Timeline Turkey thru 1960
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Cilicia was an ancient country and later a
Roman province in Asia Minor.
(WUD, 1994, p.266)
As of 2007 Turkey was composed of 81 provinces, including 7 mainly
Kurdish ones.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.51)
30 Million BP In what is now
Cappadocia, Turkey, 3 volcanoes: Erciyes, Melendiz and Hasan, erupted.
The ash and rock later eroded and left the harder rock in formations
now called "fairy chimneys."
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T14)
c7,000BCE The site of Catalhoyuk in south-central
Turkey was settled about this time and vanished after about 1,200
years. It marks the world’s first urban center.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.72)(SFC, 4/18/05, p.A6)
3,0000BCE Urartu existed in eastern Anatolia starting
about his time until it was defeated and destroyed by the Medes.
(http://www.atmg.org/ArmenianFAQ.html#q6)
2500BCE Troy II, the second oldest discernible
settlement on the site of the mound of Hissarlik in northwest Turkey, a
good 1200 years before the estimated date of the Trojan War.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49)
2,000BCE The Hittites lived around what is now
Cappadocia. They mixed with the already-settled Hatti and were followed
by the Lydians, Phrygians, Byzantines, Romans and Greeks. The name
Cappadocia comes from the Hittite for "land of pretty horses."
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T14)
1300BCE The oldest know shipwreck dates to about this
time, the era of the fall of Troy and reign of King Tut. It was found
off the southern coast of Turkey at Uluburun (Big Nose/Cape) by Dr.
George Bass in 1984. [see 4431BCE]
(MT, 3/96, p.2)
1295-1272BCE The Hittite king Muwatalli II signed a
treaty with Alaksandu, ruler of the Arzawa land known as Wilusa
(northwest Turkey), which became Wilios in Bronze Age Greece and then
slurred to Ilios for Homer’s Iliad.
(Arch, 5/04, p.40)
1275-1240BCE The Trojan War is usually dated to this
period.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49)
1267-1237 King Hattusili III ruled the Hittites. He
wrote a letter to the king of Ahhiyawa (thought to be Mycenaean Greeks)
and mentioned that Wilusa was once a bone of contention.
(Arch, 5/04, p.40)
1250BCE Some scholars believe that the Mycenaeans
waged a successful war with the Trojans of western Asia Minor.
(eawc, p.5)
1250-1000BCE Troy VIIa, another discernible era on
the site of the Trojan War. Evidence shows that Troy V was destroyed by
fire and that Troy VI saw the establishment of an entirely new
principality. An earthquake hit the thriving city of 5-6 thousand
people, but after the crisis, the same people returned and repaired the
city. The renovated Troy VIIa lasted some seventy years and was then
destroyed by a conflagration.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49-50)
1225-1175 Earthquakes during this period toppled some
city-states and centers of trade and scholarship in the Middle East.
Jericho, Jerusalem, Knossos and Troy were all hit.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.A19)
1184 BCE Jun 11, Greeks finally captured Troy. This
corresponds to excavation levels VIi or VIIa at the site of Hisarlik,
Turkey. [see 1150BCE]
(SC, 6/11/02)(Arch, 5/04, p.37)
1150BCE Troy fell. Estimated date for the beginning
of the Aeneid. [see 1275-1240BCE]
(V.D.-H.K.p.60)
c1000BCE Troy at Hissarlik in northwest Turkey was
destroyed by fire and abandoned.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.50)
c1000-800BCE The kingdom of Habushkia was likely
centered on the headwaters of the Great Zap River in western Turkey.
(AM, 7/00, p.50)
738-696 King Midas ruled Phrygia over this period
according to Eusebios.
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
c700BCE Nomadic Kimmerians attacked Phrygia. Strabo
later reported that Midas committed suicide at the time of the
Kimmerian invasion.
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
c700BCE A Phrygian king, possibly Midas, ruled into
his 60s and was buried in what came to be called the Tumulus Midas
Mound at Gordion (later central Turkey). Midas was linked with the
worship of the goddess Matar.
(AM, 7/01, p.27)
c640BCE The 1st coins were minted in Lydia (later
part of Turkey), and featured face to face heads of a bull and lion.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, WB p.2)
585BCE May 28, A solar eclipse, predicted by Thales
of Miletus, interrupted a battle [a Persian-Lydian battle] outside of
Sardis in western Turkey between the Medes and Lydians. The battle
ended in a draw. [see May 25]
(HN, 5/28/98)(HN, 5/28/99)
560-546BCE The rule of Croesus. The first coins were
produced in Lydia under the rule of Croesus. It was a kingdom in
western Turkey. Croesus made a treaty with the Spartans and attacked
Persia and was defeated.
(SFEC, 1/19/96, Parade p.5)(WUD, 1994, p.345)(WSJ,
11/11/99, p.A24)
540BCE The population of Xanthos in Lycia (later
Turkey) committed mass suicide rather than face slavery under invading
armies.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, p.T5)
395BCE Agesilaos of Sparta ravaged northwestern
Turkey.
(Arch, 7/02, p.8)
348-345BC Aristotle lived and taught in Assos, (later
Behramkale), Turkey, before he was summoned to teach Alexander in
Macedonia.
(SFC, 10/6/05, p.E8)
334BCE Alexander at 22 left Pella, Greece with 30,000
foot soldiers and 5,000 cavalry and proceeded to conquer western Asia
including Miletus and Samos. His favorite horse was named Bucephalus.
At Gordium, where King Midas is fabled to have held court, Alexander
solved the puzzle of the Gordian knot by severing it with his sword.
(V.D.-H.K.p.50)(NG, Jan, 1968 p.1,4,6)
c334 Seleukos I, a general under
Alexander the Great, founded Antioch on the banks of the Orontes River.
(AM, 11/00, p.69)
333BCE Alexander’s forces overcame the Pisidians of
Sagalassos.
(AM, 11/04, p.38)
c333 BCE Hittite lands and the village known as
Ancyra (later Angora, Ankora) was conquered by Macedonians led by
Alexander the Great.
(HNQ, 4/15/02)
323BCE The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, a
Graeco-Roman seaport (later in Turkey), was completed after 125 years
of construction. It was acclaimed the most beautiful structure in the
world and considered one of the 7 architectural wonders of the ancient
world. Its ruins were discovered in 1869 by archeologist John T. Wood.
(ON, 11/00, p.3)
323BC-30BC During the Hellenistic Age the Grand
Theater of Ephesus was built into the side of Mt. Pion and could hold
24,000 spectators.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T7)
c300BC Zeugma was founded by Seleucus I Nicator, one
of Alexander’s generals in southeastern Anatolia.
(Arch, 9/00, p.40)
230BC Celtic warriors were
repelled at Pergamon. The king of Bithynia had invited some 20,000
Celts as mercenaries and after 50 years of pillaging they were repelled
and settled in Galatia.
(NGM, 5/77)
200BC-100BC The excavation of Pergamon (now Bergama,
turkey) in 1876 by German archeologist uncovered a monument
called the Great Altar with a frieze of the mythological Greek hero
Telephos.
(WSJ, 1/16/96, p. A-16)
190BC Hipparchus was born in what
is now Turkey. He calculated the length of a year to within 6 1/2
minutes and was the first to explain the Earth's rotation on its axis.
He also compiled the first comprehensive catalog of the stars. [see
160-125BCE]
(LAT, 3/30/05)
180BC The Great Altar of Pergamon
was built at Pergamos in Asia Minor (later Turkey). It depicted the
battle of the gods of Olympus against the giants.
(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.W14)
160BC-125BC Hipparchus, Greek mathematician and
astronomer, often called the father of modern astronomy. He attempted
to calculate the distance to the moon and the sun. His estimate for the
distance to the moon was 67r vs. the modern value of 60.267r. He
estimated the sun to be 37 times farther than the moon and at least 12
times greater in diameter than the Earth. His figures were accepted for
17 centuries until the invention of the telescope and precise
astronomical instruments. Together with Ptolemy he graded the visible
stars into six magnitudes. The first magnitude was comprised of about
20 of the brightest stars. He compiled a stellar catalogue in
Alexandria which shows the position of 1080 stars. [see 190BCE]
(SCTS, p.7-8,137,142)
0-100CE In Ephesus the apostle St. John is said to be
buried. The city is also said to be the final abode of the Virgin Mary.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T7)
c40-107 St. Ignatius Theophorus, Apostolic Father. He
served as the bishop of Antioch.
(WUD, 1994 p.708)
52 St. Paul of Tarsus, Christian
preacher, arrived in the port city of Ephesus (Turkey) about this time
and spent 3 years there. Silt from the Kaistros River ended cargo
shipping by the end of the first century. By 2007 the sea was 7 miles
from the former port.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.E2)
256 The Anatolian city of Zeugma
on the Euphrates was sacked by Persian King Shapur I. This was soon
followed by a devastating fire and an earthquake and Zeugma was
abandoned. In 2000 the area was submerged as part of the Southeast
Anatolia Project of dams for power.
(SFEC, 5/7/00, p.A23)(Arch, 9/00, p.41)
c300-400 Nicholas of Myra (later Demre) reported as
bishop to the Byzantine church in Constantinople.
(WSJ, 8/31/98, p.B1)
330 AD May 11, Constantine renamed the town of
Byzantium to: "New Rome which is Constantine’s City." It became know as
Constantinople.
(ATC, p.31)(HN, 5/11/98)
330 AD Constantine began the building of the Great
Palace in Constantinople.
(SFC, 7/27/98, p.A8)
330-379 Saint Basil of Caesarea. His followers
erected monastic communities in Turkey.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.30)
c347-407 St. John Chrysostom. He was the ecumenical
Patriarch of Constantinople.
(WUD, 1994 p.264)
397 In southeastern Turkey the Mor
Gabriel monastery was founded by Syriac Christians. In 2009 it had just
3 monks and 14 nuns and faced the loss to the state of some 100 acres
representing 60% of its core property.
(WSJ, 3/7/09, p.A8)
407 Sep 14, Johannes Chrysostomus
(b.c347), patriarch of Constantinople (398) and exiled in 404, died in
Pontus (later northeast Turkey). He is generally considered the most
prominent doctor of the Greek Church and the greatest preacher ever
heard in a Christian pulpit.
(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08452b.htm)
431 The Council of Ephesus was
held to deal with the heretics and heresies of the day such as Arianism
and Apollinarianism. The council condemned Nestorianism, which taught
that there were 2 person in Christ and that Mary was the mother of the
human Christ but not of God. In 2009 Miri Rubin authored “Mother of
God: A History of the Virgin Mary.”
