-
9500 BCE
9500 BC
Göbekli Tepe is built in south east Anatolia during the Neolithic period: the inhabitants are hunter-gatherers. -
2900 BCE
2900 BC
Troy is founded on the Dardanelles Strait. -
1650 BCE
1650 BC
Hittites choose Ḫattuša as their capital in Central Anatolia -
1200 BCE
1200 BC
Troy is devastated by the Greeks at the end of the war -
900 BCE
900 BC
The reign of Urartu near lake Van is born -
725 BCE
725 BC
Phrygia is at its peak with king Midas. -
546 BCE
546 BC
Croesus, king of Lydia, is defeated by the Persians -
334 BCE
334 BC
Alexander the Great defeats the Persians at the Granicus river.
The Granicus is today called the Biga River (Turkish: Biga Çayı). -
89 BCE
89 BC
Mithtridates VI, said the Great, king of Pontus, wins against the Romans. -
330
330 AD
Byzantine Empire. Costantinople is the new Roman Empire capital.
The city is founded in 324, dedicated on 11 May 330 and renamed Constantinopolis ("Constantine's City" or Constantinople in English). -
391
391 AD
Byzantine christian emperor Theodosius I, said the Great, abolishes paganism. -
Period: 527 to 565
Reign of Justinian
The greatest byzantine emperor after Constantine. -
1000
1000 AD
The first Turks appear in Anatolia.
This Greek speaking territory turns into a Muslim one. -
1054
1054 AD
The great schism: Separation between the ortodox churches in the East and the Roman catholic church in the West -
1071
1071 AD
Battle of Manzinkert: Byzantines are defeated by the Selgiuq Turks -
1204
1204 AD
Siege and sack of Constantinople during the fourth crusade, decline of Byzantine empire -
1243
1243 AD
Mongols win at Köse Daği against Selgiuq in central Anatolia -
1290
1290 AD
Osman founds a tribal dinasty that will lead to the Ottoman empire. -
1362
1362 AD
Ottoman sultan Murad I takes Adrianople (Edirne) which becomes the new capital -
1402
1402 AD
(Tamerlane) Timur's Mongols win against the Ottoman sultan Beyazit I in Ankara: this is a hard defeat for the Ottomans. -
1453
1453 AD
Sultam Mehmed II conquers Constantinople: end of Byzantine empire -
1514
1514 AD
Selim I, the Grim, defeats Persians in the Chāldirān battle (on the border between Ottoman empire and Persia) -
1516
1516 AD
Selim I conquers Egypt, Syria and Palestine becoming the leader of the Islamic world -
1529
1529
Siege of Vienna is a failure for the Ottomans. -
1536
1536
The Franco-Ottoman Alliance is an alliance established in 1536 between the King of France Francis I and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman I. -
1566
1566 AD
Ottoman decline is symbolized by the rise of Selim II, the Blond. -
1571
1571 AD
Battle of Lepanto, defeat of Ottoman empire. -
1683 AD
Failure of the second siege of Vienna -
1830 AD
Greece gains Independence from the Ottoman Empire -
1839
Tanzimat: reforms in the Ottoman empire -
Period: to
1853-1856
Crimean war: Ottomans, France and England win over Russia. -
1877 AD
Ottoman Empire loses many territories in the Caucasus and the Balkans against Russia -
1918
Allies enter Istanbul after the Ottomans' defeat in WWI.
After the Armistice (1918) it is placed under British, French, and Italian occupation until 1923. -
1919
French troops advance into Cilicia in the southeast. Greece and Italy put forward competing claims for southwestern Anatolia. The Italians occupy Marmaris, Antalya and Burdur, and on May 15, 1919, Greek troops land at Izmir and begin a drive into the interior of Anatolia. -
1919
Modern Turkish history may be said to begin on the morning of May 19, 1919, with Mustafa Kemal’s landing at Samsun, on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia. -
1920
On March 16, 1920, in Istanbul, the Allies arrest leading nationalist sympathizers. -
1920
Treaty of Sévres -
1921
The Greek occupation of Smyrna (İzmir). -
1922
On August 30, the Greek army is defeated decisively at the Battle of Dumlupınar, with many of its soldiers captured or slain and a large part of its equipment lost. This date is celebrated as Victory Day, a national holiday in Turkey. -
1922
The Armistice of Mudanya. The Allies (Britain, France and Italy) retained control of eastern Thrace and the Bosporus. The Greeks were to evacuate these areas.
