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| Turkey
History |
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Originally
colonized by a variety of different peoples – Hittites,
Urartians, Phyrgians and Lydians
– Turkey, or Asia Minor as it was called during much of the
pre-modern period, was, for over 1000 years, the heartland of the
Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, with Constantinople
as its capital. Founded by Constantine
the Great in AD 330, Constantinople survived the collapse
of the Western Empire in the fifth century. It was the capital from
which the brilliant and inscrutable Emperor Justinian (527-565)
launched his ambitious projects to reunite the old Roman Empire,
the western provinces of which had been occupied by Germanic people
from northern Europe. The Byzantine Empire, from the death of Justinian
until its ultimate fall in 1453, was engaged in a long retreat in
the face of several enemies, mainly the forces of Islam. However,
the Byzantines took advantage of the success of the First
Crusade (1096-1100), whose armies re-took many Byzantine
possessions in Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, although, as later
events were to prove, the interests of the Byzantines and of the
Christian Crusader states in Palestine were not always the same.
The Byzantine State never completely recovered and on many occasions
during the next three centuries, a final defeat was only prevented
by the disunity of its enemies and particularly by the massive walls
of the city of Constantinople. The conquest of Constantinople
in 1204 – the only time the fortifications were breached
– was followed by one of the most savage and rapacious sackings
in the history of the world. The treasures of Byzantium
were beyond count or value and many priceless works of
art were removed to Europe (mainly to Venice) during this time.
The Byzantines set up a rival capital at Nicea,
until Constantinople was retaken in 1261. By this time, however,
the empire had in actual fact lost control of most of its territories
and, by the 14th century, Byzantine control of Asia Minor was little
more than a blank theory. From the 11th century onwards, the Asiatic
area of Turkey known as Anatolia had also
been affected by upheavals and conquests from the east. Consecutive
invasions from Central Asia led to the Islamic Turkification of
the region, the real power fast becoming the Ottomans’
– a name derived from their 14th-century
leader, Osman Gazi, who scored an important victory
against the Byzantines at the Battle of Baphaeon in 1301.
The Ottomans gradually extended their territorial
control from Turkey itself, constructing the Ottoman Empire,
which at its zenith in the mid-16th century – a period associated
with the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent – covered southeast
Europe (including the Balkans and Hungary), North Africa (as far
as Morocco), the Crimea and Georgia, the Levant, Syria, Iraq and
most of the Arabian peninsula. The most well-known conquest,
from a symbolic and strategic point of view, was that of
Constantinople itself in 1453; with its fall, the
Roman Empire, in a strictly legalistic sense, finally came to an
end. The territorial ambitions of the Ottomans regarding control
of the Mediterranean and Central Europe brought the empire into
disagreement with the major European powers of the day, particularly
the Hapsburgs.
The Venetians, and later, the Russians,
were almost constant enemies of the Ottomans during
the late-17th and 18th centuries, during which
time the empire sank into decline. In the late-18th
century, attempts were made by some rulers to reform the empire
but to little effect. The diplomatic history of Central Europe in
the early modern period is highly complex and the Ottoman
Empire became increasingly a pawn and victim of
the various power struggles. Its disintegration and the
forces of nationalism unleashed as a consequence caused schisms
and conflicts that linger to this day throughout southern Europe
and the Middle East. Turkey was known as ‘the sick man of
Europe’ during this period.
Turkish history
can thereafter be characterised a struggle
between the forces of absolutism and reform. In 1914, the
country became embroiled in World War I on the side of Germany.
The following year saw one of the most ignominious episodes in Turkish
history when an estimated one million Armenians - a long-settled
national minority - were expelled from their homes and driven into
the eastern deserts where they died of starvation or were killed.
Although it is fiercely denied to this day by the Turkish authorities,
there is compelling evidence that this was an officially sponsored
and systematic policy, and was tantamount to genocide. After Turkey
ended the war on the losing side, most of the remaining Ottoman
possessions came under British and French control with the support
of the newly-formed League of Nations (forerunner
of the United Nations). Defeated and discredited, the Ottoman
dynasty was overthrown in 1923 by a revolutionary
movement led by Mustafa Kemal - better
known as Ataturk - who established a single-party
republic and laid the foundations of modern Turkey.
The period after the War of Independence saw comprehensive
social reforms and economic modernisation,
including the abolition of the Islamic
social infrastructure and the development
of a manufacturing industry. Atatürk’s
successor, Ismet Inönü, kept
Turkey out of World War II (except for the last four months) and
introduced multi-party politics. The first elections
were held in 1950. There have since been two prolonged periods of
military rule, the second ending with elections in 1983, won by
Turgut Özal and the Motherland Party.
Martial law, on the other hand, remained in force in many provinces
until 1987.