(Usenet, 3/4/97)(PTA, 1980, p.86)(Econ, 2/21/09,
p.84)
526 May 20, An earthquake killed
250,000 in Antioch, Turkey. This was the capital of Syria from
300-64BCE. [see May 29]
(MC, 5/20/02)
526 May 29, Antioch, Turkey, was
struck by an earthquake and about 250,000 died. [see May 20]
(AM, 11/00, p.69)(SC, 5/29/02)
532 Jan 18, The Nika uprising at
Constantinople failed and 30-40,000 died. Justinian and his wife
Theodora attend festivities at the Hippodrome, a stadium for athletic
competition. Team support escalated from insults to mob riots and in
the end Constantinople lay in ruins. Justinian proceeded to rebuild the
city with extensive commissions for religious art and architecture,
including the new Hagia Sophia.
(ATC, p.33)(MC, 1/18/02)
537 Dec 27, St. Sofia church in
Constantinople was consecrated. The Hagia Sophia (meaning "the holy
wisdom" in Greek) was built by Emperor Justinian.
(Sky, 4/97, p.55)(MC, 12/27/01)
541-543 Plague swept Asia Minor.
(AM, 11/04, p.38)
558 May 7, The dome of the church
of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. Its immediate rebuilding was
ordered by Justinian.
(HN, 5/7/99)
0610 Oct 5, Heraclitus' fleet took
Constantinople.
(MC, 10/5/01)
626 Aug 7, Battle at
Constantinople: Slavs, Persians and Avars were defeated. Emp. Heraclius
repelled the attacks. The attacks began in 625.
(PCh, 1992, p.60)(MC, 8/7/02)
700-800 Invading Slavs assimilated the Thracians in
the area of modern Bulgaria and parts of Greece, Romania, Macedonia and
Turkey.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A2)
787 Sep 24, The 2nd Council of
Nicaea (7th ecumenical council) opened in Asia Minor.
(http://www.malaspina.com/site/person_672.asp)
787 Oct 23, Byzantine
Empress Irene (c. 752-803) attended the final session of the 2nd church
council at Nicaea, Bithynia [now Iznik, a city in Anatolia (now part of
Turkey)]. The council formally revived the adoration of icons and
reunited the Eastern church with that of Rome.
(http://www.malaspina.com/site/person_672.asp)
c799-878 St. Ignatius Nicetas. He served as the
Patriarch of Constantinople from 846-858 and 867-878.
(WUD, 1994 p.708)
843 Mar 11, Icon worship was
officially reinstated in Aya Sofia, Constantinople.
(MC, 3/12/02)
921 In Turkey the Armenian Akdamar
church, called the Church of Surp Khach, or Holy Cross, was
inaugurated. Written records say the church was near a harbor and a
palace on the island on Lake Van, but only the church survived. Turkey
restored the church in 2007.
(AP, 3/25/07)
969 Oct 28, After a prolonged
siege, the Byzantines ended 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.
(HN, 10/28/98)
999 Turkish dynasties became the
rulers of Transoxania, and area that covered much of what later became
Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
(Econ, 7/26/03, p.46-4)
1055AD Baghdad was conquered by nomadic Turks from
Central Asia who are descended from a warrior named Seljuk. The Seljuk
Turks took control of the government and continue governing the empire
in the tradition of Islamic law.
(ATC, p.91)
1071 Aug 26, Turks defeated the
Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV at Manzikert (Malaz Kard),
Eastern Turkey. Romanus was taken prisoner.
(PCh, 1992, p.85)(Ot, 1993, p.4)
1087 At Myra (Demre), Turkey,
merchants from the Italian port of Bari reportedly stole the bones of
St. Nicholas.
(WSJ, 8/31/98, p.B1)
1096 Aug 1, The crusaders under
Peter the Hermit reached Constantinople. Anna Comnena, a 13 year-old
Christian in Constantinople, watched as the crusaders marched into the
city.
(ATC, p.18)(HN, 8/1/98)
1096 Oct 21, Seljuk Turks under
Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea slaughtered thousands of German crusaders
at Chivitot.
(HN, 10/21/99)(MC, 10/21/01)
1097 Jun 30, The Crusaders
defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1097 Jul 1, The 1st Crusaders
defeated Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1097 Oct 20, The 1st Crusaders
arrived in Antioch.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1098 Feb 10, Crusaders defeated
Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1098 Jun 3, Christian Crusaders of
the First Crusade seized Antioch, Turkey.
(HN, 6/3/99)
1100-1200 Constantinople was devastated by fires in
the 12th century.
(SFC, 7/27/98, p.A8)
1162 A man in Constantinople
fashioned sail-like wings from fabric into pleats and folds. He
plummeted from the top of a tower and died.
(NPub, 2002, p.2)
1182 In Constantinople a mob
massacred the Latins who ruled as agents of the regent Maria of
Antioch. They killed the city officials and proclaimed an uncle of
Alexius II Comnenus co-emperor to rule as Andronicus I Comnenus
together with his nephew.
(PCh, 1992, p.98)
1204 Apr 9, The Venetians began
their assault on Constantinople.
(www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/pears-constantinople-1204.asp)
1204 Apr 12, The Fourth Crusade
sacked Constantinople. Constantinople fell to a combined force of
Franks and Venetians. The 4th Crusade failed to reach Palestine but
sacked the Byzantine Christian capital of Constantinople.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.)(NH, 9/96, p.22)(HN, 4/12/98)
1204-1205 Georgia’s Queen Tamara marched with her men
to the rousing victory over the Turks at the Battle of Basiani where
she is hailed with the cry, "Our King Tamara."
(www.undelete.org/woa/woa01-18.html)
1207-1273 Jalal ud-din Rumi (Jelaluddin Rumi),
Persian poet and mystic. He was born in Balkh, Afghanistan, and later
fled the Mongol invasions with his family to Konya (Iconium), Anatolia.
His work "Mathwani" (Spiritual Couplets) filled 6 volumes and had a
great impact on Islamic civilization. He founded the Mevlevi order of
Sufis, later known as the "whirling dervishes." In 1998 a film was made
about the Sufi poet’s influence on the 20th century. In 1998 Kabir
Helminski edited "The Rumi Collection" with translation by Robert Bly
and others. His work also included the "Shams I-Tabriz" in which he
dismissed the terminology of Jew, Christian and Muslim as "false
distinctions." The poet Rumi was also known as Mowlana.
(WUD, 1994, p.762)(SFC, 7/9/96, p.B5)(SFEC, 9/20/98,
DB p.50)(SFEC, 10/25/98, BR p.6)(WSJ, 9/7/01, p.A14)
1216 Jul 11, Hendrik of
Constantinople, emperor of Constantinople (1206-16), died.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1243 Jun 26, The Seljuk Turkish
army in Asia Minor was wiped out by the Mongols.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1244 Aug 23, Turks expelled the
crusaders under Frederick II from Jerusalem.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1244-1248 Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi met Shams of
Tabriz, a wandering dervish, and the two became mystical companions for
4 years until Shams disappeared. Rumi called his own writings "The
Works of Shams of Tabriz."
(SFEC, 10/25/98, BR p.6)
1260 Sep 3, Mamelukes under Sultan
Qutuz defeated Mongols and Crusaders at Ain Jalut.
(HN, 9/3/98)
1260 Oct 23,Koetoez, Turkish
sultan of Egypt, was murdered.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1261 Aug 15, Constantinople fell
to Michael VIII of Nicea and his army.
(HN, 8/15/98)
1271 The Mamelukes captured The
Crac des Chevaliers in Syria and converted the chapel into a mosque. It
had been held by the Knights Hospitallers since 1144.
(WSJ, 1/31/09, p.W12)
1281 Osman I came to power
at the age of 23 and began a steady campaign against the Byzantines
until his death in 1326. He managed to capture many Byzantine
fortresses, most notably Bursa, consolidating Ottoman power in the
region. Generally regarded as the founder of the Ottoman Turkish state,
Osman I (also known as Osman Gazi) led ongoing campaigns against the
Byzantines in the 13th and early 14th centuries AD. Part of the
migration of Turkic tribes into Anatolia, Osman was the son of
Ertugrul, who had established a principality in present-day
Sögüt, Turkey. In 2006 Caroline Finkel authored “Osman’s
Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire.”
(HNQ, 2/19/01)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.88)
1281-1326 Osman Gazi (1258-1326) or Othman Ghazi,
ruled as Sultan of the Ottomans.
(www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/sultans.html)
1290 The Ottoman Empire began.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.A3)
1326 Osman I (1299-1326) captured
Bursa in north-western Anatolia after a 10 year siege. Osman I (also
known as Osman Gazi) is generally regarded as the founder of the
Ottoman Turkish state.
(WUD, 1994 p.1018)(Ot, 1993, p.5)
1326-1359 Orhan Gazi (1226-1359) or Orchan Ghazi,
ruled as Sultan of the Ottomans.
http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/sultans.html
1328 Taqi ad-Din Ahmad ibn
Taymiyyah (b.1263), a Sunni Islamic scholar born in Harran, located in
what is now Turkey, died. He lived during the troubled times of the
Mongol invasions. As a member of the school founded by Ibn Hanbal, he
sought the return of Islam to its sources: the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Taymiyyah)(Econ,
7/14/07, p.30)
1355 Dec 20, Stephen Urosh IV of
Serbia died while marching to attack Constantinople.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1361 The Ottomans under Orhan
crossed into Europe and captured Adrianople (Edirne), the 2nd major
city of Byzantium. Murat I (Orhan) moved the Ottoman capital to Edirne
in 1366.
(Ot, 1993,
p.5)(http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/sultans.html)
1385 Albanian ruler of
Durrës invited Ottoman forces to intervene against a rival.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1389 Jun 15, The Serbs were
defeated by Ottoman Turks in the Battle of Kosovo at the Field of the
Blackbirds. In the battle, the Serb prince Lazar was captured by the
Turks and beheaded. Lazar's bones were placed in the monastery at
Grancanica in Kosovo. Sultan Murad, the Ottoman leader was killed in
the battlefield by the wounded son-in-law of King Lazar. Serbs say that
Albanians aided the Turkish invaders. Historical evidence shows that
both forces were multinational and that Serbs and Albanian fought on
both sides. In 1999 Ismail Kadare, Albanian author, wrote "Elegy for
Kosovo," in which he retells the story of the battle. Bosnian King
Tvrtko and other Balkan princes along with Albanians fought under the
command of Serbian Prince Lazar.
(SFC, 12/29/96, BR p.7)(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A8)(WSJ,
5/5/98, p.A20)(HN, 6/15/98)(WSJ, 3/25/99, p.A17)(WSJ, 5/7/99,
p.A1,18)(SFEC, 7/23/00, BR p.7)
1396 Sep 25, A Christian crusade,
led jointly by John the Fearless of Nevers and King Sigismund of
Hungary, ended in disaster at the hands of Sultan Bajezid I's Ottoman
army at Nicopolis.