The Armistice of Mudanya was followed by the Treaty of Lausanne. Turkey and Greece came to an agreement covering an exchange of populations. Over one million Greek Orthodox Christians were displaced and were exchanged with about 500,000 Muslims displaced from Greek territories. -
1923
Treaty of Lausanne. Signed by representatives of Turkey (successor to the Ottoman Empire) and by Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia). The treaty recognized the boundaries of the modern state of Turkey. Turkey recognized British possession of Cyprus and Italian possession of the Dodecanese. The Turkish straits between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea were declared open to all shipping. -
1923
Ankara is the new capital -
1924
Mustafa Kemal's program consist of “Six Arrows”: republicanism, nationalism, populism, statism, secularism, and revolution- a permanent state of revolution, meaning continuing change in the state and society.
The caliphate is abolished on March 3, 1924 (since the early 16th century, the Ottoman sultans had laid claim to the title of caliph of the Muslims). -
1929
After the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923, the Arabic script is replaced by the Latin. -
1934
Turkey enters the League of Nations. -
1938
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, first President of Turkey, dies at the Dolmabahçe Palace, his official residence in Istanbul, on 10 November 1938. -
1939
On 29 June 1939, following a referendum, Hatay becomes a Turkish province. -
1945
Turkey remaines neutral until the final stages of World War II and tries to maintain an equal distance between both the Axis and the Allies until February 1945, when Turkey enters the war on the side of the Allies against Germany and Japan. -
1950
General elections are held in Turkey on 14 May 1950, using the multiple non-transferable vote electoral system. The result is a landslide victory for the opposition Democrat Party, which wins 416 of the 487 seats. -
1955
Anti-greek riots in Istanbul. -
1960
First coup d'etat.
On May 27 the army acts; an almost bloodless coup is carried out by officers and cadets from the Istanbul and Ankara war colleges. The leaders establish a 38-member National Unity Committee with Gürsel as chairman. The Democrat leaders are imprisoned. -
1963
Right to strike for Turkish workers. -
1964
Riots among Greeks and Turks in Cyprus. -
1969
Fights among left winged and right winged extremists in Turkey. -
1971
Coup d'état by memorandum. -
1974
Turkey invades Cyprus. The Turkish army occupies nearly two-fifths of the land area of the island, -
1978
Civil riots all over Turkey, riots in Maraş among left-wing extremists and left-winged alevits. -
1980
On September 12, 1980, the senior command of the army, led by General Kenan Evren, carries out a bloodless coup. -
1982
A new constitution is approved by referendum in 1982. It provides for a strong president (elected for a seven-year term) who appoints the prime minister and senior judges and can dismiss parliament and declare a state of emergency. A unicameral parliament. -
1983
The first elections under the new constitution are held in 1983: the Motherland Party (MP), emerges as the clear winner, gaining more than half the seats. Turgut Özal is the leader. -
1989
300.000 islamic Bulgarians of Turkish origins arrive in Turkey from communist Bulgary. -
1990
Turkey stands with the USA against Saddam Hussein's Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. -
1991
Refah, islamic party, is fourth at the elections. -
1993
Özal dies of a heart attack. Many think to a conspiracy. -
1993
Mumcu, a reporter for Cumhuriyet, is killed by a car bomb while he is in his vehicle outside his home in Ankara. Mumcu reported on Islamic fundamentalism. -
1995
Turkey is in a customs union with European Union. -
1998
Tayyip Erdoğan is elected mayor of Istanbul. -
1999
Earthquake near Istanbul. -
2003
Al-Qaeda bombs in Istanbul. -
2004
Southern Cyprus enters the EU. -
2005
Start of negotiations to the entry of Turkey in EU. -
2009
Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan's walkout of Davos during a talk about the Gaza crisis with the Israeli president Shimon Peres. -
2010
Nine Turkish citizens die in a Israeli attack. -
2011
Turkish economy is considered the 17th biggest economy in the world. -
2011
AKP wins the elections. -
2011
Arab spring -
2012
Crisis in Syrian-Turkish relations: Syria strikes down a military Turkish jet. -
2012
Autonomy of Kurdish community. -
2016
A small faction within the army attempts to launch a coup against the AKP-led government. -
2017
Voters narrowly approve a referendum that expands the powers of the presidency. -
2019
Economic recession -
2020
Turkey is one of a handful of countries to register economic growth in the first year of the global COVID-19 pandemic, but its financial crisis grows worse.
