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According to the historical records of China, the earliest known Turks lived in Dzungaria, to the north of East Turkestan in 2000 B.C. During the 1500's B.C., the Turks scattered, becoming nomads and warrior tribes and settling in the regions of Altai and the Tien Shan Mountains. Political military and climatic changes, in this region from the 2nd century onwards, caused the nomadic tribes to establishThe Huns settled in the Central Asia and Europe; the Akhuns in Afghanistan and north India; the Oghuz in Iran and Anatolia; the Bulgars in the Balkans and on the banks of the Volga; the Sabars in the Caucasia; the Pecheneks, Kipchaks and Uzs in Eastern Europe and the Balkans; and the Uigurs in inner Asia. Thus, between the 2nd century B.C. and the 20th century A.D. the original Turkish tribes scattered themselves over an area of 18 million square kilometres, and founded several states and empires.
Meanwhile Anatolia, where eastern and western civilisations meet, nourished the most ancient civilisations of the world, the Hattis were the oldest known people of Anatolia; they attained a high level of civilisation in 2500 B.C. The Hittite, who entered Anatolia via the Caucasus mountains, integrated with the Hattis and established the first social and political organisation in Anatolia. The Hurrians, Luwians, Urartians, Phyrigians, Lydians, Carians, Lycians, Ionians, and Byzantines all established great civilisations here. Eventually, Anatolia's final owners, the Turks, created three great states on this soil.
It was the Seljuks of Oghuz Turks who opened the doors of Anatolia for the Turks. They established a powerful empire in western Asia in 990 A.D. In 1071 the Seljuk Emperor Alparslan reached the frontiers of Anatolia and defeated the Byzantine emperor, Romanus IV Diogenes at Malazgirt in Eastern Anatolia.
The Anatolian Seljuk State was based at Konya and owned a flowering civilisation, but it was short-lived because of the attacks of the Mongols who defeated it fatally at the Battle of Erzincan in 1243. After this defeat, Anatolia broke up into several principalities. One of these, the Ottoman Turks, eventually reunited the other principalities previously under Seljuk domination and re-established the unity of Anatolia.
Thus, they founded one of the largest and longest-lived empires of history and created a great civilisation and culture which reached its apogee in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries under a succession of brilliant rulers, including Mehmet II, the Conqueror of Istanbul; Süleyman I, known in Europe as 'the Magnificent'; and Murad IV, Conqueror of Baghdad and Yerevan. These sultans were not only brilliant generals and statesmen, but also highly educated men who wrote poetry and composed music within the Ottoman Court tradition and were generous patrons to the visual arts. From the end of seventeenth century, however, the Ottoman Empire went into a gradual decline, which culminated with the end of 1st World War.
The Ottoman Empire, which joined the World War in 1914 as a result of a "fail accompli", had come to the brink of collapse at the end of this War. Having been defeated by the Allied Powers, it was forced to sign the Serves Treaty in 1920, which brought forth the partition of the empire.
At this most defining moment of out history, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Turkish nation waged the War of Independence, against the foreign powers to be able to live as a free, sovereign and independent country.
The War of Independence started on May 19th, 1919 and ended by the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey on October 23rd, 1923. The Turkish Grand National Assembly abolished the Sultanate on November 1st, 1922, thus ending over six centuries of the reign of Ottoman Empire.
The Lausanne Peace Treaty, which was signed on July 24th, 1923, the following long negotiations certified and legalised the victory won in the Turkish War of Independence.
The revolutionary reforms that Great Atatürk put into force during his presidency of fifteen years following the founding of our Republic were aimed at transforming the country into a constitutional, modern state. These reforms laid the fundamentals of the new Republic.
The Republic has introduced universal principles of law to Turkey. In this context, the idea that all citizens are equal and free without any discrimination based on race, language, and religion, establishes the basis of the Republican Covenant, which ensures social unity. Secularism, which brings under guarantee the freedom of religion and belief; democracy, which enables citizens to express their thoughts freely and to participate in political process; and the rule of law, which makes it possible for them to live free from fear and oppression, are products of the social contract of the Republic. The constitutional democracy in Turkey is established on this sound basis. In retrospect, the experience of 75 years proves that the Turkish people have taken hold of this new beginning to reach the level of modern civilisation.
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