(HN, 9/25/98)(PCh, 1992, p.137)
1396 Sep 26, Sultan Bajezid I
beheaded several hundred crusaders.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1402 Jul 20, In the Battle of
Angora the Mongols, led by Tamerlane "the Terrible," defeated the
Ottoman Turks and captured Sultan Bayezid I. The Turks eventually
regained control of the city and it remained a part of the Ottoman
Empire for the next five centuries. Around 2,000 BCE the site of the
present day city was a Hittite village known as Ancyra. It was
conquered in 333 BC by Macedonians led by Alexander the Great. Because
of its central Anatolian Plateau location on the Ankara River, it
became an important commercial center. Angora’s name was changed to
Ankara in 1930.
(HN, 7/20/98)(Ot, 1993, p.6)(HNQ, 4/15/02)
1403-1413 The Ottoman Empire fell into 11 years of
civil war between the 4 sons of Beyazid.
http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/sultans.html
1421 May 26, Mohammed I, Ottoman
sultan (1413-21), died.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1422 Sep 6, Sultan Murat II ended
a vain siege of Constantinople.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1425 Jul 21, Manuel Palaeologus,
Byzantine Emperor (1391-1425), writer, died. He ended his days after
signing a humiliating peace with the Ottoman Turks.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_II_Palaeologus)(Econ, 9/23/06,
p.59)
1443 After losing a battle near
Nis, Skanderbeg with a group of Albanian warriors defected from the
Ottoman army and return to Kruja. Albanian resistance to Turkish rule
was organized under the leadership of Skanderbeg in Kruja. He was able
to keep Albania independent for more than 20 years. A baronial museum
in his honor was later was designed by the daughter of Enver Hoxha.
(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./ Albania)(WSJ,
4/14/98, p.A21)(www, Albania, 1998)
1444 Nov
10, During the Hungarian-Turkish War (1444-1456) , Sultan Murad II beat
the Crusaders in the Battle at Varna on the Black Sea.
(DoW, 1999, p.217)
1444 The Albanian people organized
a league of Albanian princes in this year under George Kastrioti, also
known as Skanderbeg. As leader of this Christian league he effectively
repulsed 13 Turkish invasions from 1444 to 1466, making him a hero in
the Western world.
(HNQ, 10/5/98)(www, Albania, 1998)
1444 Murad II abdicated and Mehmet
II (13) briefly succeeded him.
(Ot, 1993, p.7)
1446 Mehmet II was deposed and
Murad II was recalled to the throne.
(Ot, 1993, p.7)
1448 Oct 19, The Ottoman Sultan
Murat II defeated Hungarian General Janos Hunyadi at Kosovo, Serbia.
(HN, 10/19/98)
1449 Albanians, under Skanderbeg,
routed the Ottoman forces under Sultan Murat II.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1451 Feb 3, Murad II, Ottoman
sultan (1421-51), died of apoplexy. Mehmet II (19) became Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire. He ruled until 1481.
(ON, 10/00, p.10)(Ot, 1993, p.7)(MC, 2/3/02)
1452 Mehmet II began construction
of a new fortress called Rumeli Hisar on the Constantinople side of the
Bosporus. He engaged Urban, a Hungarian engineer, to build a large
canon and put him in charge of the canon foundries at Adrianople.
(SFC, 9/1/96, BR p.8)(ON, 10/00, p.10)
1453 Apr 6, Ottoman forces under
Mehmet II opened fire on Constantinople.
(ON, 10/00, p.11)
1453 Apr 22-23, The Ottomans
hauled 76 warships out of the water and dragged them on wood rails to
bypass the Greek blockade of the Constantinople harbor.
(ON, 10/00, p.12)(Ot, 1993, p.13)
1453 May 29, Constantinople fell
to Muhammad II, ending the Byzantine Empire. The fall of the eastern
Roman Empire, Byzantium, to the Ottoman Turks was led by Mehmed II.
Emperor Constantine XI Dragases (49), the 95th ruler to sit on the
throne of Constantine, was killed. The city of Constantinople fell from
Christian rule and was renamed Istanbul. The Hagia Sophia was turned
into a mosque. Spice prices soared in Europe. Nicolo Barbaro wrote his
"Diary of the Siege of Constantinople." Manuel Chrysophes, court
musician to Constantine XI, wrote a threnody for the fall of
Constantinople. In 2005 Roger Crowley authored “1453 The Holy War for
Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West.”
(NH, 9/96, p.22)(Sky, 4/97, p.53)(SFC, 7/27/98,
p.A8)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)(ON, 10/00, p.12)(Ot, 1993, p.6)(WSJ, 1/2/02,
p.A15)(SSFC, 8/14/05, p.F4)
1455 The young Ottoman Sultan
Mehmet II mobilized his army to march on Belgrade--and from there,
possibly move on to the European heartland.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1456 Jul 14, Hungarians defeated
the Ottomans at the Battle of Belgrade, in present-day Yugoslavia. The
1456 Siege of Belgrade decided the fate of Christendom.
(HN, 7/14/98)
1456 Jul 22, At the Battle at
Nandorfehervar (Belgrade), the Hungarian army under prince Janos
Hunyadi beat sultan Murad II. The siege of Belgrade had fallen into
stalemate when a spontaneous fight broke out between a rabble of
Crusaders, led by the Benedictine monk John of Capistrano, and the
city's Ottoman besiegers. The melee soon escalated into a major battle,
during which the Hungarian commander, Janos Hunyadi, led a sudden
assault that overran the Turkish camp, ultimately compelling the
wounded Sultan Mehmet II to lift the siege and retreat.
(MC, 7/22/02)(PC, 1992, p.150)(HNPD, 7/23/98)
1463 The Ottomans conquered Bosnia.
(www.bartleby.com/67/314.html)
1465 Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror
moved to Topkapi.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R37)
1468 Skanderbeg of Albania died
and the Turks absorbed Albania into the Ottoman Empire. Over the next
five centuries most Albanians converted to Islam.
(CO, Grolier’s / Albania)(www, Albania, 1998)
1478 Ten years after the death of
Skanderbeg, his citadel at Kruje was finally taken by the Ottoman Turks
and Albania fell into obscurity during several centuries of Turkish
rule.
(HNQ, 10/5/98)(www, Albania, 1998)
1479 Shkodra fell to the Ottoman
Turks. Subsequently, many Albanians fled to southern Italy, Greece,
Egypt, and elsewhere; many remaining were forced to convert to Islam.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1479 Venice signed a peace treaty
with Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror (1432-1481) ending 16 years of
war.
(WSJ, 3/16/06, p.D8)(www.fsmitha.com/h3/h13zt.htm)
1481 Sultan Mehmet II died at age
60. Kritovoulos authored "History of Mehmet the Conqueror" in the 15th
century.
(ON, 10/00, p.12)
1481-1512 Beyazid II followed Mehmed II in the House
of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1492 Sephardic Jews were welcomed
by the Ottoman Empire after their expulsion from Spain.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T4)
1494 Nov 6, Suleiman I (d.1566),
the Great, Ottoman sultan (1520-66), was born. Suleiman the
Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire, was reported to have a harem
of 2,000 women.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(MC, 11/6/01)
1499 Aug 25, Battle at Sapienza:
An Ottoman fleet beat Venetians.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1500-1800 Ottoman Turk rule extended over Libya.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.D12)
1512-1520 Selim I followed Beyazid II in the Ottoman
House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1513 A manuscript map was drawn by
Piri Reis (1470-1554) a Turkish captain who later became the Chief
Admiral of the Ottoman Navy. It was presented to Ottoman Sultan Selim I
in Egypt in 1517.
(http://turkeyinmaps.com/piri.html)(www.prep.mcneese.edu/engr/engr321/preis/afet/afet2.htm)
1514 Aug 23, Selim I (the Grim),
Ottoman Sultan, routed a Persian army in the Battle of Chaldiran.
(TL-MB, p.10)(PCh, 1992, p.168)
1514 Sep 15, Selim I entered
Tabriz, Persia, and massacred much of the population.
(PCh, 1992, p.168)
1516 Aug 24, At the Battle of
Marjdabik, north of Aleppo, the Turks beat Syria. Suliman I, the
Ottoman Sultan, routed the Mamelukes (Egypt) with the support of
artillery capturing Aleppo and Damascus.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.11)(PC, 1992, p.169)
1517 Jan 22, Ottoman Turks under
Selim sacked Cairo. The sharif of Mecca soon surrendered to the Turks
and Selim took the title of caliph. Selim left Egypt under the rule of
the Mameluke beys.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.11)(MC, 1/22/02)(PCh, 1992, p.169)
1517 Apr 13, Tuman Bey, the last
Mameluke sultan of Egypt, was hanged as Osman’s army occupied Cairo.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1520 Sep 21, Suleiman I (the
Magnificent), son of Selim, became the Ottoman sultan in
Constantinople. He ruled to 1566. [see Sep 30]
(TL-MB, 1988, p.12)(HN, 9/21/98)(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1520 Sep 22, Selim I, Sultan of
Turkey (1512-20), died at 53.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1520 Sep 30, Suleiman I succeeded
his father Selim I as sultan of Turkey. [see Sep 21]
(MC, 9/30/01)
1521 Sep 28, Turkish sultan
Suleiman I's troops occupied Belgrade.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1521 Suleiman I, the Ottoman
Sultan, conquered Belgrade and invaded Hungary.
(TL-MB, p.12)
1522 Suleiman I captured Rhodes
from the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. The knights surrendered
after a 6-month siege. In 1530 the knights were resettled on Malta by
Charles V.
(WSJ, 7/21/08, p.A11)
1523 The Ottoman Emperor Suleiman
the Magnificent successfully overcame the Knights Hospitaller, Order of
St. John, from their position on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean
Sea. The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, offered the Knights the Isle of
Malta. In exchange for a perpetual lease the Knights undertook to send
the emperor a falcon (made famous in the mystery novel, The Maltese
Falcon, and the movie of the same name) once every year as a token of
their fealty. They remained there until the time of Napoleon, and
became known as the Knights of Malta.
(WSJ, 12/30/94, A-6, Review of The Knights of Malta
by H.J.A. Sire)
1529 Sep 8, The Ottoman Sultan
Suleiman re-entered Buda and established John Zapolyai as the puppet
king of Hungary.
(HN, 9/8/98)
1529 Oct 15, Ottoman armies under
Suleiman ended their siege of Vienna and headed back to Belgrade. The
Ottomans siege of Vienna was a key battle of world history. The Ottoman
Empire reached its peak with the Turks settled in Buda on the left bank
of the Danube after failing in their siege of Vienna.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)(TL-MB, 1988,
p.13) (HN, 10/15/98)
1533 Ottoman ruler Suleiman I
concluded a treaty with Austria and got time to deal with dissident
elements in Anatolia.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)
1534 Jul 13, Ottoman armies
captured Tabriz in northwestern Persia.
