İstiklal Avenue in Istanbul is visited by nearly 3 million people on weekend days. *Photo from Wikipedia
October 29 is the Republic Day of Turkey, commemorating the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.
The area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic age by various ancient Anatolian civilizations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Great conquered these lands, the area was Hellenized, a process which continued under the Roman Empire and its transition into the Byzantine Empire. The Seljuk Turks began migrating into the area in the 11th century, starting the process of Turkification, which was accelerated by the Seljuk victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into small Turkish beyliks.
From the end of the 13th century the Ottomans started uniting Anatolia and then creating an empire encompassing much of Southeast Europe, West Asia and North Africa, becoming a world power during the early modern period. The empire reached the peak of its land mass in the 16th century, during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. It remained powerful and influential for two more centuries, until important setbacks in the 17th and 18th century forced it to cede strategic territories in Europe, signalling the loss of its former military strength and wealth.
After the 1913 Ottoman coup d’état which effectively put the country under the control of the Three Pashas, the Ottoman Empire decided to join the Central Powers during World War I which were ultimately defeated by the Allied Powers. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides[II] against its Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek citizens. Following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. The Turkish War of Independence (1919 – 1922), initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues against the occupying Allies, resulted in the abolition of monarchy in 1922 and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, with Atatürk as its first president. Atatürk enacted numerous reforms, many of which incorporated various aspects of Western thought, philosophy, and customs into the new form of Turkish government.
Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia and Middle East, located mainly in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the south.
In commemoration of the day, we bring you the interview articles related to the country.
*Click a photo below to see their stories!
“Expanding business all over the world and helping children in need – Both are my dreams.” – Serkan Toso, Food Entrepreneur
*Reference: Wikipedia