Turkey joined NATO in 1952 and, since the lifting of suspensions
with the end of military rule, is once more a full and active
member of the OECD and the Council of Europe,
as well as being an associate member of the EU.
Turkey has been pursuing full EU membership since the early-1980s,
with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The government elected in November
2002 is keen to join, and opened negotiations almost immediately
after its accession (see below), but there are a number of major
problems: the structure of the Turkish economy; a historically poor
human rights record, especially with regard to the treatment of
the country’s Kurdish minority; and the status of the
‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’, especially
since the southern part of the island is one of the 2004 entrants
(see Cyprus).
Important as relations with Europe are, Turkish foreign policy has
major interests somewhere else. The fall down of the Soviet Union
has given the country a key political and economic role in Central
Asia, where Turkey has historic cultural and linguistic links with
several countries. Turkey was the first country to recognise
the independence of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan and
has provided unswerving diplomatic support for the Azeris in their
subsequent war against Armenia. Turkey has also required
closer political and economic links with the ‘Stans’
– the five Central Asian ex-republics of the former Soviet
Union, mainly populated by people from Turkic ethnic groups. Several
of these view Turkey as a suitable model to pursue in the course
of their own development.
Moreover, Turkey has a key strategic position on
the northern edge of the ever-turbulent Middle East; in particular,
it has a shared border with Iraq and has provided indispensable
bases for UN and American military operations in the region. The
government accumulated benefits in the form of financial assistance
and had a free hand in dealing with the insurgency of the Kurdish
Workers Party – best known by its own acronym, PKK.
The party was engaged in an armed struggle to secure civil and political
rights for the Kurdish ethnic minority concentrated in the eastern
part of the country. The PKK, now known as Kadak,
has been steadily recovering its strength after a series of major
blows at the end of the 1990s. The most important
of these was the capture and imprisonment in 1999 of PKK
Leader Abdullah Ocalan, following his expulsion from long-term
exile in Syria. The government compounded its success when the PKK
declared a ceasefire shortly afterwards. The Kurdish diaspora is
spread across several countries, mainly Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
The northern part of Iraq is now in effect an independent Kurdish-controlled
region. The Turkish government is very uneasy about this, believing
that the PKK/Kadak has exploited the enclave to recover and reorganise.
The Turkish government has therefore pressurised the Americans to
limit Kurdish autonomy in Iraq and offered several thousand troops
to assist the overstretched coalition forces in Iraq.
Turkish domestic politics since the beginning of
the 1990s have been dominated by the emergence of Islamic
parties. At national elections in October 1991, the Islamist
Refah (Welfare) was returned as the largest
party, though lacking an overall
majority. This caused some concern both inside and outside
the country. Ever since, the Islamists have been engaged in a fierce
political struggle with the traditional parties and the military
establishment which (in the form of the powerful National Security
Council) sees itself as the guarantor of Ataturk’s secular
legacy. The main political parties - Dogru
Yol Partisi (DYP, True Path), Anavatan Partisi (AP, Motherland)
and Demokratik Sol Partisi (DSP, Democratic Left) - were
the subject of widespread disillusion among the electorate for their
inertia, corruption and petty rivalries. Refah, by contrast, was
notable for its relative probity and administrative competence.
It drew substantial support from both the urban and rural poor.
In spite of their intense hostility, mostly personality-based,
the traditional parties joined in coalition to exclude Refah.
Administrations led by the centre-right DYP – including a
two-year spell under Tansu Ciller Turkey’s first woman premier
– governed Turkey until the end of 1995. Refah again won the
national elections. This time, it was able to take office but its
lack of an overall majority and the hostility of the National Security
Council steadily undermined its position over the following months.
After a year, the Refah government fell;
the party itself was ultimately banned.
Over the next three years, Turkey
had 5 different governments, with all the main
secular parties at the helm at one time or another. After
elections in 1999, the Democratic Left Party, led
by veteran Bulent Ecevit, returned to power, at
the head of a relatively stable coalition. In May 2000,
Suleyman Demirel’s presidential term of office came
to an end. His replacement was a former
constitutional court judge, Ahmet Necdet Sezer,
who took office in May 2000.
The Islamists reorganised, starting
a new party called Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi
(AKP, Justice and Development Party) to substitute Refah.
By espousing a more moderate policy programme and adopting positions
(on EU membership, for example) backed by the Turkish establishment,
AKP avoided a ban. By the time of the latest national
elections in November 2002, AKP was satisfactorily popular
to secure an absolute majority in the national assembly –
the first for 15 years, and just short in number of the two-thirds
needed to effect constitutional changes. True Path,
Motherland and the DSP did not
win a single seat between them. Under premier Recep Erdogan, the
AKP government has been careful to keep the National Security Council
on side. |
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