(HN, 7/13/98)
1534 Aug 20, Turkish admiral
Chaireddin "Barbarossa" occupied Tunis.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1534 Dec 4, Turkish sultan
Suleiman occupied Baghdad.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1534 The Ottoman Empire extended
from Hungary to Baghdad.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)
1541-1686 The Turkish Ottomans occupied Budapest,
Hungary.
(Sm, 3/06, p.76)
1544 The Turks invaded Hungary for
the third time and seized the crown jewels. (TL-MB, 1988, p.16)
1546 The Turks occupied Moldavia.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)
1546 Barbarossa remained one of
the great figures in the court at Istanbul until his death in 1546.
Known by the European name Barbarossa, meaning Redbeard, Khayr Ad-Din
was a Barbary pirate and later, as admiral of the Ottoman fleet, he
united Algeria and Tunisia as military states under the Ottoman
caliphate in the 1530s.
(HNQ, 2/10/99)
1552 The Turks invaded Hungary
again with a victory at the Battle Szegedin. Istvan Dobo led the
defense of Eger against the Turks. The siege of Eger lasted 38 days.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(Hem., 6/98, p.126)
1565 May 19-Sep 8, In Malta the
Great Siege lasted over this period as Suleyman the Magnificent sought
to add the island to his conquests. The Turkish army of 40,000 men
besieged the Knights of Malta, led by Grand Master Jean de la Valette,
at their garrison, St. Elmo. The defenders numbered 540 knights, 400
Spanish troops, and Maltese gentry. In the initial attack 200 of 260
defenders lay dead at the end of the day but the garrison held out. The
Turks continued their efforts for four months when reinforcements
arrived and saved them. The arrival of a fleet from Spain, the “Gran
Soccorso,” turned the tide. This halted the westward advance of Islam
in the Mediterranean. St. Elmo was later transformed into Valletta, the
capital of Malta. The Order of St. John continues to thrive to today.
(HNQ, 4/8/99)(WSJ, 12/30/94, p.A-6)(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97
p.40)(WSJ, 7/21/08, p.A11)
1566 Sep 5, Suleiman I, Great Law
Giver and sultan of Turkey (1520-66), died at 71. Suleyman the
Magnificent died and his great empire began a gradual decline under his
slothful son, Selim II. Suleyman during his reign commissioned the
architect Sinan to build the Suleymanye, perhaps the finest mosque ever
constructed.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A24)(MC, 9/5/01)
1566-1574 Selim II followed Suleiman I in the Ottoman
House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1568 The "Shahnameh" (Persian Book
of Kings-1520-1530) by Firdawsi was given to the Ottoman Sultan. It was
commissioned to be illustrated for Shah Tahmasp by more than a dozen
artists. 258 miniatures were made with 750 folios of Farsi text in it.
(WSJ, p. A-18, 10/13/94)
1570 Jul 3, The Turks began their
attack on Nicosia, Cyprus, after Venice refused to surrender the island.
(http://historicbiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/marcantonio-bragadin.html)
1570 Apr 24, Spanish troops
battled followers of Sultan Suleiman.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1570 Sep 23, The Turks began their
attack on Famagusta, Cyprus, which was fortified by Venetian commander
Marcantonio Bragadin (b.1523).
(http://historicbiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/marcantonio-bragadin.html)(WSJ,
7/21/08, p.A11)
1571 Sep 1, Famagusta, Cyprus,
surrendered to Mustafa Pasha commander of the Turkish forces after
nearly a one year siege. The terms of surrender appeared agreeable to
Venetian Gov. Marcantonio Bragadin (b.1523), but Mustafa Pasha turned
on Bragadin and had him violently tortured and finally flayed
alive.
(http://historicbiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/marcantonio-bragadin.html)
1571 Oct 7, Spanish, Genoese and
Venetian ships of the Christian League defeated an Ottoman fleet in the
naval Battle of Lepanto, Greece. In the last great clash of galleys,
the Ottoman navy lost 117 ships to a Christian naval coalition under
the overall command of Spain's Don Juan de Austria.
(AP,
10/7/07)(www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1760264/posts)
1571 Turks sacked the St. Sophia
Cathedral in Old Nicosia, Cyprus, and turned it into the Selimiye
Mosque.
(CNT, 3/04, p.153)
1574-1595 Selim II, Sultan of Turkey, died and was
succeeded by his son, Murad III in the Ottoman House of Osman. Murat
III expanded the palace at Topkapi and built the famous harem there.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R37)(Ot, 1993,
xvii)
1574 Turkish troops captured Tunis
from the Spaniards.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1586 The Turks attacked the
Hungarian fortress at Eger again. The mercenary occupants capitulated.
(Hem., 6/98, p.126)
1574 Selim II, Sultan of Turkey,
died and was succeeded by his son, Murad III. Murat III expanded the
palace at Topkapi and built the famous harem there.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R37)
1590 Apr 18, Ahmed I, 14th sultan
of Turkey (1603-17), was born.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1595 Oct 28, Battle at Giurgevo:
Zsigmond Bathory of Transylvania beat the Turks.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1595-1603 Mehmed III succeeded Murad III in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1600-1650 In the early Seventeenth Century: Some
Albanians who converted to Islam found careers in Ottoman Empire's
government and military.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1600-1700 Shabettai Zvi, a Kabbalist from the Ottoman
Empire, became the central figure in a widespread Messianic craze.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)
1601 Ottoman Sultan Mehmed III
issued an order for the seizure of able youths aged 10-20 to be trained
as janissaries, his special forces. "The infidel parents or anybody
else who resists are to be hanged at once in front of their house gate,
their blood being considered of no importance whatsoever."
(WSJ, 9/17/01, p.A20)
1603-1617 Ahmed I succeeded Mehmed III in the Ottoman
House of Osman. Ahmet I had the Blue Mosque constructed to show that
Muslim architects could rival the Byzantine glories of the Haghia
Sophia. Construction was completed in 1616, a year before Ahmet I died
at age 27.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)(AP, 11/30/06)
1609 Sultan Ahmet commissioned
the Blue Mosque to rival the other mosques of Istanbul, Turkey.
(CAM, Nov.Dec. '95, p.29)
1617-1618 Mustafa I succeeded Ahmed I in the Ottoman
House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1618-1622 Osman II took rule in the Ottoman House of
Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1620 May 17, The 1st
merry-go-round was seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1622-1623 Mustafa I took back the rule in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1623 Avedis Zildjian, alchemist,
noted that a particular combination of tin and copper rang very nicely
and began making musical cymbals in Constantinople. In 1929 the firm
moved to Massachusetts.
(WSJ, 5/31/96, p.B1)
1623-1640 Murad IV succeeded Mustafa I in the Ottoman
House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1638 Dec 24, The Ottomans under
Murad IV recaptured Baghdad from Safavid Persia.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1640 Feb 9, Murad IV (27), sultan
of Turkey (1623-40), died in Baghdad. Ibrahim (1640-1648) succeeded
Murad IV in the Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)(MC, 2/9/02)
1645 Turkish invaders of the
Ottoman Empire captured Hania on the island of Crete and built a mosque.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.T10)
1648 Aug 8, Ibrahim, the sultan of
Istanbul, was thrown into prison, then assassinated.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1648-1687 Mehmed IV succeeded Ibrahim in the Ottoman
House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1663 Apr 18, Osman declared war on
Austria.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1664 Jan 21, Count Miklos of
Zrinyi set out to battle the Turkish invasion army.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1664 Aug 1, The Turkish army was
defeated by French and German troops at St. Gotthard, Hungary.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1669 Sep 27, The island of Crete
in the Mediterranean Sea fell to the Ottoman Turks after a 21-year
siege.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1681 Jan 8, The treaty of Radzin
ended a five year war between the Turks and the allied countries of
Russia and Poland.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1683 Feb 12, A Christian Army, led
by Charles, the Duke of Lorraine and King John Sobieski of Poland,
routed a huge Ottoman army surrounding Vienna.
(HN, 2/12/99)
1683 Sep 3, Turkish troops broke
through the defense of Vienna.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1683 Sep 12, A combined Austrian
and Polish army defeated the Ottoman Turks at Kahlenberg and lifted the
siege on Vienna, Austria. Prince Eugene of Savoy helped repel an
invasion of Vienna, Austria, by Turkish forces. Marco d'Aviano, sent by
Pope Innocent XI to unite the outnumbered Christian troops, spurred
them to victory. The Turks left behind sacks of coffee which the
Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk
and named the drink cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to
which d'Aviano belonged. An Austrian baker created a crescent-shaped
roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the victory. Empress Maria Theresa later
took it to France where it became the croissant. In 2006 John Stoye
authored “The Siege of Vienna.”
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.69)(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)(HN,
9/12/98)(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.A1)(Reuters, 4/28/03)(WSJ, 6/3/03, p.D5) (WSJ,
12/6/06, p.D12)
1683 Dec 25, Kara Mustapha
(b.~1634), chief of the Ottoman janissaries, appeared before the grand
vizier in Belgrade. He was sentenced to death and executed for the
military loss at Vienna.
(WSJ, 12/5/06,
p.D12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Mustafa)
1686 Jul 8, The Austrians took
Budapest, Hungary, from the Turks and annexed the country.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1687 Aug 12, At the Battle of
Mohacs, Hungary, Charles of Lorraine defeated the Turks.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1687 Sep 26, The Venetian army
attacked the Acropolis in Athens while trying to eject Turks. Marauding
Venetians sent a mortar through a gable window of the Parthenon and
ignited a Turkish store of gunpowder. This damaged the northern
colonnade of the Parthenon. The Parthenon was destroyed in the war
between Turks and Venetians.
(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A26)(MC, 9/26/01)
1687 Sep 28, Venetians took Athens
from the Turks.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1687-1691 Suleiman II succeeded Mehmed IV in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1688 Sep 6, Imperial troops
defeated the Turks and took Belgrade, Serbia.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1690 Oct 8, Belgrade was retaken
by the Turks.
(HN, 10/8/98)
1691-1695 Ahmed II succeeded Suleiman II in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1695 Jan 27, Mustafa II became the
Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Amhed II. Mustafa ruled to
1703.
(HN, 1/27/99)(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1695 Sep 11, Imperial troops under
Eugene of Savoy defeated the Turks at the Battle of Zenta.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1698 Abraham or Ibrahim (Abram
Petrovich Gannibal) was born about this time in the Eritrean highland,
north of the Mareb River in a town called Logon. Abraham's father was a
local chief or a "prince". Within a few years Turks invaded the area
and abducted Abraham following a battle lost by his father. Abraham
spent a year in Constantinople and was sold with a bribe for service to
Russia’s Peter the Great.
