15 April 2025 Turkey Blog

 

NOTE:  In these blogs I have tried to conform to the new designations for centuries -- BCE for Before Common Era (the same time frame as the older BC (Before Christ) and CE for Common Era (the same time frame as the older AD (After Death).  I have tried to be consistent, but I may have not found all the old designations (BE or AD), but they mean the same as BCE and CE.

On Tuesday 15 April we started the latest chapter in our “Trip that Never Ends.”  We flew to Istanbul for a 17-day tour of Istanbul, Cappadocia, Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, and Ephesus.

As you may remember from your world history (or Geography), present day Turkey encompasses two continents – Asia (the largest land mass known in ancient times as Anatolia and where most of our tour will be) and Europe (the smallest area known as Thrace which borders Greece and Bulgaria and which includes most of the population of Istanbul, although Istanbul straddles both continents).  The dividing border between both continents is the Bosphorus Straits.  Although inhabited since prehistoric times and considered one of the oldest inhabited areas in the world , the Republic of Turkey (as it is known today) did not come into existence until 1924.  Below is a brief summary of Turkey’s history from the beginning of Greek colonization to the present-day Republic of Turkey.  Although Turkey’s history begins in the prehistoric era,  there were so many difference groups, tribes, and kingdoms that inhabited and ruled the many different sections of the region, it would take a novel to discuss. 

Throughout the last 3000+ years of history, Turkey has been dominated by Persians, Greeks, Romans, and the Ottomans.  Beginning around 1200 BCE, the Greeks began to settle along the Anatolian coast along the Mediterranean Sea.  It was during this time that cities like Izmir, Ephesus, and Byzantium (later Constantinople) were established.  In 546 BCE the Persian King Cyrus began to conquer all the cities of Anatolia. This rule lasted for 200 years until Alexander the Great, in 330 BCE, took control of all the Anatolia from the Persians.

In the 2^nd century BCE, the two politically distinct lands – Anatolia and Thrace – were merged under the control of the Roman Empire.  Eventually they became the core of the Roman Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) that was centered in Constantinople (now Istanbul).  It was the Byzantine Empire that brought Christianity to the region.  However, in the 11^th century CE, Turkish nomads from Central Asia moved into the region and gradually conquered all of Asia Minor.  First it was the Seljuk dynasty (a Turkco-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire) dynasty that ruled in West Asia and Central Asia from the 11th to the 13th century.  Then in 1453,  Constantinople fell, and the Ottoman Empire (also called the Turkish Empire) took control of the area.  They ruled over much of the eastern Mediterranean world for 623 years, bringing Islam to southeast Europe.

Following the Ottoman’s defeat in WWI, the Allies had planned to carve Anatolia into spheres of influence.  However, a Turkish General, Mustafa Kemal, led a rebellion and the beginning of Turkish nationalism, forcing the allied forces to leave the region. On October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed with its capital at Ankara and Mustafa Kemal became its first president.  With the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923 between the Allied forces and Turkey, the last treaty of WWI, the world formally recognized Turkey’s status as an independent country.

In the places we visit, we will be learning more about Turkey’s diverse and complicated history.  We will certainly see many monuments, artifacts and ruins from the many empires that ruled Turkey over the years.  In addition to the history we will learn, we will also enjoy four nights aboard a Turkey gulet, a two or three masted wooden sailing vessel that was built in the coastal Anatolia towns and used on the Mediterranean Sea.

This is only the beginning of our never-ending journey.  At the completion of this tour, we will spend a few days in Malta and then travel to Berlin Germany for the start of our “Elegant Elbe” river cruise from Berlin to Prague.  But more on those trips later.  Now it is time to enjoy Turkey and all the wonderful delights (especially Turkish Delight) that it has to offer.