderes deposed by first military coup.

1974 Turkey invades northern Cyprus.

1983 Return to civilian government under Turgut Özal.

1984 Kurdish PKK launches guerilla insurrection in southeast.

1999 Earthquake kills thousands in northwest Turkey.

2002 Islamist AK Party forms majority government.

2005 Negotiations begin on Turkey joining the EU.

2007 Second AK electoral victory despite military intimidation.

2015 AK loses its parliamentary majority for the first time in a decade.