(www.shaebia.org/wwwboard/contributedarticles/messages/58.html)
1699 Jan 26, The Treaty of
Karlowitz ended the war between Austria and the Turks.
(HN, 1/26/99)
1700 Jun 23, Russia gave up its
Black Sea fleet as part of a truce with the Ottoman Empire.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1703-1730 Ahmed III succeeded Mustafa II in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1711 Mar 19, War was declared
between Russia and Turkey.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1711 Jul 21, Russia and Turkey
signed the Treaty of Pruth, ending the year-long Russo-Turkish War.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1715 The Ottomans recaptured the
Peloponnesus from the Venetians.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.56)
1717 Aug 22, The Austrian army
forced the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival in
the Balkans.
(HN, 8/22/98)
1718 Jul 21, The Turkish threat to
Europe was eliminated with the signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz
between Austria, Venice and the Ottoman Empire.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1730-1754 Mahmud I succeeded Ahmed III in the Ottoman
House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1737 Jul 18, The Turkish army beat
the Austrians in the Battle at Banja Luka.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1739 Sep 18, Turkey and Austria
signed peace treaty-Austria ceding Belgrade to Turks. [see Sep 23]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1739 Sep 23, The Austrians signed
the Treaty of Belgrade after having lost the city to the Turks.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1739 Oct 3, Russia signed a treaty
with the Turks, ending a three-year conflict between the two countries.
(HN, 10/3/98)
1754-1757 Osman III succeeded Mahmud I in the Ottoman
House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1757-1774 Mustafa III succeeded Osman III in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1763 Russia annexed the Crimea
peninsula from Crimean Tartars and Ottoman Turks.
(SFC, 2/4/09, p.A5)
1768-1774 The Russian and Ottoman War.
(HNQ, 5/6/02)
1770 Jul 6, The entire Ottoman
fleet was defeated and destroyed by the Russians at the battle of
Chesme [Cesme] on the Aegean Sea.
(HN, 7/6/98)(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A24)(HNQ, 8/25/99)
1773 Sep 14, Russian forces under
Aleksandr Suvorov successfully stormed a Turkish fort at Hirsov, Turkey.
(HN, 9/14/99)
1774 Jul 16, Russia and the
Ottoman Empire signed the treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji, ending their
six-year war. This brought Russia for the first time to the
Mediterranean as the acknowledged protector of Orthodox Christians.
(HN, 7/16/98)(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A24)
1774-1789 Abdul Hamid I succeeded Mustafa III in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1775 Catherine the Great of Russia
received an ornament containing over 1000 diamonds, the "Sultan
Feather" from the Turkish Sultan Abdulhamid.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
1779 Mar 31, Russia and Turkey
signed a treaty by which they promised to take no military action in
the Crimea.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1780 The Ottomans build the
al-Ajyad Castle in Mecca to protect the city and its Muslim shrines
from invaders. The castle was torn down by the Saudis in 2001 to make
way for a trade center and hotel complex. Turkey called this a
"cultural massacre."
(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A6)
1785 Jul 20, Mahmud II, sultan of
Turkey (1808-39), Westernizer, reformer, was born.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1787 Aug 13, The Ottoman Empire
declared war on Russia.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1789 Sep 22, Russian forces under
Aleksandr Suvorov drove the Turkish army under Yusuf Pasha from the
Rymnik River, upsetting the Turkish invasion of Russia.
(HN, 9/22/99)
1789-1807 Selim III succeeded Abdul Hamid I in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1791 Aug 4, The chief item in the
Peace of Sistova agreement between the Austrian Empire and Turkey was
the return of Belgrade to Turkey. The peace initiative resulted from
the terms of the Convention of Reichenbach between Prussia and Austria.
Belgrade had been taken in 1789 by the Holy Roman emperor Joseph II.
(HNQ, 6/25/99)
1792 Jan 9, The Ottomans signed a
treaty with the Russians ending a five year war.
(HN, 1/9/99)
1799 Mar 7, In Palestine, Napoleon
captured the Turkish citadel at Jaffa and his men massacred more than
2,000 Albanian prisoners. [see Mar 26] The prisoners were massacred
because Napoleon claimed that he could not feed them. About this time
bubonic plague broke out among his troops.
(HN, 3/7/99)(ON, 12/99, p.2)
1799 Mar 19, Napoleon Bonaparte
began the siege of Acre ( later Akko, Israel), which was defended by
Turks.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1799 Mar 26, Napoleon Bonaparte
captured Jaffa, Palestine. [see Mar 7]
(HN, 3/26/99)
1799 Mar, Napoleon moved on to the
Turkish fortress at Acre. His 2 month siege was unsuccessful.
(ON, 12/99, p.2)
1799 Jul 17, Ottoman forces,
supported by the British, captured Aboukir, Egypt from the French.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1799 Jul 25, On his way back from
Syria, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Ottomans at Aboukir, Egypt.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1800 Jan, Lord Elgin established
his British embassy in Constantinople. His orders were to open the
borders for trade, obtain entry for British ships to the Black Sea and
to secure an alliance against French military expeditions in the
eastern Mediterranean.
(ON, 11/99, p.2)
1800 Mar 20, French army defeated
Turks at Heliopolis, Turkey, and advanced to Cairo.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1800 Jul 6, The Sultan of
Constantinople at the behest of Lord Elgin issued written orders to his
officers in Athens for cooperation with Giovanni Lusieri and the
removal of sculptures from the Parthenon.
(ON, 11/99, p.2)
1803 Jan, Lord Elgin concluded his
diplomatic mission to Constantinople.
(ON, 11/99, p.2)
1807-1808 Mustafa IV succeeded Selim III in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1808 Jul 28, Sultan Mustapha IV of
the Ottoman Empire was deposed and his cousin Mahmud II gained the
throne and ruled to 1839.
(HN, 7/28/98)(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1810 May 3, Lord Byron swam the
Hellespont.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1811 The Turks dispatched Egyptian
ruler Muhammad Ali to overthrow the Wahabis and reinstate Ottoman
sovereignty in Arabia.
(NW, 9/30/02, p.33)
1811 The Mamelukes remained a
powerful influence in Egypt until they were massacred or dispersed by
Mehemet Ali.
(WUD, 1994, p.869)
1817 Francis Beaufort (1774-1857),
Irish-born hydrogapher, authored a best-selling travel book about the
southern coast of Turkey.
(NH, 11/1/04, p.51)
1821 Mar 25, Greece gained
independence from Turkey (National Day). [see Mar 28]
(MC, 3/25/02)
1821 Mar 28, Greek Independence
Day celebrates the liberation of Southern Greece from Turkish
domination. In 1844 Thomas Gordon authored a study of the Greek
revolution. In 2001 David Brewer authored "The Greek War of
Independence."
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A15)(WSJ, 9/17/01, p.A20)
1821 Jun 19, The Ottomans defeated
the Greeks at the Battle of Dragasani.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1821 Oct 5, Greek rebels captured
Tripolitza, the main Turkish fort in the Peloponnese area of Greece.
(HN, 10/5/98)
1822 Albanian leader Ali Pasha of
Tepelena was assassinated by Ottoman agents for promoting autonomy.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1822 There was a massacre of
Greeks on the island of Chios. The event was later depicted in a
painting by Delacroix.
(WSJ, 9/17/01, p.A20)
1826 Apr 23, Missolonghi (in west
Greece) fell to Egyptian-Turkish forces. [see Apr 22]
(HN, 4/23/99)(MC, 4/23/02)
1827 Jun 5, Athens fell to the
Ottomans during Greek War of Independence.
(HN, 6/5/98)(MC, 6/5/02)
1827 Oct 20, British, French and
Russian squadrons entered the harbor at Navarino, Greece, and destroyed
most of the Egyptian fleet there. The Ottomans demanded reparations.
(EWH, 4th ed,
p.770)(www.ipta.demokritos.gr/erl/navarino.html)
1828 Apr 26, Russia declared war
on Turkey to support Greece's independence.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1830 1000 Albanian leaders were
invited to meet with an Ottoman general who killed about half of them.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1835 The Ottoman Porte divided
Albanian-populated lands into vilayets of Janina, Manastir, Shkodra,
and Kosova with Ottoman administrators.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1839-1861 Abdul Meçid succeeded Mahmud II in
the Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1844 Englishman Alexander Kinglake
(25) authored his travel book “Eothen.” The name was from the Greek for
“from the east.” It told of his adventures traveling across the Ottoman
Empire.
(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.P8)
1853 The Sultan moved from Topkapi
to Dolmabahce Palace in Constantinople.
(Sky, 4/97, p.58)
1854 Florence Nightingale
(1820-1910) nursed wounded soldiers at Scutari Hospital in Turkey
during the Crimean War.
(HNQ, 4/29/01)
1856 Feb 29, Hostilities in
Russo-Turkish war ceased.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1861 Feb 2, Mohammed VI, last
sultan of Ottoman Empire (1918-22), was born.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1861-1876 Abdul Aziz succeeded Abdul Meçid in
the Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1870 Apr 9, Heinrich Schliemann,
German archeologist, with neither a permit nor the consent of the
Turkish landowners, had his hired men sink trenches on the summit of
the mound of Hissarlik, the spur of a limestone plateau on the
northwest coast, where he suspected that the ancient ruins of Troy lay
buried. Schliemann was hired by Frank Calvert (1828-1908), US Consular
Agent at the Dardanelles, to excavate at Thymbra. In 1999 Susan Heuck
Allen authored “Finding the Wall of Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich
Schliemann at Hisarlik.”
(www.lib.duke.edu/lilly/artlibry/dah/schliemannh.htm)(Nat. Hist., 4/96,
p.44)(Arch, 11/04, p.8)
1870 Apr 27, Heinrich Schliemann
discovered Troy.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1870 Jun 5, A fire in
Constantinople killed some 900 people.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1873
Apr 1, M. Namik Kemal’s play " Vatan yahut
Silistre " premiered in Constantinople.
(OTD)
1875 Jul 29, Peasants in Bosnia
and Herzegovina in the Balkans rebelled against the Ottoman army.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1876 Jul 2, Montenegro declared
war on Turkey.
(PC, 1992, p.537)
1876 Sep 1, The Ottomans inflicted
a decisive defeat on the Serbs at Aleksinac.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1876 Murad V succeeded Abdul Aziz
in the Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1876 The excavation of Pergamon
(later Bergama, Turkey) by German archeologist uncovered a monument
called the Great Altar with a frieze of the mythological Greek hero
Telephos that dated to the 2nd century BC.
(WSJ, 1/16/96, p. A-16)
1876 Russia under Alexander II
invaded Ottoman-controlled Bulgaria with a mixture of humanitarian and
imperialistic motives following reports that Turks were massacring
Bulgarians.
(SFC, 9/7/08, Books p.5)
1876-1909 Abdul Hamid II succeeded Murad V in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1877 Apr 24, Russia declared war
on the Ottoman Empire.
(HN, 4/24/98)
1877 Nov 17, Russians launched a
surprise night attack that overran Turkish forces at Kars, Armenia.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1877 Dec 14, Serbia joined Russia
in war on Turkey.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1877-1878 The Russo-Turkish War.
(AP, 7/13/97)
1878 Mar 3, Russia and the
Ottomans signed the treaty of San Stefano, granting independence to
Serbia. With the Treaty of San Stefano (and subsequent negotiations in
Berlin) in the wake of the last Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman Empire
lost its possession of numerous territories including Bulgaria,
Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia. The Russo-Turkish wars dated to the
17th century, the Russians generally gaining territory and influence
over the declining Ottoman Empire. In the last war, Russia and Serbia
supported rebellions in the Balkans. In concluding the Treaty of San
Stefano, the Ottomans released control of Montenegro, Romania and
Serbia, granted autonomy to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and allowed an
autonomous state of Bulgaria to be placed under Russian control.
(HN, 3/3/99)(HNQ, 2/23/01)
1878 Jun 4, The Ottoman Empire
turned over control of Cyprus to the British.
(AP, 6/4/08)
1878 Jul 13, The Treaty of Berlin
amended the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which had ended the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The Congress of Berlin divided the
Balkans among European powers. Austria-Hungary and Britain, alarmed at
the possibilities of growing Russian power, concluded the Treaty of
Berlin, reducing the military and political gains Russia had made with
the San Stefano treaty.
(AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)(HNQ, 2/23/01)
1878 Jul 13, The Treaty of Berlin
amended the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which had ended the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The Congress of Berlin divided the
Balkans among European powers.
(AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)
1880 A tablet known as the Siloam
inscription was found in a tunnel hewed to channel water from a spring
outside Jerusalem's walls into the city and taken by the Holy Land's
Ottoman rulers to Istanbul. It was later placed in the collection of
the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. The tunnel was constructed around 700
BC, a project mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of Chronicles. The
tablet was installed to celebrate the moment the two construction teams
of King Hezekiah met underground. In 2007 Jerusalem's mayor asked the
Turkish government to return the tablet.
(AP, 7/13/07)
1881 Kemal Ataturk (d.1938), first
president (1923-38) of the Republic of Turkey, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atat%C3%BCrk)
1881 Hamdi Bey (1842-1910),
Ottoman statesman painter and archeologist, founded the Archeological
Museum of Istanbul. It opened in 1891.
(NH, 6/03,
p.44)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osman_Hamdi_Bey)
1881 Ottoman forces crushed
Albanian resistance fighters at Prizren. The League's leaders and
families were arrested and deported.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1883 Oct 4, Orient Express made
its 1st run linking Istanbul, Turkey, to Paris by rail.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1888 Dec 2, Mehmed N. Kemal Bey
(47), Turkish writer and journalist (Vatan), died.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1889 The young Ottoman army and
navy officers who revolted against the despotic sultan Abdulhamid,
known as the Young Turks, belonged to a secret society formed in 1889
called the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Members of the
committee worked for the union of all the various nationalities of the
Ottoman Empire into a community of citizens with equal rights and
duties and progress toward constitutional government along European
lines.
(HNQ, 5/28/99)
1894 Nov 16, 6,000 Armenians were
massacred by Turks in Kurdistan.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1894-1896 Thousands of Armenians were massacred by
the Turks after attempts for autonomy and self-defense failed. This
issue was then referred to as the "Armenian Question."
(Compuserve Online Enc. / Armenia)
1895 May 25, Ahmed Djevdet Pasja
(73), Turkish minister of Justice, died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1895 Oct 1, Romanians in
Constantinople were massacred.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1896 Nov 26, Russia disclosed a
plan to seize Constantinople if Britain intervenes in Crete.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1897 The Greeks were defeated by
Turkey at Velestino in their war over the independence of Crete.
(WSJ, 8/6/98, p.A13)
1898 Turkey withdrew from Crete.
(AM, 11/00, p.53)
1903 Sep 8, Between 30,000 and
50,000 Bulgarian men, women and children were massacred in Monastir by
Turkish troops seeking to check a threatened Macedonian uprising.
(HN, 9/8/98)
1903 Sep 17, Turks destroyed the
town of Kastoria in Bulgaria, killing 10,000 civilians.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1904/5 Apr 15, Arshile Gorky
(d.1948), artist, was born as Vostanig Adoian of Armenian parents in
Eastern Turkey. He came to the US in 1920 and assumed a new name in
admiration of Russian writer Maxim Gorky.
(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A20)(HN, 4/15/01)
1908 Sep 22, Bulgaria declared
independence from Ottoman Empire (Turkey).
(MC, 9/22/01)
1908 Dec 14, The first truly
representative Turkish Parliament opened.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1908 In Turkey the Committee of
Union and Progress (CUP) led a rebellion against the authoritarian
regime of the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II. The revolutionary
organization was popularly known as the Young Turks. Since then, the
term has been applied to other insurgent groups within organizations or
political parties.
(HNQ, 11/4/98)
1909 Apr 27, Sultan of Turkey,
Abdul Hamid II, was overthrown.
(HN, 4/27/98)
1909 Sep 7, Elia Kazan (d.2003)
was born as Alia Kazanjoglous in Constantinople to Anatolian Greek
parents. Kazan became a producer, screenwriter and director who won
directing Oscars for "Gentleman’s Agreement" and "On the Waterfront."
(HN, 9/7/98)(AP, 9/29/03)(SFC, 9/29/03, p.A18)
1909-1918 Mehmed V succeeded Abdul Hamid II in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1911 Aug 3, Airplanes were used
for the first time in a military capacity when Italian planes
reconnoitered Turkish lines near Tripoli. Italy declared war on the
Ottoman Turks and became the first country to drop bombs on an enemy
from an airplane.
(SFC, 7/11/98, p.B3)(HN, 8/3/98)
1911 Sep 25, Italy declared war on
Turkey. [see Sep 30]
(MC, 9/25/01)
1911 Sep 30, Italy declared war on
Turkey over control of Tripoli. [see Sep 25]
(HN, 9/30/98)
1912 Feb 24, Italy bombed Beirut
in the first act of war against the Ottoman Empire.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1912 Mar 5, The Italians became
the first to use dirigibles for military purposes, using them for
reconnaissance flights behind Turkish lines west of Tripoli.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1912 May, Albanians rose against
the Ottoman authorities and seized Shkup (Skopje, Macedonia).
(www, Albania, 1998)
1912 Oct 8, Montenegro declared
war on Turkey beginning the 1st Balkan War. Balkan League members
followed Montenegro 10 days later. [see Oct 18]
(http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/bravo/balkan1912.htm)
1912 Oct 17, Bulgaria, Greece and
Serbia declared war on Turkey. [see Oct 18]
(MC, 10/17/01)
1912 Oct 18, The First Balkan War
broke out between the members of the Balkan League-- Serbia, Bulgaria,
Greece and Montenegro--and the Ottoman Empire. A small Balkan War broke
out and was quelled by the major powers. Albanian nationalism spurred
repeated revolts against Turkish dominion and resulted in the First
Balkan War in which the Turks were driven out of much of the Balkan
Peninsula. Austria-Hungary’s 1908 annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
spurred Serbian efforts to form the Balkan alliance with its
neighbors. As a result of the war on Turkey, Serbia doubled its
territory with the award of Northern Macedonia. Albanian leaders
affirmed Albania as an independent state. [see Oct 8]
(V.D.-H.K.p.290)(CO, Grolier’s/ Albania)(HN,
10/18/98)(HNQ, 3/27/99)(www, Albania, 1998)
1912 Nov 5, Bulgarian troops in
Constantinople blockaded drinking water.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1912 Dec 3, Turkey, Serbia,
Montenegro, Greece & Bulgaria signed a weapons pact.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1912 Dec 4, An armistice was
signed to end the First Balkan War. Following several victories over
the Ottoman army, coalition forces occupied Macedonia and forced the
Ottoman Empire to seek an armistice.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1912-1913 During the Balkan Wars the Kingdom of
Greece acquired Macedonia from the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
1913 Jan 22, Turkey consented to
the Balkan peace terms and gave up Adrianople.
(HN, 1/22/99)
1913 Jan 23, The "Young Turks"
revolted because they were angered by the concessions made at the
London peace talks.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1913 Feb 7, Turks lost 5,000 men
in a battle with the Bulgarian army in Gallipoli.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1913 Jul 10, Rumania entered the
Second Balkan War and four days later the Ottoman Empire joined the
general assault on Bulgaria. Faced with four fronts, Bulgarian armies
were defeated piecemeal and the government at Sofia was forced to seek
peace. Atrocities were widespread. For example, in pursuing the
Bulgarian army Greek forces systematically burnt to the ground all
Macedonian villages they encountered, mass-murdering their entire
populations. Likewise, when the Greek army entered Kukush (Kilkis) and
occupied surrounding villages, about 400 old people and children were
imprisoned and killed. Nor did the Serbian "liberators" lag behind in
destruction and wanton slaughter throughout Macedonia. In Bitola,
Skopje, Shtip and Gevgelija, the Serbian army, police and chetniks
(guerrillas) committed their own atrocities.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Aug 10, The Treaty of
Bucharest ended the Second Balkan War. It was concluded by the
delegates of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. The
entire "disputed zone" was taken by Serbia, Greece secured its position
in Thessaloniki and southeastern Macedonia, the Ottomans regained all
the territories lost in the First Balkan War to Bulgaria with the
exception of eastern (Pirin) Macedonia, and the Romanians seized
Southern Dobruja.
(www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/stefov61.html)
1913 Sep 29, The Treaty of
Constantinople was signed. Turkey obtained not only Adrianople, but
also Kirk Kilissé and Demotica. The Bulgarians were not even
left masters of the one railway leading to Dedeagatch, their sole port
on the Aegean Sea.
(www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/boshtml/bos151.htm)
1914 Aug 3, German Admiral
Souchon, commander of the battle cruisers Goeben and Breslau, received
an unexpected change in his orders. After attacking the Algerian coast
he was no longer to sail west to the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, he was
now ordered to turn around and sail east to Turkey. His new mission was
to persuade the neutral Turkish government to enter the war on the side
of Germany. The 2 ships were sold to Turkey and Souchon was made
commander of the Turkish navy. He took the ships into the Black Sea,
where he bombarded the Russian cities of Odessa, Sebastopol and
Novorossiysk without the knowledge or consent of the Turkish government.
(http://www.worldwar1.com/sfgb.htm)(ON, Dec, 1995)
1914 Oct 29, A Turkish fleet
including 2 German cruisers stormed the Black Sea and bombarded Odessa,
Sevastopol and Theodosia. [see Aug 3]
(PC, 1992, p.706)(ON, Dec, 1995)
1914 Oct 31, Great Britain and
France declared war on Turkey. [see Nov 5]
(MC, 10/31/01)
1914 Fall, Armenian volunteer
bands organized themselves and fought against the Turks. "The
Protestant missionaries distributed... propaganda in favor of England
and stirred the Armenians to desire autonomy under British protection."
(History of Armenia, Horen Ashikian)
1914 Nov 2, Russia declared war
with Turkey. [see Oct 29]
(HN, 11/2/98)
1914 Nov 5, The French and British
declared war on Turkey. [see Oct 31]
(HN, 11/5/98)
1914 Dec 17, Jews were expelled
from Tel Aviv by Turkish authorities.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1915 Feb 19, British and French
warships began their attacks on the Turkish forts at the mouth of the
Dardenelles, in an abortive expedition to force the straits of
Gallipoli. Winston Churchill was the architect of the disastrous
campaign.
(HN, 2/19/99)(NW, 12/24/01, p.64)
1915 Mar 2, British Vice Admiral
Carden began bombing of Dardanelles forts.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1915 Mar 16, British battle
cruisers Inflexible and Irresistible hit mines in Dardanelle (Turkey).
(MC, 3/16/02)
1915 Apr 11, The Armenians of Van
began a general revolt, massacring all the Turks in the vicinity so as
to make possible its quick and easy conquest by the Russians.
(http://www.atmg.org/ArmenianFAQ.html#q6)
1915 Apr 20, The Turks fired the
first shot at Van; the first Armenians were deported from Zeitoun on
the 8th April, and there is a record of their arrival in Syria as early
as the l9th.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
1915 Apr 24-May 14, Turkey said
Armenians had sided with Russia and issued a deportation order for the
mass deportation of Armenians. Armenian organizations in Istanbul were
closed and 235 members were arrested for treason. Turkish police
arrested hundreds of the most prominent Armenians in Constantinople,
took them into the hinterlands and shot them. With that the terror
spread through "Turkish Armenia" spearheaded by the "Special
Organization" of soldiers of the Turkish leader Enver. In 2006 Taner
Akcam authored “A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question
of Turkish Responsibility.”
(AP, 4/24/97)(HN, 4/24/98)(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A10)(HNQ,
5/30/99)(Econ, 10/21/06, p.95)
1915 Apr 25, Australian and New
Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli in Turkey in hopes of attacking the
Central Powers from below. Allied soldiers, ANZAC, invaded the
Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey in an unsuccessful attempt to take the
Ottoman Turkish Empire out of the war. The allies were defeated in one
of the deadliest battles of the war. In 1965 Sir Robert Rhodes James
authored "Gallipoli," a definitive account of the Allied expedition.
(AP, 4/25/97)(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A18)(HN, 4/25/99)
1915 Jun-Jul, Aleppo and Ourfa
[were] the assemblage-places for the convoys of exiles. There were
about 5,000 of them in Aleppo, while during the whole period from April
to July many more than 50,000 must have passed through the city. The
girls were abducted almost without exception by the soldiers and their
Arab hangers-on.
(http://www.ku.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce.htm)
1915 Jun 1, A forced exodus [of
Armenians] from Baibourt [Turkey] took place. All the villages, as well
as three-fourths of the town, had already been evacuated. A 3rd convoy
included from 4,000 to 5,000 people. Within six or seven days from the
start, all males down to below fifteen years of age had been murdered.
(http://www.ku.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce.htm)
1915 Aug 7, In the assault up
Russell's Top at Gallipoli 232 Australians died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1915 Aug 21, Italy declared war on
Turkey.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1915 Sep 28, At the Battle of
Kut-el-Amara the British defeated the Turks in Mesopotamia.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1915 Nov 6, An order from
Constantinople reached the local authorities, at any rate in the
Cilician plain, directing them to refrain from further [Armenian]
deportations.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
1915 Nov 22, The Anglo-Indian
army, led by British General Sir Charles Townshend, attacked a larger
Turkish force under General Nur-ud-Din at Ctesiphon, Iraq, but was
repulsed.
(HN, 11/22/98)
1915 Dec 18, In a single night,
about 20,000 Australian and New Zealand troops slipped away from
Gallipoli, undetected by the Turks defending the peninsula.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1915 In 2003 Peter Balakian, Prof.
at Colgate Univ., authored "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide
and America's Response," a one-sided account of the 1915 Armenian
genocide and the Turkish massacres of Armenians in the 1890s.
(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.M4)
1915-1917 Of the 1.75 million Armenians in Turkey at
the outset of World War I, 250,000 fled into Russia. Some 600,000
starved to death in the Mesopotamian desert. Henry Morgenthau, US
ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, alerted Pres. Wilson of a massacre of
Armenians by the Turks. Evidence and photographs of the camps were
provided to Morgenthau by Armin Wegner, German Red Cross official and
Johannes Lepsius, a German missionary. British diplomat Lord Bryce
hired Arnold Toynbee to document the slaughter. In 2004 Turkey's
Culture Ministry allowed the film "Ararat" by Atom Egoyan, which
recalled the plight of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during this time, to
be shown in Turkey with one rape scene cut. In 2004 Armenian
descendants of some of the dead, who held 2,400 insurance policies,
reached a $20 million settlement with New York Life Insurance Co.
(AP, 4/24/97)(HN, 4/24/98)(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A10)(HNQ,
5/30/99)(PC, 1992, p.711)(SFC, 1/2/04, p.D15)(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A3)
1916 Jan 18, The Russians forced
the Turkish 3rd Army back to Erzurum.
(HN, 1/18/99)
1916 Jun 10, Mecca, under control
of the Turks, fell to the Arabs during the Great Arab Revolt.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(HN, 6/10/98)
1916 Aug 5, The British navy
defeated the Ottomans at the naval battle off Port Said, Egypt.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1916 Tahsin Yazici served as a
division commander fighting the British at Gallipoli.
(HNQ, 7//00)
1916 C.F. Dixon-Johnson authored
"The Armenians," with the aim of "presenting the public an opportunity
of judging whether or not 'the Armenian Question' has another side than
that which has been recently so assiduously promulgated throughout the
Western World."
(www.mfa.gov.tr/grupe/eh/eh08/06.htm)
1916 Arnold Toynbee edited a
document titled: "The Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire:
1915-1916."
(http://www.ku.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce.htm)
1916 Britain appointed a Royal
Commission to investigate the calamitous attack on the Dardanelles.
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.67)
1917 Mar 28, Jews were expelled
from Tel Aviv and Jaffa by Turkish authorities.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1917 May 20, Turkish government
authorized Jews to return to Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1917 Jul 6, During World War I,
Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi captured the port of
Aqaba from the Turks.
(AP, 7/6/08)
1917 Nov 7, British General Sir
Edmond Allenby broke the Turkish defensive line in the Third Battle of
Gaza.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1917 Dec 9, British forces under
General Allenby captured Jerusalem. He liberated the city from Turkish
control.
(WSJ, 4/4/96, A-12)(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(MC, 12/9/01)
1918 Mar 3, Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Russia signed the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russian participation in World War
I. Germany and Austria forced Soviet Russia to sign the Peace of Brest,
which called for the establishment of 5 independent countries: Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
which ended Russian participation in World War I, was annulled by the
November 1918 armistice. The treaty deprived the Soviets of White
Russia.
(HN, 3/3/99)(LHC, 3/1/03)(AP, 3/3/08)
1918 Sep 22, General Allenby led
the British army against the Turks, taking Haifa and Nazareth,
Palestine.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1918 Oct 1, Damascus (Syria) fell
to Arab forces as Turkish Ottoman officials surrendered the city.
(ON, 10/05, p.9)(AP, 10/1/08)
1918 Oct 30, Turkey signed the
Mondros Armistice with the Allies, agreeing to end hostilities at noon
October 31.
(HN, 10/30/98)
1918 Dec 2, Armenia proclaimed
independence from Turkey.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1918-1922 Mehmed VI succeeded Mehmed V in the Ottoman
House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1919 May 19, Mustafa Kemal arrived
in Samsun, Anatolia, to start the National Struggle.
http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/sultans.html
1919 Jun 19, Mustafa Kemal founded
the Turkish National Congress at Angora (later Ankara) and denounced
the Treaty of Versailles.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1919-1922 The Greco-Turkish war. After the war ethnic
Greeks were forced to leave Turkey and ethnic Turks were forced to
leave Greece.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.28)
1920 Mar 20, Britain and its
allies formally occupied Istanbul.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.95)
1920 Apr 23, The Turkish Grand
National Assembly held its first meeting in Ankara.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1920 Jun 25, The Greeks took 8,000
Turkish prisoners in Smyrna.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1920 Aug 10, The Ottoman sultanate
at Constantinople signed the Treaty of Sevres with the Allies and
associated powers. It promised a homeland for the Kurds, but the
nationalist government in Ankara did not sign the treaty. It set the
borders of Turkey recognized Armenia as an independent state.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A10)(EWH, 4th ed,
p.1086)(www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/sevres1.html)
1920 Aug 10, Turkish government
renounced its claim to Israel and recognized the British mandate.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1920s A census in Turkey in the
early 1920s counted the Alevi as about 35% of the 13 million
population. Alevi claimed to be a purely Anatolian faith based on
Shaman and Zoroastrian beliefs going back 6,000 years with Christian,
Jewish and Islamic influences. By this time the Shiite Islamic
influence was the strongest.
(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.11)
1920-1990 Turkey virtually outlawed the Kurdish
language.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A1)
1921 Jun 19, Turks and Christians
of Palestine signed a friendship treaty against Jews.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1921 Jul 10, Greek forces launched
a frontal attack with five divisions on Sakarya, Turkey.
(www.allaboutturkey.com/ata_life.htm)
1921 Aug 23, In the great battle
of Sakarya, which continued without interruption from the 23rd of
August to the 13th of September, Turkey defeated the Greek Army.
(www.allaboutturkey.com/ata_life.htm)
1921 Oct 13, In the Treaty of Kars
Turkey formally recognized the Armenian Soviet Republic.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.1086)
1921 Oct 13, The Daily Colonist in
Victoria BC mentioned the term "cold turkey" in reference to quitting
an addiction. This was the first know use of the term in print.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.8)
1921 Kemal Ataturk, a Muslim
general, called for sustained military action to "chase the enemy out
of our land." He referred to British, French and Italian forces that
had helped defeat the Ottoman Empire and were stationed in Istanbul.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.A3)
1922 Jul 21, Djemal Pasha,
dictator of Turkey, was murdered.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1922 Sep 9, Turkish troops under
Mustafa Kemal conquered Smyrna, Greece. This effectively ended in the
field the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) more than three years after the
Greek army had landed on Smyrna on 15 May, 1919.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Smyrna)
1922 Sep 13, A major fire began to
ravage Smyrna, Greece, shortly following occupation by Turkish troops
under Mustafa Kemal. The fire lasted 4 days.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Smyrna)
1922 Nov 1, The Ottoman Empire
ended as Turkey’s Grand National Assembly abolished the sultanate. In
2006 Caroline Finkel authored “Osman’s Dream: The History of the
Ottoman Empire.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire)(WSJ,
4/11/06, p.D8)
1923 Mar 6, The Turkish National
Assembly rejected the Lausanne Treaty in Angora.
(HN, 3/6/98)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of
Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey, was
concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and divided
the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they wished in
commerce, public and private meetings, and publications. The treaty
specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish
communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were
lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a massive
exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported from Turkey
to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. In 2006 Bruce Clark
authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern
Greece and Turkey.”
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC, 12/22/02,
p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06,
p.92)
1923 Aug 13, The Turkish National
Congress selected Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Ataturk) as president.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1923 Oct 13, Angora (Ankara)
became Turkey's capital.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1923 Oct 29, The Republic of
Turkey was proclaimed under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Turkey established
secular government under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He introduced the
policy known as Kemalism, which bars any mixing of religious and public
life. The country was predominantly Sunni Muslim.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-6)(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-9)(WSJ,
8/27/96, p.A10)(AP, 10/29/97)
1923 Oct 29, Kemal Ataturk
(b.1881) was the founder and first president (1923-38) of the Republic
of Turkey. Ataturk grew up to become a soldier, coming to international
prominence for his defense of the Gallipoli peninsula during World War
I. The Allied powers, eager to claim Ottoman territory, began to occupy
territory before the official peace treaty--actions which hardened
Ataturk's resolve. Beginning in 1919, Kemal--having resigned his
commission--gained military support for a Turkish nationalist movement.
He also established a government in Ankara, some 300 miles from the
Sultan in Istanbul. Nationalist forces eventually found victory with
the Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923. As president, Ataturk
instituted a number of legal and educational reforms, expanded women’s
rights and encouraged adoption of some European customs (such as the
use of the Latin alphabet). He died in 1938 of cirrhosis of the liver.
(HNQ, 3/11/01)
1923 In Turkey Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk formed the pro-secular Republican People’s Party (CHP).
(Econ, 5/3/08, p.61)
1924 Mar 3, Kemal Ataturk forced
the abolition of the Muslim caliphate through the protesting assembly
and banned all Kurdish schools, publications and associations. This
ended the Ottoman Empire and created the modern Middle East, though
Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia were still colonies of Britain and
France.
(WSJ, 2/11/99, p.A24)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.A3)
1924 Mar 3, German and Turkish
friendship and trade treaty was signed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
c1924 Vehbi Koç (d.1996)
started what later became the Koc Group in Ankara, Turkey. In 2004 it
had grown to employ 54,000 people.
(WSJ, 9/7/04, p.A10)
1925 Jan 30, Turkish government
threw out Constantine VI, the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople.
(MC, 1/30/02)
1925 Feb 26, Jihad-Saint war
against Turkish government.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1925 Apr 28, Kurd rebels
surrendered to Turkish army.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1925 Nov, In Turkey Ataturk
outlawed the tasseled fez headwear for men. He also outlawed the
wearing of veils by women but the tradition continued.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)(WSJ, 11/6/97, p.B1)(EWH, 4th
ed, p.1087)
1925 Turkey’s Pres. Kemal Ataturk
divorced his wife, Latife Ussaki, following a 2-year marriage. In 2006
Ipek Calislar authored a biography of Ussaki.
(Econ, 6/24/06, p.60)
1926 Ataturk introduced a civil
code in Turkey that ended the Muslim law allowing husbands to divorce
their wives unilaterally.
(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.10)
1926 A Turkish state code
designated the husband as head of the family. The wife had no legal say
in decisions concerning the home or children. Equal status was attained
in 2001 and made effective Jan 1, 2002.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A21)
1928 Nov 3, Turkey switched from
Arabic to Roman alphabet.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1929 Jan 31, Leon Trotsky was
expelled from Russia to Turkey.
(WSJ, 2/29/96, p. A-14)(MC, 1/31/02)
1929 Dec 6, Turkey introduced
female suffrage.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1929 A group of historians found
an amazing map drawn on a gazelle skin, which showed continents people
had never seen before! The map accurately depicts longitude, something
the Europeans were only capable. Research showed that it was a genuine
document drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish
fleet in the sixteenth century. It was discovered in 1929 while Topkapi
Palace was being converted into a museum.
(http://turkeyinmaps.com/piri.html)
1930 Mar 28, The names of the
Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul
and Ankara.
(AP, 3/28/97)(HN, 3/28/98)
1930-1937 Kurdish revolts in Turkey were harshly
suppressed.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
1933 Franz Werfel
(1890-1945), Czech-born Austrian writer, authored "The Forty Days of
Musa Dagh," an account of the 1915 Armenian resistance to Turkey. The
author's friend, Rabbi Albert Amateau, testified in 1989 that Werfel
was ashamed for having written the book, learning that he had
extensively relied on the forgeries of Aram Andonian, which provides
the only "evidence" of extermination orders.
(http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/musa-dagh.htm)
1934 Greece’s PM Elevtherios
Venizelos nominated Kemal Ataturk for a Nobel Prize. Ataturk had
proposed that the Turkish mainland should be Turk (Muslim) and that the
islands should be Greek (Christian).
(WSJ, 7/24/98, p.W11)
1934 Turkey passed legislation
that allowed the government to deny citizenship to gypsies. Turkey was
home to one of the largest Roma populations.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.48)
1934 Women in Turkey were given
the right to vote and to jettison their veils.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.49)
1935 Feb 6, Turkey held its 1st
election that allowed women to vote.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1936 Turkey signed a treaty, the
Montreaux Convention, by which it agreed not to interfere with transit
through the Bosporus. It granted ships unrestricted passage except in
times of war.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.A23)(WSJ, 7/28/05, p.A7)
1938 Jul 4, France-Turkish
friendship treaty.
(Maggio, 98)
1938 Nov 10, Kemal Ataturk (57),
[Mustafa Kemal], marshal and president Turkey, died of cirrhosis of the
liver. He was succeeded by Ismet Inonu (d.1973).
(WSJ, 11/6/97, p.B1)(EWH, 4th ed, p.1088)(Econ,
3/19/05, Survey p.4)
1939 Dec 26-27, In Turkey a series
of vicious earthquakes in Erzincan province, magnitude 7.9, took some
33,000 lives in Turkey.
(HN, 12/27/98)(MC, 12/27/01)(SFEC, 8/22/99,
p.A17)(AP, 6/22/02)
1940-1945 Turkey supplied Germany and the Allies with
chromite ore, an essential metal for stainless steel.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A13)
1940-1945 Turkey placed a wealth tax on all
non-Muslims during WW II; those who could not pay were sent to labor
camps.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.46)
1941-1944 Necdet Kent (d.2002), Turkish diplomat, was
posted to Marseilles, France, and gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of
Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers
to save them from deportation to the Nazi gas chambers.
(AP, 9/20/02)
1941 Jun 18, Turkey signed a peace
treaty with Nazi Germany.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1941 Aug 10, Great Britain and the
Soviet Union promised aid to Turkey if it was attacked by the Axis.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1945 Feb 23, Turkey declared war
on Germany and Japan.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1947 Mar 12, Pres. Truman outlined
the Truman Doctrine of economic and military aid to nations threatened
by Communism. He specifically requested aid for Greece and Turkey to
resist Communism.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207) (AP, 3/12/98)
1947 May 22, The Truman Doctrine
was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for
Greece and Turkey.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 5/22/97)
1950 May 14, In Turkey the
Democratic Party won 52% of the votes in its first free elections and
Adnan Menderes (b.1899) became prime minister.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Menderes)
1950 Nov, Inexperienced but well
trained and eager to show their mettle, the first Turkish troops
arrived in Korea just in time to face the Chinese onslaught.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1950 Nov, The 1st Turkish Brigade
was commanded by Brig. Gen. Tahsin Yazici. He was highly regarded
in the Turkish military establishment and willingly stepped down a rank
in order to command the first contingent of Turks in Korea. He had only
one drawback—no real command of English—yet he was attached to an
American division. Later, that lack of language proficiency would prove
to be a major hindrance to his understanding of orders and troop
deployments.
(HNQ, 7/27/00)
1952 Jun 7, Orhan Pamuk, Turkish
novelist, was born in Istanbul. In 2003 he won the IMPACV Dublin
Literary Award for his book "My Name Is Red." In 2004 he authored the
highly acclaimed “Snow.”
(WSJ, 8/13/03, p.D4)(SFC, 10/20/04, p.E1)
1953 Feb 28, Greece, Turkey and
Yugoslavia signed a 5-year defense pact in Ankara.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1954 Turkey joined NATO.
(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A18)
1955 Sep 6-1955 Sep 7,
Well-orchestrated mobs ran amok in the Greek sections of Istanbul.
Churches, shops and cemeteries were looted and desecrated and some
people were killed. In 2005 Speros Vryonis Jr. authored “The
Mechanisms of Catastrophe: The Turkish Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955,
and the Destruction of the Greek Community of Istanbul.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.67)
1955 Turkey built the Incirlik air
base near Adana.
(WSJ, 4/2/03, p.A1)
1955 Iraq joined with Britain,
Turkey, Iran and Pakistan in the Baghdad Pact, a loose alliance
intended to check soviet influence in the region. The Baghdad Pact was
formed at the prompting of the U.S. in an effort to block Soviet
pressures on the northern tier of Middle Eastern states. The U.S.
provided military and economic aid to the pact members.
(HNQ, 7/28/98)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A10)
1958 Jun 15, Greece severed
military ties to Turkey because of the Cypress issue.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1958 Israeli Premier David
Ben-Gurion made a secret visit to Ankara, Turkey.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B2)
1959 Feb 19, An agreement was
signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1959 Turkey applied to join the
European Economic community.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.54)
1960 May 27, A military coup
overthrew the democratic government of Turkey.
(HN, 5/27/98)
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